The US Elections, Attacks on Activists, and a Changing Discourse

IPS Senior Fellow Rashid Khalidi: 

There is a mendacious construct focusing on Palestinian “terrorism” and Israeli “security” that is used to describe the situation in the Middle East, which most politicians mechanically repeat. The fact that people like Sanders or Senator Patrick Leahy are publicly – and that others are privately – beginning to throw away that false script is a function of broader change. 

This is the moment we’re in. BDS is a tactic that people can latch on to. BDS is a tactic on campuses to open up the debate. It is not designed to change the balance of power in Congress: All this is directed at opening up the debate. People will then know they’ve been lied to constantly.