Maryland Governor’s Order Against BDS Is Sure to Backfire, Boycott Advocates Say

Mondoweiss quotes USCPR Executive Director Yousef Munayyer on an anti-BDS executive order signed by Maryland governor Larry Hogan on October 23, 2017.

In light of these recent events, Yousef Munayyer, Executive Director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, called Governor Hogan’s move “remarkably tone deaf.” Munayyer noted, however, that the anti-BDS fervor indicates Israel and its supporters’ acknowledgement that it is losing the battle for U.S. public opinion.

“When the state of Israel responds and their supporters respond with repression, either through the form of these kinds of anti-BDS laws or other forms of repression aimed at Palestinian rights activists, what people see there is not an engagement with the argument but rather a silencing of discussion,” Munayyer told Mondoweiss.

As Israel is a regional military powerhouse, it knows how to respond to militarized challenges, he said. “But because of its position of power it is really in a very weak position to respond to nonviolent challenges. If it confronts those challenges with power-plays like this, it loses the argument in the court of public opinion.”

Read the piece here.