False Claims

False Claim # 1

Claimed Fact: “On November 8th 2023, twenty members of BrownU Jews for Ceasefire Now engaged in a peaceful sit-in at University Hall calling on Brown to ‘promote an immediate ceasefire and a lasting peace by divesting its endowment from companies that enable war crimes in Gaza.’ The university responded by telling the students that ‘no amount of time they spent in the building would change the university’s position on divestment’ and had them arrested once the building closed for the day.... These students’ crimes? Asking that President Paxson and the Brown corporation respect the voices of the Brown community and formally consider a report…” (P.1)

Actual Facts: The students were not arrested for asking that their voices be respected. They were arrested for willful trespassing within school buildings.[i] The students had ample opportunity to voice their opinions without violating neutral laws and university policies.[ii]

BDC notably omits the dangerous rhetoric that has characterized these protests. They have involved declarations that “resistance” is “justified,” in reference to Hamas’s atrocities on October 7, 2023, including the murder, rape, torture, mutilation, and kidnapping of civilians.[iii] Those who perpetrated the atrocities have also been glorified at the protests, with chants of “glory to our martyrs” ringing out on campus.[iv]

[i] Anisha Kumar, 41 arrested Brown University students issued six-month not-guilty filing, Brown Daily Herald, 16 May 2024, https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2024/05/41-arrested-cases-closed-providence.

[ii] Owen Dahlkamp, Students affiliated with encampment receive disciplinary letter from University, Brown Daily Herald, 27 Apr. 2024, https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2024/04/students-affiliated-with-encampment-receive-disciplinary-letter-from-university; Owen Dahlkamp, Protestors circle University Hall during walkout for Gaza calling for divestment, Brown Daily Herald, 25 Oct. 2023, https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2023/10/protestors-circle-university-hall-during-walkout-for-gaza-calling-for-divestment.

[iii] Instagram Post, Brown Students for Justice in Palestine (brown.sjp), 23 Oct. 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/Cyw-UUYrbsJ/?img_index=7.

[iv] Mark Patinkin, After talking to these students, Mark Patinkin says Brown has an antisemitism problem, The Providence Journal, 26 Nov. 2023, https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/columns/2023/11/26/brown-university-student-actions-display-antisemitism-problem-patinkin/71656513007/.

False Claim # 2

Claimed Fact: “These activists staged another sit-in with the same demand, this time in honor of and in solidarity with Hisham Awartani, a Palestinian Brown undergraduate student and supporter of divestment who was shot and severely injured in a hate crime two weeks prior.” (P.1)

Actual Facts: While the shooting of Mr. Awartani was tragic, it does not appear to have been motivated by animus based on his Palestinian background. In fact, the shooter, Jason Eaton, who has a long history of mental illness, appears to have been pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel, having posted on social media comments like “the notion that Hamas is 'evil' for defending their state from occupation is absurd. They are owed a state. Pay up.”[i] No hate crime charges have been brought against Eaton and, at this point, it seems highly unlikely there will be.[ii] Mr. Awartini was a victim of gun violence, not of hate.

[i] Sasha Goldstein, Driven by Hate? Man Charged in Burlington Shooting Was a Volunteer With a Troubled Personal Life, Seven Days, 6 Dec. 2023, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/driven-by-hate-man-charged-in-burlington-shooting-was-a-volunteer-with-a-troubled-personal-life-39673363.

[ii] Tyler Boronski & Michael Cusanelli, Burlington shooting suspect Jason Eaton appears in court for status conference, NBC5, 8 Mar. 2024, https://www.mynbc5.com/article/jason-eaton-court-burlington-shooting-suspect/60139955.

False Claim # 3

Claimed Fact: “We acknowledge there is a vocal minority of students who do not support divestment…” (P.2)

Actual Facts: The assertion that opposition to divestment is from only a “vocal minority” is unsupported. To the contrary, it appears that there’s only a vocal minority in favor of divestment, an issue which most of the student body is uninterested in addressing, as evidenced by the small number of people who voted when the issue was put to a vote.[i]

[i] Kayla Guo, Zhou ’20 elected UCS president, Brown Daily Herald, 22 Mar. 2019, https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2019/03/zhou-20-elected-ucs-president; Letter from President Paxson: Responding to divestment referendum vote, Brown University, 22 Mar. 2019, https://www.brown.edu/news/2019-03-22/referendum.

False Claim # 4

Claimed Fact: “We acknowledge there is a vocal minority of students who do not support divestment…” (P.2)

Actual Facts: The assertion that opposition to divestment is from only a “vocal minority” is unsupported. To the contrary, it appears that there’s only a vocal minority in favor of divestment, an issue which most of the student body is uninterested in addressing, as evidenced by the small number of people who voted when the issue was put to a vote.[i]

[i] Kayla Guo, Zhou ’20 elected UCS president, Brown Daily Herald, 22 Mar. 2019, https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2019/03/zhou-20-elected-ucs-president; Letter from President Paxson: Responding to divestment referendum vote, Brown University, 22 Mar. 2019, https://www.brown.edu/news/2019-03-22/referendum.

False Claim # 5

Claimed Fact: “The occupation of Palestinian land by the Israeli government violates article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as Israel his (sic) consistently transferred parts of its own civilian population into occupied Palestinian territories.” (P.8)

Actual Facts: Occupation does not violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which, far from outlawing occupation, recognizes its frequency in armed conflict and codifies the rules by which an occupation is to be carried out.[i] Notably, nowhere in the Convention is the word “settlement” or “settler” mentioned.

Moreover, Israel has not “consistently transferred parts of its own civilian population into occupied Palestinian territories.” Civilians moving to the territory of their own volition is not the type of “forcible transfer[s]” which article 49 of the Convention prohibits. In the words of Eugene Rostow, former dean of Yale Law School and former U.S. Undersecretary of State, “The Jewish settlers in the West Bank are most emphatically volunteers. They have not been ‘deported’ or ‘transferred’ to the area by the Government of Israel, and their movement involves none of the atrocious purposes or harmful effects on the existing population it is the goal of the Geneva Convention to prevent.”[ii]

As further explained by Robbie Sabel, Professor of International Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “It is not a logical interpretation of international law that would allow citizens of all States to live in the West Bank but for it to be a war crime to allow Israeli citizens to do so.”[iii]

That this does not violate the Geneva Conventions is further evidenced by state practice. In situations of belligerent occupation throughout the world, “the growth of settler populations is a ubiquitous feature,” and in many cases is condoned, and even funded, by the same countries condemning Israeli settlements.[iv]

[i] See Yoram Dinstein, The International Law of Belligerent Occupation, 2nd Ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

[ii] Eugene V. Rostow, Correspondence, AJIL 84 (1990), p.719.

[iii] Robbie Sabel, International Law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2022), p.320.

[iv] Eugene Kontorovich, Unsettled: A Global Study of Settlements in Occupied Territories, Journal of Legal Analysis, Vol.9(2) (Winter 2017), p.285-350; see also Israel Kasnett, Labeling of Judea and Samaria goods is about discrimination, not law, say experts, Jewish News Syndicate, 13 Jun. 2022, https://www.jns.org/labeling-of-judea-and-samaria-goods-is-about-discrimination-not-law-say-experts/; Yonah Jeremy Bob, ICC prosecutor went after Israeli settlements, but not Cyprus, Jerusalem Post, 16 Jun. 2021, https://www.jpost.com/international/icc-prosecutor-went-after-israeli-settlements-but-not-cyprus-671165.

False Claim # 6

Claimed Fact: “The total area of Palestinian land on the Israeli side of the wall amounts to 9.5% of the West Bank…” (P.8)

Actual Facts: The land in question is not “Palestinian land.” There is not now, nor has there ever been, a state called "Palestine" with sovereignty over any land. Prior to the State of Israel’s independence, the land was administered by the British mandatory power, which had taken possession of the land from the Ottoman Empire. Under the British Mandate, Jews were given the right of “close settlement” of the land, which included the West Bank.[i]

Nor is there any plot of land designated for a future Palestinian state. The BDC misleadingly suggests that the final borders of a future Palestinian state are set in stone according to the armistice lines set between Israel, Jordan, and Egypt in 1949 – lines which the parties explicitly stated had no legal validity as to territorial claims.[ii]

Decades of peace talks and processes have reaffirmed time and again that these lines are not final borders. Instead, they are to be negotiated between the two parties.[iii] The land which the proposal alludes to are blocs of Israeli communities – which are concentrated close to the 1949 armistice lines – that have long been understood will end up on the Israeli side of the final borders based on decades of negotiations.[iv] That is why all the major peace proposals, which the Palestinian leadership has consistently rejected in favor of maximalist demands, have involved land swaps which would provide the proposed Palestinian state with plots of land on the Israeli side of the 1949 armistice lines.[v]

[i] The Palestine Mandate, The Avalon Project, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp (art. 6: “The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.”).

[ii] See, e.g., Israel and Jordan General Armistice Agreement, 3 Apr. 1949, available at https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IL%20JO_490403_Hashemite%20Jordan%20Kingdom-Israel%20General%20Armistice%20Agreement.pdf (Art. II(2): “It is also recognized that no provision of this Agreement shall in any way prejudice the rights, claims and positions of either Party hereto in the ultimate peaceful settlement of the Palestine question, the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations.”).

[iii] See, e.g., United Nations, General Assembly, Letter dated 8 October 1993 from the Permanent Representatives of the Russian Federation and the United States of America to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, A/48/486, 11 Oct. 1993, https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IL%20PS_930913_DeclarationPrinciplesnterimSelf-Government%28Oslo%20Accords%29.pdf (containing the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization); United Nations, Security Council, resolution 242 (1967), S/RES/242, adopted 22 Nov. 1967, https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/SCRes242%281967%29.pdf (“to promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement in accordance with the provisions and principles in this resolution”); United Nations, Security Council, resolution 338 (1973), S/RES/338, adopted 22 Oct. 1973, https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/SCR338%281973%29.pdf (“Decides that, immediately and concurrently with the cease-fire, negotiations shall start between the parties concerned under appropriate auspices aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East.”);

[iv] Judy Maltz, Explained: How Big an Obstacle Are Israeli Settlements to Peace?, Haaretz, 14 Feb. 2017, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-02-14/ty-article/.premium/explained-how-big-an-obstacle-are-israeli-settlements-to-peace/0000017f-ed70-d4a6-af7f-fff6f92d0000 (“Settlement blocs refer to the larger Jewish population centers located in the West Bank, many of which are close to the Green Line, or the borders of the 1949 armistice agreement…. An estimated 450,000-500,000 Israelis live across the Green Line including the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. A widespread consensus has emerged that any future agreement on a two-state solution should include some of the settlement blocs (anywhere from 2 to 5 percent of the area beyond the Green Line) within Israel’s permanent border. Some past and present Israeli officials cite security rationale, while others say that uprooting so many people from their homes is not a viable option. Israel, in exchange, would agree to swap a more-or-less equivalent amount of its own land with a future Palestinian state.”).

[v] See, e.g., Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat: 'Abbas Rejected Israel's Proposal at Annapolis Like Arafat Rejected the Camp David 2000 Proposal, Middle East Media Research Institute, 16 Apr. 2009, https://www.memri.org/reports/chief-palestinian-negotiator-saeb-erekat-abbas-rejected-israels-proposal-annapolis-arafat (The Palestinian chief negotiator bragging about the PLO rejecting offers that included land swaps).

False Claim # 7

Claimed Fact: “The placement of this wall has therefore allowed for additional land annexation by Israel…” (P.8)

Actual Facts: Israel has not “annexed” land on either side of the security barrier. The land in question, beyond the 1949 armistice lines but within the route of the security barrier (with the exception of parts of Jerusalem), is still governed by Israel under the rules set forth in the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Regulations, which Israel applies voluntarily.

Moreover, the placement of the wall, and the route it follows, was plainly guided by a balance of security considerations and the rights of local inhabitants and was heavily litigated in Israeli courts. On multiple occasions, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the modification of the route of the security barrier out of consideration for the rights and convenience of Palestinian inhabitants.[i]

[i] See, e.g., Beit Sourik Village Council v. Government of Israel, HCJ 2056/04, 2004 (unofficial English translation available at https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/beit-sourik-village-council-v-government-israel).

False Claim # 7

Claimed Fact: “Under Israeli military law, the Palestinian people are subjected to a system of separate and unequal laws and services.” (P.9)

Actual Facts: Under the laws of occupation, found in the Geneva Conventions and Hague Regulations – again which Israel voluntarily applies – the application of a separate set of laws, namely military law, is, in fact, required.[i] For Israel to apply its civil law to Palestinians would, ironically, require it to annex the West Bank.

On the other hand, the authors ignore the devolution of power to the Palestinian Authority which, under Israeli Military Proclamation No. 7, implementing provisions of the Oslo Accords, saw the transfer of a substantial array of powers and responsibilities to the Palestinians in large swaths of the West Bank.[ii]

It is notable, in this regard, that the Palestinian Authority has since implemented an actual system of unequal and discriminatory laws, including forbidding the sale of land to Jews, a “crime” punishable by death.[iii]

[i] See, e.g., GCIV, arts. 64-70.

[ii] Israeli Military Proclamation Number 7: The Implementation of the Interim Agreement, 23 Nov. 1995, available at https://hamoked.org/files/2017/1133_eng.pdf.

[iii] Palestinians Face Death For Selling Land to Jews, New York Times, 6 May 1997, https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/06/world/palestinians-face-death-for-selling-land-to-jews.html; Tal Schneider, Lured by cheap prices and luxury digs, Arab Israelis are snapping up West Bank homes, Times of Israel, 5 Feb. 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/lured-by-cheap-prices-andluxury-digs-arab-israelis-are-snapping-up-west-bank-homes/; Khaled Abu Toameh, PA: Death penalty for those who sell land to Jews, Jerusalem Post, 1 Apr. 2009, https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/pa-death-penalty-for-those-who-sell-land-to-jews.

False Claim # 8

Claimed Fact: “Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: ‘No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible.’ According to Amnesty International, Palestinian civilians are collectively punished in the form of home demolitions by the Israeli government, either as a response to Palestinian attacks against Israelis or as a preventative measure against such attacks. As many as 10 or more homes can be destroyed in a single retaliatory or preventative demolition, and nearly 50,000 Palestinian structures were razed by the IDF from 1967-2019.” (P.9)

Actual Facts: This claim is one of the most egregiously misleading. The authors cite no source for the claim that “nearly 50,000 Palestinian structures were razed by the IDF from 1967-2019.” The likely reason is that it would quickly expose the dishonesty of the claim. BDC is conflating separate issues to imply that 50,000 Palestinian structures were “punitively” demolished when, in fact, only a tiny percentage of them were done for “punitive” reasons (i.e., the homes were demolished because they belonged to an individual who carried out terror attacks against Israelis).

The 50,000 figure appears to come from the activist organization, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), which, a few years later, estimated the figure at 56,500. But as ICAHD explains, its figures include multiple types of house demolitions and, according to ICAHD itself: “in fact punitive demolitions account for only 1% of all defined demolitions.”[i] Far from 50,000 homes being “punitively” demolished, as BDC falsely claimed, the real figure is around 500. The other 49,500 structures were demolished for reasons such as having been built illegally without permits, a practice carried out against structures built illegally by Israelis as well.

[i] Statistics on House / Structure Demolitions – November 1947-January 2024, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, 26 Apr. 2021, https://icahd.org/2021/04/26/statistics-on-house-structure-demolitions-november-1947/.

False Claim # 9

Claimed Fact: “Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: ‘No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible.’ According to Amnesty International, Palestinian civilians are collectively punished in the form of home demolitions by the Israeli government, either as a response to Palestinian attacks against Israelis or as a preventative measure against such attacks. As many as 10 or more homes can be destroyed in a single retaliatory or preventative demolition, and nearly 50,000 Palestinian structures were razed by the IDF from 1967-2019.” (P.9)

Actual Facts: This claim is one of the most egregiously misleading. The authors cite no source for the claim that “nearly 50,000 Palestinian structures were razed by the IDF from 1967-2019.” The likely reason is that it would quickly expose the dishonesty of the claim. BDC is conflating separate issues to imply that 50,000 Palestinian structures were “punitively” demolished when, in fact, only a tiny percentage of them were done for “punitive” reasons (i.e., the homes were demolished because they belonged to an individual who carried out terror attacks against Israelis).

The 50,000 figure appears to come from the activist organization, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), which, a few years later, estimated the figure at 56,500. But as ICAHD explains, its figures include multiple types of house demolitions and, according to ICAHD itself: “in fact punitive demolitions account for only 1% of all defined demolitions.”[i] Far from 50,000 homes being “punitively” demolished, as BDC falsely claimed, the real figure is around 500. The other 49,500 structures were demolished for reasons such as having been built illegally without permits, a practice carried out against structures built illegally by Israelis as well.

[i] Statistics on House / Structure Demolitions – November 1947-January 2024, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, 26 Apr. 2021, https://icahd.org/2021/04/26/statistics-on-house-structure-demolitions-november-1947/.

False Claim # 10

Claimed Fact: “Brown University has made commitments to promoting good-will solutions to the conflict on campus, through discussion, outreach, and education. The University hosts speakers, seminars, and events on the conflict, which has for the past several years included a regular Israel-Palestine Lecture Series.” (P.9)

Actual Facts: As documented in a 2023 report by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA),[i] numerous events hosted by Brown University on the subject have involved speakers promoting blatant antisemitism and extremism. To take just one example among many, Brown professor Adi Ophir – one of the panelists in an “Israel-Palestine Lecture Series” – used his platform to combine a traditional blood libel with Holocaust inversion. Ophir claimed there is a “Jewish mob,” which he also called a “Kristallnacht mob,” that is “thirsty for Palestinian blood.”[ii] At another event, Brown professor Ariella Azoulay and a guest speaker, Lena Salaymeh, belittled and conspiracized mainstream Jewish identity as a “colonial version of Jewish identity” or a “mystification of Jewish identity.”[iii] As three CAMERA reports noted, there have been scores of similar comments made by Brown faculty and others speaking at Brown over the years.[iv] Brown's Center for Middle East Studies includes no courses related to Israel, which its professors regularly refer to as “the Zionist entity.”  The department refuses to cooperate or collaborate with the Judaic Studies department. In short, the university has done little to nothing to promote "good will solutions" as to the issues dividing Israel and the Palestinians. In fact, the university has exacerbated the problem of Brown students and faculty being unable or unwilling to discuss the Israel-Palestinian situation in an intellectually honest way.

[i] David Litman, CAMERA Report: Anti-Israel Extremism and Corrupt Scholarship at Brown University, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, 13 Dec. 2023, https://www.camera.org/article/camera-report-anti-israel-extremism-and-corrupt-scholarship-at-brown-university/.

[ii] YouTube Video, A Third Intifada? Palestinians and the Struggle for Jerusalem, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, 21 May 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuBLlOLR5JI.

[iii] Lecture | Lena Salaymeh | Performing Legality in Service of Colonialism: ‘Anti-Antisemitism’ as Censorship, Palestinian Studies, 23 February 2023, https://palestinianstudies.org/events/2023/lecture-lena-salaymeh-performing-legality-service-colonialism.

[iv] David Litman, CAMERA Report: Anti-Israel Extremism and Corrupt Scholarship at Brown University, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, 13 Dec. 2023, https://www.camera.org/article/camera-report-anti-israel-extremism-and-corrupt-scholarship-at-brown-university/; Ricki Hollander, CAMERA Report: Brown University's Choices Curriculum is a Platform for Anti-Zionist Narrative, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, 21 Dec. 2023, https://www.camera.org/article/camera-report-brown-universitys-choices-curriculum-is-a-platform-for-anti-zionist-narrative/; David Litman, Brown University's Middle East STudies Faculty: Profiles in Extremist Anti-Israel Bias, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, 25 Jan. 2024, https://www.camera.org/article/brown-universitys-middle-east-studies-faculty-profiles-in-extremist-anti-israel-bias/.

False Claim # 11

Claimed Fact: “The Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded in 2005 as a grassroots, nonviolent Palestinian civil society movement inspired by protests against South African apartheid.” (P.12)

Actual Facts: While the BDS Movement (capital “M”), the organization, was founded in 2005, the movement (lower case “m”) is merely the current outgrowth of an organized boycott that began years before the State of Israel was even formed. In 1945, the newly formed Arab League instituted a boycott of Jewish goods and services in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1945. The Arab League pledged to “combat Zionist industry,” three years before Israel declared independence.[i]

The attempt to depict the anti-Jewish boycott movement as having begun in 2005 is an effort to erase its controversial and antisemitic origins. This current iteration began with the infamous 2001 Durban “Anti-Racism” Conference, which the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA, 1981-2008), a Holocaust survivor, described as “the most sickening and unabashed display of hate for Jews I had seen since the Nazi period.”[ii] The calls for boycotting the Jewish state emanated from the NGO Forum, the “civil society” portion of the conference. This NGO Forum was so thoroughly consumed by hatred that one of the most popular flyers handed out to attendees glorified Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.[iii] Such was the extremism that South African police shut down the Durban Jewish Club “as a safety precaution” and surrounded it with riot police for its own protection. Even the Secretary-General of the conference, former Irish President Mary Robinson, who worked overtime to downplay reports of antisemitism, later admitted “There was horrible anti-Semitism present—particularly in some of the NGO discussions. A number people said they’ve never been so hurt or so harassed or been so blatantly faced with anti-Semitism.”[iv]

The outcome document of the NGO Forum attempted to revive the UN’s 1975 “Zionism is racism” slur, famously denounced by then U.S. Ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan. It called for the “complete and total isolation of Israel” including “the imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel.”[v]

This was the context in which the current iteration of the anti-Jewish boycott movement, now referred to as the BDS movement, emerged. It had nothing whatsoever to do with a "grassroots" movement "inspired by protests against South African apartheid." That BDC argument is pure fiction.

[i] The Arab Boycott of Israel: New Efforts and Old Problems, Central Intelligence Agency, August 1982, available at https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP83S00854R000100150004-6.pdf; see also Survey of Palestine, Vol.1, p.84-85.

[ii] Tom Lantos, The Durban Debacle: An Insider’s View of the UN World Conference Against Racism, Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Vol. 26:1 (Winter/Spring 2002).

[iii] Harris O. Schoenberg, Demonization in Durban: The World Conference Against Racism, 2002 Am. Jewish Y.B. 85-111, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23604538.

[iv] Mary Robinson, UN Human Rights chief, BBC News, 21 Nov. 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/forum/1673034.stm.

[v] WCAR NGO Forum Declaration, 3 Sep. 2001, available at https://humanrightsvoices.org/assets/attachments/documents/durban_ngo_declaration_2001.pdf.

False Claim # 12

Claimed Fact: “Ending Illegal Occupation: ‘Ending [Israeli] occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall’” (P.12)

Actual Facts: There is no such thing as an “illegal occupation.” As explained by the late Yoram Dinstein, former Dean of the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University: “In truth, international law – far from stigmatizing belligerent occupation with illegality – recognizes its frequency and regulates its application in great detail.”[i] The International Committee of the Red Cross, hardly a friend of Israel, is of a similar view, with the head of its legal division having written: “References to ‘unlawful occupation’ can be misguiding, as they confuse the issue of the lawfulness of the resort to the use of force with that of the rules of conduct to be applied once armed force has been used, and therefore also obscure the fundamental distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Regarded from a purely [international humanitarian law] perspective, occupation law applies equally to all occupations, whether or not they are the result of force used lawfully within the jus ad bellum.”[ii]

[i] Yoram Dinstein, The International Law of Belligerent Occupation, 2nd Ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2019), p.2.

[ii] Expert Meeting: Occupation and Other Forms of Administration of Foreign Territory, International Committee of the Red Cross, https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/publications/icrc-002-4094.pdf, p.4.

False Claim # 13

Claimed Fact: “Equal Rights for all Israeli Citizens: ‘Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality’” (P.12)

Actual Facts: Israeli law already guarantees the equal rights of all of Israel’s citizens, regardless of race or religion.[i] In fact, the Israeli Supreme Court has gone so far as to apply positive discrimination in favor of Israel’s Arab minority, ruling that while Arabs may not be excluded from majority Jewish communities, Jews may be barred from residing in Bedouin Arab towns.[ii]

While gaps exist between various demographics in Israel, as they do in any democratic society, the disparities in Israel are substantially less in many respects than in Western European societies.[iii] This is in marked contrast to the Arab and Muslim states in the region, where minorities face far more than just economic disparities. It is also in marked contrast to the Palestinian Authority, whose laws explicitly discriminate against Jews.[iv]

[i] See, e.g., Adallah et al v. Minister of Religious Affairs, et al., HCJ 1113/99, 2000 (unofficial English translation available at https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/adalah-legal-center-arab-minority-rights-israel-v-minister-religious-affairs).

[ii] Compare Ka’adan v. Israel Lands Administration, HCJ 6698/95, 2000 (unofficial English translation available at https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/ka%E2%80%99adan-v-israel-land-administration) with Avitan v. Israel Lands Administration, HCJ 528/88, 1989.

[iii] Alexander Yakobson & Amnon Rubinstein, Israel and the Family of Nations: The Jewish Nation-State and Human Rights (Routledge, 2010), p.114.

[iv] See, e.g., Palestinians Face Death For Selling Land to Jews, New York Times, 6 May 1997, https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/06/world/palestinians-face-death-for-selling-land-to-jews.html.

False Claim # 14

Claimed Fact: “Respecting the Right of Return: ‘Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194’” (P.12)

Actual Facts: The “right of return” is a myth created to sustain the Arab world’s hope and desire that Israel be wiped off the face of the earth. Resolution 194 is not legally binding. Moreover, it was rejected by the Arab parties, who subsequently refused to negotiate with Israel as called for in the resolution. It is purely a recommendation, couched in non-obligatory language (“should”) without any reference to the word “right.”

The language is also made conditional on the willingness of Palestinians to “live at peace with their neighbors.” Considering the events of October 7, and the widespread support of Palestinians for the atrocities carried out by Hamas on October 7 (in March 2024, 71% called the decision to launch the attack a “correct” one),[i] that condition clearly has not been met. The Palestinian Authority continues to provide financial rewards to those who commit terror attacks against Israelis (the “Pay-for-Slay” fund), including those who participated in the October 7 massacre.[ii] PA leader Mahmoud Abbas himself recently referred to deceased terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh as a “martyr” and declared: "We adhere to shari'a law: Victory or martyrdom.”[iii] So much for Palestinians wanting to "live at peace with their neighbors."

[i] Press Release: Public Opinion Poll No (91), Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 20 Mar. 2024, https://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/969.

[ii] Itamar Marcus, PA’s “pay-for-slay” payments to rise by $1.3 million per month, Palestinian Media Watch, 10 Jan. 2024, https://palwatch.org/page/34924.

[iii] Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Prays For The Soul Of 'Martyr' Ismail Haniyeh In Turkish Parliament Speech, Adds: We Are Implementing Shari'a Law – Victory Or Martyrdom; America Is The Plague And The Plague Is America; The Palestinian Leadership And I Are Going To Gaza, Even If It Costs Us Our Lives; Then We Will Go To Jerusalem, Our Eternal Capital, Middle East Media Research Institute, 15 Aug. 2024, https://www.memri.org/tv/palestinian-authority-president-abbas-turkish-parliament-prays-soul-martyr-hamas-leader-haniyeh.

False Claim # 15

Claimed Fact: “While Palestinian citizens of Israel are permitted to vote and hold office, they may be forbidden by the Supreme Court of Israel if they engage in ‘negation of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.’” (P.12)

Actual Facts: This language misleadingly suggests this rule applies only to Arab Israelis, when, in fact, it applies to all Israeli citizens, regardless of ethnic or religious identity.

Moreover, this practice is the equivalent of oaths of office across the world, such as that by the president and vice-president of the United States, who must “solemnly swear (or affirm) that [they] will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…”[i] In the United Kingdom, the head of state is even required to be a member of the Church of England.

[i] Inauguration of the president of the United States, USA.Gov, https://www.usa.gov/inauguration#:~:text=%22I%20do%20solemnly%20swear%20(or,that%20I%20will%20well%20and (last visited 17 Jul. 2024).

False Claim # 16

Claimed Fact: “In 2018, the Knesset passed ‘The Basic Law: Israel—The Nation-State of the Jewish People.’ It states that the ‘exercise of the right to national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.’ In other words, Palestinian citizens of Israel are not entitled to the self-determination that Israel claims for its Jewish citizens.” (P.12)

Actual Facts: As an initial matter, BDC ignores that the law it references has been interpreted by the Israeli Supreme Court as being purely declaratory, having no effect on any of the rights of any Israeli citizen. As then Chief Justice Hayut wrote in the ruling: “The Nation-State Basic Law does not violate the State of Israel's nature as a democratic state. It does not give preferential status to the Jewish identity of the state over its democratic identity. It does not detract from the principle of equality’s status in our legal system.”[i]

Even if the law were not merely declaratory, the BDC again deceptively conflates issues. There are two forms of self-determination, external and internal self-determination.[ii] External, or national, self-determination, refers to the exercise of the right in the form of an independent state.[iii] The law specifically references national self-determination.[iv]

However, that is not the only way self-determination can be achieved. Indeed, the right to self-determination does not equal a right to carve out a new state from an existing one. Thus, for example, while the Quebecois have a right to self-determination, that does not entitle them to secede from Canada and form their own state.[v]

So while the Jewish people were able to exercise their self-determination in the form of a nation state (an option given to, but rejected by, Palestinian Arabs), that does not negate the existence of self-determination for the non-Jewish population in Israel, whose self-determination is exercised in the form of political, social, cultural, and other rights. “When it comes to language, education and culture, the collective rights of Israel’s Arab minority are…wide and far-reaching by international standards.”[vi]

[i] Summary of Israeli Supreme Court Ruling on Nation-State Law, The International Legal Forum, June 2021, https://www.ilfngo.org/_files/ugd/3445b6_7eff861f948b48ca8517408081409296.pdf.

[ii] Self determination (international law), Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/self_determination_(international_law)(last visited 8 Aug. 2024).

[iii] Id.  

[iv] Basic Law: Israel – The Nation State of the Jewish People, adopted 19 Jul. 2018, available at https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawNationState.pdf.

[v] Supreme Court of Canada: Reference Re Secession of Quebec, 37 I.L.M. 1340 (1998).

[vi] Alexander Yakobson & Amnon Rubinstein, Israel and the Family of Nations: The Jewish Nation-State and Human Rights (Routledge, 2010), p.119.

False Claim # 17

Claimed Fact: “Furthermore, housing discrimination prevents Palestinian citizens of Israel from residing within major Israeli cities at the same rates as Jewish citizens, isolating them into sparse enclaves. As described by Human Rights Watch, they face ‘widespread restrictions on accessing land confiscated from them, home demolitions, and effective prohibitions on family reunification.’” (P.12)

Actual Facts: This is a complete fabrication, typical of Human Rights Watch, designed only to create a fictional parallel with “bantustans” in apartheid South Africa. To weave together this accusation, the authors omit crucial details and context that shows, if anything, Arab citizens of Israel have more space than Jewish citizens.

As an initial matter, there is no law preventing Arab Israelis from residing anywhere that a Jewish Israeli can. In fact, under Israeli Supreme Court precedent, the only housing discrimination legally allowed is against Jews, who may be prohibited from residing in Bedouin Arab communities.[i] There is a reason the authors never actually point to any specific law enforcing discrimination - no such law exists. Anyone who has ever spent more than a few minutes in Israel can see for themselves the entirely uncontroversial intermixing of Jews and Arabs in Israel’s cities.

The attempt to claim that Arab Israelis are confined to small “enclaves” is equally baseless, which again underscores the bad faith of BDC's shoddy work. Take, for example, Amnesty International’s attempt to level this charge when they claimed that “2.5 million Palestinians live in Israel and East Jerusalem, restricted to enclaves that make up 3% of the entire area.” This is a typically misleading Amnesty International claim. The assertion about “enclaves” is referencing cities and towns that are entirely populated by Arabs, carefully omitting the fact that Arabs can, and do, live in mixed cities and towns, including Jewish majority towns throughout Israel such as Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Eilat, etc.[ii]

Put more simply, the argument put forward by the authors is that if you discount all the Arab Israelis living elsewhere in Israel, Arab Israelis only live in a small part of the land. That is an obvious absurdity.

If one does the math, it is obvious that the 3% figure is actually disproportionate in favor of Arabs. Only 13.24% of land in Israel has any substantial population, and Arab Israelis are approximately 16% of the population, meaning Arabs would be expected to occupy around 2.12% of Israel’s land.[iii] Adjusted for population, that means Arabs take up more land per capita in terms of homogenous cities and towns than do Jews.

[i] Contrast Ka’adan v. Israel Lands Administration, HCJ 6698/95, 2000 (unofficial English translation available at https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/ka%E2%80%99adan-v-israel-land-administration) (prohibiting discrimination on the basis of nationality in allocation of state land) with Avitan v. Israel Lands Administration, HCJ 528/88, 1989 (enabling the State to effectively discriminate in favor of the Bedouin Arab community in allocating state land).

[ii] YouTube Video, Amnesty International’s ‘Apartheid’ Video: 15 Lies in 15 Minutes, CAMERAorg, 12 Apr. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8I9XG3nPeA.

[iii] Alex Safian, PhD, Amnesty International’s Big Lie About Israel, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), 31 Jan. 2022, https://www.camera.org/article/amnesty-internationals-big-lie-about-israel/.

False Claim # 18

Claimed Fact: “While Palestinian citizens of Israel have the privileges of voting and running for office denied to Palestinians of other location categories, they still do not exist on equal status with Israel’s Jewish citizens.” (P.12)

Actual Facts: This sentence lists several ways in which Arab Israelis are fully equal to Jewish Israelis, before claiming – without providing any evidence, examples, or sources – that Arab Israelis are not fully equal to Jewish Israelis. The accusation requires actual evidence, not conclusory statements.

As noted previously (see False Claim #13, 15, 16, and 17), while inequalities exist in Israeli – like they do in any multicultural society – all Israeli citizens have equal rights under the law, regardless of race, religion, sex, or other immutable trait.

False Claim # 19

Claimed Fact: “In terms of the right of return, UN General Assembly Resolution 194 states clearly in regards to the Palestinians displaced in 1948…” (P.12)

Actual Facts: As noted under False Claim #14, the supposed “right of return” is a myth.

False Claim # 20

Claimed Fact: “According to the UNRWA, 5.9 million Palestinians are refugees today.” (P.12)

Actual Facts: This figure is deeply misleading in that it applies the definition of “refugee” used by UNRWA, applicable only to Palestinians and not to any others throughout the world who might claim refugee status. Under the universal definition of “refugee,” found in the 1954 Refugee Convention,[i] one must individually meet a set of requirements to be considered a refugee. Under the UNRWA definition, these requirements are waived for Palestinians. All patrilineal descendants of the original refugees are automatically given refugee status regardless of whether they would individually meet the Refugee Convention definition.[ii] This means that while UNRWA deceptively claims there are 5.9 million Palestinian refugees, the true figure, under the universal 1954 Convention definition, was estimated to be less than 200,000 in 2021.[iii]

One need only look at the famous Hadid family to underscore the absurdity of the "refugee" argument. Mohammed Hadid, who has lived in the U.S. for decades and is a multimillionaire and oft-sued real estate developer, claims to be a Palestinian refugee. His supermodel daughters, both born of a supermodel Dutch mother and raised in the United States, would also be considered “refugees” under the unique UNRWA definition.

Additionally, if the definition applied to Palestinians were to be applied to the Jewish people driven out of Arab countries, there would be millions of Jewish Israelis who would also be considered “refugees” and have a right of return to countries like Iraq, Egypt, and Syria.

[i] Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, (adopted 28 Jul. 1951, entered into force 22 Apr. 1954), available at https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1954/04/19540422%2000-23%20AM/Ch_V_2p.pdf.

[ii] United Nations, General Assembly, resolution 37/120(I), A/RES/37/120(I), 16 Dec. 1982, available at https://undocs.org/a/res/37/120.

[iii] X Post, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (@SecPompeo), 14 Jan. 2021, https://x.com/SecPompeo/status/1349832113923780610.

False Claim # 21

Claimed Fact: “To accomplish these goals, BDS is at its core a nonviolent struggle.” (P.13)

Actual Facts: To call BDS a “nonviolent” struggle is akin to depicting the Nazi boycott of Jewish stores as a “nonviolent” struggle. The claim further underlines the dishonesty that pervades the entirety of the BDC proposal. It divorces the boycott from the larger, virulently antisemitic movement of which it is but one element. Omar Barghouti, who the BDC describes as the founder of BDS, has made clear that the boycott is complementary to violence and terrorism and has publicly stated, “We’re not ashamed to have armed resistance in addition to peaceful resistance throughout our existence.”[i]

In fact, the BDS Movement itself is directly tied to terrorist organizations. The very first member organization listed by the BDS Movement (also known as the BDS National Committee) is the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine (PNIF).[ii] PNIF is coalition of terrorist organizations that includes Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the PFLP General Command (PFLP-GC), the Palestine Liberation Front, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.[iii] These organizations are designated as terrorist organizations by the United States and European Union.[iv] Obviously, these organizations are not interested in a solely “nonviolent struggle.” In 2018, the BDS National Committee had its account frozen at Donorbox over its connection with PNIF.[v]

Some governments have already begun to act against the violent, extremist roots of the BDS movement. Germany, for example, condemned the movement as antisemitic in 2019, and more recently, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) classified it as a “suspected extremism” case, highlighting the links between the movement and “secular Palestinian extremism."[vi]

[i] YouTube Video, Omar Barghouti - BDS - The Global Struggle For Palestinian Rights, PHubb, 13 Jul. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QODAPfPAaw&t=143s; see also Omar Barghouti at UCLA: A speaker who brings hate, Jewish Journal, 16 Jan. 2014, https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/126186/.

[ii] Palestinian BDS National Committee, BDS Movement, https://bdsmovement.net/bnc (last accessed 27 Jun. 2024).

[iii] Armin Rosen and Liel Leibovitz, BDS Umbrella Group Linked to Palestinian Terrorist Organizations, Tablet Magazine, 1 Jun. 2018, https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/bds-umbrella-group-linked-to-palestinian-terrorist-organizations; Ricki Hollander, Backgrounder: The Intrinsic Bigotry of BDS, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), 9 Jun. 2022, https://www.camera.org/article/backgrounder-the-intrinsic-antisemitism-of-bds/#terrorists.

[iv] Foreign Terrorist Organizations, U.S. Department of State, https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/ (last accessed 27 Jun. 2024); COUNCIL DECISION (CFSP) 2024/332 of 16 January 2024 updating the list of persons, groups and entities covered by Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism, and repealing Decision (CFSP) 2023/1514, Official Journal of the European Union, 16 Jan. 2024, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202400332 (listing all except the Palestine Liberation Front).

[v] X Post, Donorbox (@donorbox), 25 Dec. 2018, https://x.com/Donorbox/status/1077464440721866752 (“We're very sympathetic to the struggles of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. Regarding BDS: they list a security council (PINF) as a member on their website. This council is composed of a few organizations that the US govt does not allow us to do business with.”).

[vi] Israelkritische Bewegung BDS ist extremistischer Verdachtsfall, Deutschlandfunk, 19 Jun. 2024, https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/israelkritische-bewegung-bds-ist-extremistischer-verdachtsfall-100.html; see also German Intelligence Agency Classifies BDS Campaign as ‘Extremist’ Threat, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, 24 Jun. 2024, https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/06/24/german-intelligence-agency-classifies-bds-campaign-as-extremist-threat/.

False Claim # 22

Claimed Fact: “As founding member of the BDS movement Omar Barghouti articulated, ‘BDS targets complicity, not identity.’” (P.13)

Actual Facts: This is also a demonstrably false claim about BDS, using a carefully curated quote. Consider other remarks of Barghouti, such as: “No Palestinian – rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian—will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”[i] Thus, it is absolutely about identity for the “founder” of the BDS movement. Numerous other leaders in the BDS movement echo this racist, antisemitic sentiment.[ii]

More importantly, the manifestation of BDS is fundamentally in contradiction to the selective quote taken from Barghouti. BDS activists have regularly targeted Jewish community organizations with no real connection to Israel or any involvement in any alleged “crimes,” such as the so-called “Boston Mapping Project,” which targeted dozens of Jewish institutions, including Jewish teen foundations, day schools, disability service organizations, synagogue networks, and other Jewish cultural centers.[iii] Even organizations sharply critical of Israel were listed for being Jewish.

The targeting of these Jewish organizations was not just by one fringe group. The “mapping project” was endorsed by major anti-Israel organizations including National Students for Justice in Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Within Our Lifetime, Samidoun, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, and the Democratic Socialists of America.[iv] Nor was this an isolated instance. BDS activists have regularly promoted antisemitism,[v] gone after Jewish institutions and individuals on campuses,[vi] and even worked to deny Jewish students on campus access to kosher food.[vii]

[i] Vimeo Video, Omar Barghouti- Strategies for change, Dag Hammarskjold Society, 23 Sep. 2013, https://vimeo.com/75201955.

[ii] See, e.g., Ricki Hollander, Backgrounder: The Intrinsic Bigotry of BDS, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), 9 Jun. 2022, https://www.camera.org/article/backgrounder-the-intrinsic-antisemitism-of-bds/#terrorists.

[iii] Dana Milbank, Old-school antisemitism reappears as a clickable map, Washington Post, 15 Jun. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/boston-bds-map-antisemitic-denounce/; Jeremy Burton, A clarifying moment regarding BDS in Boston, Times of Israel, 10 Jun. 2022, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-clarifying-moment-regarding-bds-in-boston/.

[iv] Instagram Post, palestinianyouthmovement, 23 Jun. 2022, https://instagram.com/p/CfKH9FGPHTI/ (post since deleted, screenshot on file).

[v] E.g., Ben Cohen, Outrage as South African BDS Advocate Tells Students, ‘Hitler Committed No Crime’, Algemeiner, 8 Apr. 2021, https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/04/08/outrage-as-south-african-bds-advocate-tells-students-hitler-committed-no-crime/.

[vi] E.g., Haley Cohen, UMich Jewish regent targeted for second time, Jewish Insider, 3 Jun. 2024, https://jewishinsider.com/2024/06/umich-jewish-regent-targeted-for-second-time/; X Post, Sahar Tartak (@sahar_tartak), 4 May 2024, https://x.com/sahar_tartak/status/1786948377306861922; Instagram Post, Drexel Palestine Coalition (drexel.palestine.coalition), 19 May 2024, https://www.instagram.com/p/C7Kcqonp2Mx/?img_index=1.

[vii] U of Toronto Graduate Student Union opposes campus kosher food as ‘pro-Israel’, Times of Israel, 18 Nov. 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/u-of-toronto-student-union-boycotts-kosher-food-on-campus-over-israel-divestment/.

False Claim # 23

Claimed Fact: “BDS does not promote a one-state over a two-state solution, or vice-versa; participating in a divestment campaign would not require Brown to back one political solution over another, but rather side with bare-minimum human rights law.” (P.13)

Actual Facts: This is another blatant lie. BDS promotes positions that they openly acknowledge are steps toward the destruction of the Jewish state, such as the imaginary “right of return,” which Omar Barghouti, the founding member of the movement according to the BDC, claims: “You cannot reconcile the right of return for refugees with a two state solution…a return for refugees would end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. A two-state solution was never moral and it’s no longer working.”[i]

Barghouti has also repeatedly made clear that the goal is the destruction of the Jewish state. Take once again his May 2014 statement: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell out Palestinian, would ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”[ii] He has articulated this position repeatedly, a position BDC basically urges Brown to accept.[iii]

[i] Ali Mustafa, “Boycotts work”: An interview with Omar Barghouti, Electronic Intifada, 31 May 2009, https://web.archive.org/web/20160103000502/https://electronicintifada.net/content/boycotts-work-interview-omar-barghouti/8263 (archived version dated 3 Jan. 2016).

[ii] YouTube Video, Omar Barghouti: "No Palestinian will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.", Palestinism is Racism, 26 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYvpsGd8K4Y.

[iii] See, e.g., Omar Barghouti, The Essential Obstacle to a Just Peace in Palestine, CounterPunch, 14 Dec. 2003, https://web.archive.org/web/20100619212701/http://counterpunch.org/barghouti12132003.html (archived version dated 19 Jun. 2010) (“Good riddance! The two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is finally dead. But someone has to issue an official death certificate before the rotting corpse is given a proper burial and we can all move on and explore the more just, moral and therefore enduring alternative for peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Mandate Palestine: the one-state solution…. Going back to the two-state solution, besides having passed its expiry date, it was never amoral solution to start with.”); Ali Mustafa, “Boycotts work”: An interview with Omar Barghouti, Electronic Intifada, 31 May 2009, https://web.archive.org/web/20160103000502/https://electronicintifada.net/content/boycotts-work-interview-omar-barghouti/8263 (archived version dated 3 Jan. 2016) (“I am completely and categorically against binationalism because it assumes that there are two nations with equal moral claims to the land.”); YouTube Video, Boycott Divestment Sanction Israel, EnoughNews, 27 Jul. 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnpilMYsR0I&t=246s (“I clearly do not buy into the two-state solution.”).

False Claim # 24

Claimed Fact: “In Palestine, the current members of the BDS National Committee include the General Union of Palestinian Workers, Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition, Palestinian Bar Association, Palestinian Medical Association, General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT), Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE), Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (STW), Union of Youth Activity Centers-Palestine Refugee Camps, and the National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba.” (P.13)

Actual Facts: This passage underscores, as much as or better than, any other of BDC's many deceits. The authors clearly researched who is a part of the BDS National Committee but chose to conceal the one member that contradicts everything BDC claims about BDS.

That member, listed at the very top of BDS National Committee’s member list, is the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine (PNIF). As discussed above in False Claim #21, PNIF is a coalition of internationally designated terrorist organizations including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and others. BDC intentionally curated the membership list to omit the terrorist-designated groups whose causes they proudly and shamelessly champion. While BDC has chosen to align itself with these terrorists, Brown cannot do so and retain any degree of institutional integrity.

False Claim # 25

Claimed Fact: “As the examples below demonstrate, divestment campaigns, especially when embraced by prestigious institutions with large endowments, national, and international influence, are an important starting point for placing systemic pressure on states, corporations, and institutions to cease human rights abuses, violations of international law, and other social harms.” (P.14)

Actual Facts: Similarity in tactics does not equate to a similarity in justness of the cause. Boycotts of Jewish academics by “prestigious institutions” was an early feature of life in Nazi Germany too.[i]

[i] Higher Education in Nazi Germany, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://perspectives.ushmm.org/collection/higher-education-in-nazi-germany (last visited 17 Jul. 2024).

False Claim # 26

Claimed Fact: “The campaigns helped increase the political power and legitimacy that anti-apartheid leaders held within South Africa…” (P.14)

Actual Facts: There are no individuals among Palestinian leadership who even arguably can be compared with “anti-apartheid leaders" in South Africa. Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority – which governs the largely Palestinian areas of the West Bank – is a notorious bigot whose doctoral dissertation was about denying the Holocaust.[i] Unlike Israel, the PA actually has on paper laws akin to the racist apartheid laws of South Africa, such as barring the sale of land to Jews and prohibiting Jews from worshipping at their holy sites.[ii] The Palestinian leaders of the Gaza Strip are Hamas, the terrorist organization with an explicitly genocidal and antisemitic charter. The most popular Palestinian political figure outside of Abbas and Hamas, Marwan Barghouthi, is a convicted terrorist serving five life sentences for the murder of five Israelis.[iii] These are the individuals who wield political power and legitimacy in Palestinian society and to whom BDC seeks to give increased political power and legitimacy with the imprimatur of Brown University.

[i] Ariel Bulshtein, PhD in Holocaust denial: Abbas' doctoral dissertation revealed in full, Israel Hayom, 12 Apr. 2024, https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/04/12/phd-in-holocaust-denial-abbas-doctoral-dissertation-revealed-in-full/; see also X Post, Middle East Media Research Institute (@MEMRIReports), 6 Sep. 2023, https://x.com/MEMRIReports/status/1699372981926158425.

[ii] Eugene Kontorovich, There’s Apartheid in the Holy Land, but Not in Israel, Wall Street Journal, 8 Feb. 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/theres-apartheid-in-the-holy-land-but-not-in-israel-amnesty-international-palestine-racial-discrimination-disfavored-group-11644338888.

[iii] Omar Abdel-Baqui & Fatima AbdulKarim, Many Palestinians Pin Postwar Hopes on Leader Jailed by Israel for Two Decades, Wall Street Journal, 6 Jul. 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/many-palestinians-pin-postwar-hopes-on-leader-jailed-by-israel-for-two-decades-d9e7ae3f; see also On Marwan Barghouti's murder record, political maneuvering and exploitation, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 9 Nov. 2021, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/on-marwan-barghouti-s-murder-record-political-maneuvering-and-exploitation.

False Claim # 27

Claimed Fact: “Leading human rights organizations have charged Israel with the crime of apartheid since 2019. They include prominent Israeli human rights organizations Yesh Din and B’Tselem as well as international organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.” (P.18)

Actual Facts: While a full rebuttal of the “apartheid” charge is beyond the scope of this document, it is necessary to point out that the allegations made by these organizations have been debunked time and time again. In addition to relying on novel and deeply flawed definitions of the elements of the crime, numerous reviews have pointed out the plethora of factual and legal errors that fundamentally undermine the allegations made by these organizations.[i] Tellingly, these organizations have refused to correct the record even when directly informed about some of the hundreds of objectively false claims underpinning their allegations.[ii]

[i] E.g., Carola Lingaas, Jewish Israeli and Palestinians as distinct ‘racial groups’ within the meaning of the crime of apartheid?, EJIL:Talk!, 6 Jul. 2021, https://www.ejiltalk.org/jewish-israeli-and-palestinians-as-distinct-racial-groups-within-the-meaning-of-the-crime-of-apartheid/; Joshua Kern and Anne Herzberg, False Knowledge as Power: Deconstructing Definitions of Apartheid that Delegitimise the Jewish State, NGO Monitor, Dec. 2021, https://ngomonitor.org/pdf/NGOMonitor_ApartheidReport_2021.pdf; Joshua Kern and Anne Herzberg, Neo-Orientalism: Deconstructing Claims of Apartheid in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, NGO Monitor, Mar. 2022, https://ngo-monitor.org/pdf/NGOMonitor_ApartheidReport_2022.pdf; Yaffa Zilbershats, Apartheid, International Law, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: A Reply to John Dugard and John Reynolds, 24 EJIL 915, 922 (2013); Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, The Apartheid Accusation Against Israel is Baseless – and Agenda-Driven, EJIL:Talk!, 8 Jul. 2021, https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-apartheid-accusation-against-israel-lacks-is-baseless-and-agenda-driven/; David M. Litman & Yifa Segal, Reply to the Harvard International Human Rights Clinic and Addameer’s Joint Submission, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis & UK Lawyers for Israel, May 2022, https://www.camera.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Final-Draft-Reply-Brief-to-Harvard-Law-Clinic-Apartheid-Submission-with-FN.pdf; Prof. Robbie Sabel, The Campaign to Delegitimize Israel with the False Charge of Apartheid, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 4 May 2009, https://jcpa.org/article/the-campaign-to-delegitimize-israel-with-the-false-charge-of-apartheid-3/;  Prof. Alan Johnson, The Apartheid Smear, Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, Nov. 2022, https://www.bicom.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/BICOM-AS-Update-NOV-2022-3.pdf; HRW Crosses the Threshold into Falsehoods and Anti-Semitic Propaganda, Kohelet Forum, https://www.kohelet.org.il/en/article/hrw-crosses-the-threshold-into-falsehoods-and-anti-semitic-propaganda/; Alex Safian, PhD, Amnesty International’s Big Lie About Israel, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), 31 Jan. 2022, https://www.camera.org/article/amnesty-internationals-big-lie-about-israel/; Gilead Ini, Understanding B’tselem’s ‘Apartheid’ Libel, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), 27 Jan. 2021, https://www.camera.org/article/understanding-btselems-apartheid-libel/; Alex Safian, PhD, Human Rights Watch Report Maligns Israel with Lies on Top of Lies, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), 27 Apr. 2021, https://www.camera.org/article/human-rights-watch-report-maligns-israel-with-lies-on-top-of-lies/.

[ii] David Litman, When ‘Fact-Finders’ Don’t Care About Facts: A Case Study on Amnesty International, Algemeiner, 3 May 2023, https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/05/03/when-fact-finders-dont-care-about-facts-a-case-study-on-amnesty-international/; David Litman, Amnesty Lies & Hides: When Directly Confronted With Its Factual Errors, Amnesty Goes Quiet, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, 3 May 2022, https://www.camera.org/article/amnesty-lies-hides-when-directly-confronted-with-its-factual-errors-amnesty-goes-quiet/.

False Claim # 28

Claimed Fact: “This is the consensus of all reputable human rights organizations that have endeavored to investigate the topic.” (P.19)

Actual Facts: BDC engages in the fallacy of an appeal to a supposed higher authority. Rather than tangle with the hundreds of factual and legal errors, omissions, and misleading claims noted above, BDC hopes to distract readers by waving around the phrase “reputable human rights organizations.” But when an allegation of a violation of international law is made, what matters is not who made the charge but rather the arguments and the supporting evidence. This is especially so when the accusers have an established record of enmity toward Israel, getting the facts egregiously wrong,[i] refusing to correct inaccurate claims when alerted to the errors,[ii] hiring openly biased and antisemitic staff,[iii] and applying controversial interpretations of the law.[iv]

Moreover, the implication that there is a “consensus” is deeply misleading. Notably, how the proposal defines “reputable” is left unexplained. Presumably, the authors mean “those organizations who came to the conclusion we wanted,” thereby allowing them to ignore the many well-sourced, well-reasoned, and convincing arguments made to the contrary by countless scholars and organizations.[v]

[i] YouTube Video, Amnesty International's "Apartheid" Video: 15 Lies in 15 Minutes, CAMERAorg, 12 Apr. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8I9XG3nPeA.

[ii] David M. Litman, When ‘Fact-Finders’ Don’t Care About Facts: A Case Study on Amnesty International, The Algemeiner, 3 May 2023, https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/05/03/when-fact-finders-dont-care-about-facts-a-case-study-on-amnesty-international/.

[iii] E.g., Marissa Newman, Israeli rights group admits employee denied Holocaust, Times of Israel, 7 Oct. 2014, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-rights-group-admits-employee-denied-holocaust/.

[iv] E.g., Charlie Savage, Unreleased Report Finds Faults in Amnesty International’s Criticism of Ukraine, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/us/amnesty-international-report-ukraine-russia.html.

[v] E.g., Joshua Kern and Anne Herzberg, False Knowledge as Power: Deconstructing Definitions of Apartheid that Delegitimise the Jewish State, NGO Monitor, December 2021, https://ngomonitor.org/pdf/NGOMonitor_ApartheidReport_2021.pdf; Joshua Kern and Anne Herzberg, Neo-Orientalism: Deconstructing Claims of Apartheid in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, NGO Monitor, Mar. 2022, https://ngo-monitor.org/pdf/NGOMonitor_ApartheidReport_2022.pdf; Yaffa Zilbershats, Apartheid, International Law, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: A Reply to John Dugard and John Reynolds, 24 EJIL 915, 922 (2013); Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, The Apartheid Accusation Against Israel is Baseless – and Agenda-Driven, EJIL:Talk!, 8 Jul. 2021, https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-apartheid-accusation-against-israel-lacks-is-baseless-and-agenda-driven/; David M. Litman & Yifa Segal, Reply to the Harvard International Human Rights Clinic and Addameer’s Joint Submission, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis & UK Lawyers for Israel, May 2022, https://www.camera.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Final-Draft-Reply-Brief-to-Harvard-Law-Clinic-Apartheid-Submission-with-FN.pdf; Prof. Robbie Sabel, The Campaign to Delegitimize Israel with the False Charge of Apartheid, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 4 May 2009, https://jcpa.org/article/the-campaign-to-delegitimize-israel-with-the-false-charge-of-apartheid-3/;  Prof. Alan Johnson, The Apartheid Smear, Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, Nov. 2022, https://www.bicom.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/BICOM-AS-Update-NOV-2022-3.pdf. 

False Claim # 29

Claimed Fact: “In response (sic) the claims made by South Africa, the court assented (sic) that 'at least some of the acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the (Genocide) Convention,’ legitimizing the severity of the situation, as well as the court’s jurisdiction over it.” (P.19)

Actual Facts: BDC wants the reader to believe that the charge of “genocide” against Israel has been given credibility by a judicial order at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This is manifestly not the case. Joan Donoghue, who was the president of the court at the time of the order, made it abundantly clear that the ICJ did no such thing: “I'm correcting what's often said in the media - it didn't decide that the claim of genocide was plausible.”[i]

In effect, all the order did was declare that if everything South Africa claimed was true, then the allegations might properly fall under the Genocide Convention. The actual substance of the allegations, if any, has yet to be litigated. It is noteworthy in this regard that the party making the allegations, South Africa, has openly allied itself with Hamas and has been shipping weapons to Myanmar, which itself stands accused of committing genocide against the Rohingya.[ii]

[i] X Post, UK Lawyers for Israel (@UKLFI), 30 Apr. 2024, https://x.com/UKLFI/status/1785305902276301019 (showing clip of an interview with Joan Donoghue on the BBC).

[ii] Connor Pfeiffer, Toby Dershowitz, & David May, South Africa Must Change Course on Hamas, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, 24 Jul. 2024, https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/07/24/south-africa-must-change-course-on-hamas/; Victoria O'regan, South Africa: High Court Declares South African Arms Exports to War-Torn Myanmar Unlawful, allAfrica, 22 Jul. 2024, https://allafrica.com/stories/202407230037.html.

False Claim # 30

Claimed Fact: “Since early October, at least 26,000 Palestinian people have been killed, including more than 10,000 children.” (P.20)

Actual Facts: BDC conveniently omits the source of these figures: Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist organization which is well known for manipulating casualty data to advance its political agenda.[i] Both footnotes for the figures go to articles that themselves rely on Hamas as a source. As multiple experts and analyses have demonstrated, the figures coming from the terrorist organization are unreliable and defy common sense.[ii] Even the United Nations has downplayed these figures in ways that cast serious doubt on the highly charged claims about the proportion of women and children among the fatalities.[iii]

Moreover, “people” is inclusive of Palestinian terrorists. While Hamas intentionally avoids distinguishing between civilians and combatants when peddling its statistics, the Israel Defense Forces have estimated they’ve eliminated approximately 14,000 terrorists, and that approximately 16,000 Gazan civilians have also been killed in the fighting.[iv] While each civilian death is a tragedy, a nearly 1-to-1 ratio of civilians to combatants would be unprecedented in modern military operations in urban areas. As explained by John Spencer, the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, “[A]ll available evidence shows that Israel has followed the laws of war, legal obligations, best practices in civilian harm mitigation and still found a way to reduce civilian casualties to historically low levels.”[v]

On the other hand, Hamas's entire strategy is designed to exacerbate civilian harm. As journalists Summer Said and Rory Jones of the Wall Street Journal put it after reviewing multiple messages from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, "Gaza Chief's Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas."[vi]

[i] David Adesnik, How the UN Got Away With Wildly Inflating the Casualty Numbers in Gaza—and the Media Bought It | Opinion, Newsweek, 3 Jun. 2024, https://www.newsweek.com/how-un-got-away-wildly-inflating-casualty-numbers-gaza-media-bought-it-opinion-1907436.

[ii] See, e.g., Professor Mike Spagat, Gaza Ministry of Health releases detailed new casualty data amidst confusion of UN’s death numbers in Gaza, Action on Armed Violence, 28 May 2024, https://aoav.org.uk/2024/gaza-ministry-of-health-releases-detailed-new-casualty-amidst-confusion-of-uns-death-numbers-in-gaza/; Graeme Wood, The UN’s Gaza Statistics Make No Sense, The Atlantic, 17 May 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/gaza-death-count/678400/.

[iii] Ruth Marks Eglash, UN revises Gaza death toll, almost 50% less women and children killed than previously reported, Fox News, 13 May 2024, https://www.foxnews.com/world/un-revises-gaza-death-toll-50-less-women-children-killed-previously-reported.

[iv] Israel publishes new civilian death toll in Gaza, Voice of America News, 21 May 2024, https://www.voanews.com/a/israel-publishes-new-civilian-death-toll-in-gaza/7622032.html.

[v] John Spencer, Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It?, Newsweek, 26 Mar. 2024, https://www.newsweek.com/israel-has-created-new-standard-urban-warfare-why-will-no-one-admit-it-opinion-1883286.

[vi] Summer Said and Rory Jones, Gaza Chief’s Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas, Wall Street Journal, 10 Jun. 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-chiefs-brutal-calculation-civilian-bloodshed-will-help-hamas-626720e7.

False Claim # 31

Claimed Fact: “Only ‘16 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are ‘minimally or partially functioning,’’ with healthcare workers increasingly unable to adequately address disease or other life-threatening conditions that arise from overcrowding, flooding, and hunger.” (P.20)

Actual Facts: The authors depict a dire situation without addressing the actual causes. Hamas has systematically exploited hospitals in Gaza, including by using them as command-and-control centers, arms caches, and detention centers for hostages.[i] In addition to the abundant documentary evidence produced by Israel, foreign intelligence services have corroborated this, as have journalists and healthcare workers.[ii]

Hamas having done so both constitutes a war crime and renders the hospitals legitimate targets under international law.

While Palestinian terrorists have violated the laws of armed conflict and cynically turned hospitals into military targets,[iii] Israel has facilitated enormous amounts of medical aid into the Gaza Strip, including over 25,000 tons of medical supplies and the opening of ten field hospitals inside the territory.[iv]

[i] E.g., IDF claims video shows hostages in Al-Shifa hospital, CNN, 20 Nov. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/11/20/israel-claim-cctv-video-hostages-al-shifa-hospital-vpx.cnn; US intel assesses Hamas used Shifa Hospital as command center, held hostages there, Times of Israel, 3 Jan. 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-intel-assesses-hamas-used-shifa-hospital-as-command-center-held-hostages-there/; X Post, Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas), 29 Dec. 2023, https://x.com/AvivaKlompas/status/1740743868952232034 (showing Channel 12 interview with former hostage Maya Regev); X Post, Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst), 16 Nov. 2023, https://x.com/TreyYingst/status/1725155173666836636 (Fox News report showing weapons in al-Shifa Hospital); Video, Israel Defense Forces (IDF), https://videoidf.azureedge.net/8a9cafbf-0d9a-4074-9688-cf4832e54221 (surveillance footage showing Palestinian terrorists firing from Sheikh Hamed Hospital).

[ii] See, e.g., Julian E. Barnes, Hamas Used Gaza Hospital as a Command Center, U.S. Intelligence Says, New York Times, 2 Jan. 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/us/politics/gaza-hospital-hamas.html; Terrence McCoy, Why Hamas stores its weapons inside hospitals, mosques and schools, Washington Post, 31 Jul. 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/31/why-hamas-stores-its-weapons-inside-hospitals-mosques-and-schools/; X Post, Jan Franke (@Franke_schrijft), 16 Nov. 2023, https://x.com/Franke_schrijft/status/1725037285249306726; Taghreed El-Khodary and Ethan Bronner, In the midst of war's horror, a terrible vengeance, New York Times, 29 Dec. 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/world/africa/29iht-gaza.4.18986499.html; Nancy A. Youssef & Warren P. Strobel, U.S. Relied on Intercepts in Assessing Hamas’s Operations at Gaza Hospital, Wall Street Journal, 15 Nov. 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-relied-on-intercepts-in-assessing-hamass-operations-at-gaza-hospital-0d99e623; X Post, Israel Defense Forces (@IDF), 27 Dec. 2023, https://x.com/IDF/status/1740084607762973123; X Post, Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy), 19 Nov. 2023, https://x.com/EylonALevy/status/1726247051053375881; X Post, Emanuel Fabian (@manniefabian), 13 Nov. 2023, https://x.com/manniefabian/status/1724054178836672713; Hamas Takes Hostages to Shifa Hospital After Abuduction, Israel Defense Forces, 20 Nov. 2023, https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/hamas-israel-war-24/war-on-hamas-2023-resources/hamas-takes-hostages-to-shifa-hospital-after-abuduction/.

[iii] Michael N. Schmitt, The Legal Protection of Hospitals during Armed Conflict, Articles of War, 29 Dec. 2023, https://lieber.westpoint.edu/legal-protection-hospitals-during-armed-conflict/.

[iv] Humanitarian Efforts, Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories, https://gaza-aid-data.gov.il/main/ (last visited 19 Jul. 2024).

False Claim # 32

Claimed Fact: “Shrinking sources of clean water endanger ever larger numbers of Palestinian civilians, and Israeli refusal to admit fuel for desalination plants has forced vulnerable populations to depend on water that is ‘highly salinated or polluted.’” (P.20)

Actual Facts: Gazans are not being forced to depend on “highly salinated or polluted water.” Israel has repaired and opened the three water pipelines into Gaza, which are capable of providing 31,000 cubic liters per day.[i] Two additional pipelines, constructed from Egypt, provide an additional 10,000 cubic liters per day. These pipelines alone are capable of providing enough clean water to a large majority of Gazans.

In addition, the claim that Israel has refused to fuel desalination plants is false. “Between January 2024 and the beginning of July there have been more than 59 coordinations for repair and refueling of the water network in Gaza. In addition, Israel coordinated the repair of three pumps at the UNICEF desalination plant in Deir Albalah. The repairs brought the plant’s capacity back to 1,000 cubic meters per day.”[ii]

Notably, the authors once again omit any real analysis of the causes of the dire situation they present to imply the blame rests on Israel. In fact, the Palestinians themselves shoulder the blame for the decrepit state of Gazan water infrastructure. The Palestinian Authority was given control of most of Gaza’s water infrastructure in 1995, and then total control in 2005 when Israel turned over the remaining 25 wells that had previously served Israeli communities in the area.[iii] Hamas has severely mismanaged the infrastructure and has openly boasted about how it digs up water pipelines for the purpose of turning them into rockets meant to kill Jews.[iv] 

[i] Humanitarian Efforts, Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories, https://gaza-aid-data.gov.il/main/ (last visited 19 Jul. 2024).

[ii] Humanitarian Efforts, Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories, https://gaza-aid-data.gov.il/main/  (last visited 19 Jul. 2024).

[iii] The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip: Annex III, Jewish Virtual Library, 28 Sep. 1995, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/oslo-ii-annex-i-3;  UN Recycled Palestinian Water Report, NGO Monitor, 1 Oct. 2021, https://www.ngo-monitor.org/reports/un-recycled-palestinian-water-report/;

[iv] Joe Barnes, EU funded water pipelines despite Hamas boast it could turn them into rockets, The Telegraph, 10 Oct. 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/10/eu-funded-water-pipelines-hamas-rockets/; see also X Post, Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha), 12 Oct. 2023, https://x.com/GLNoronha/status/1712456802531491947.

False Claim # 33

Claimed Fact: “93% of Gazans are currently facing ‘crisis levels of hunger’ as a result of Israeli policies that seek to induce extreme deprivation onto the captive population.” (P.20)

Actual Facts: This claim is simply baseless, and the authors assert a malicious intent that flies in the face of the facts. Israel has continuously scaled up its efforts to facilitate humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Over 625,000 tons of food aid have been delivered to Gaza up through mid-July 2024.[i]

Indeed, despite hysterical reports of “famine,” which turned out to be based on deeply inaccurate and incomplete data, international agencies have acknowledged the food security situation has improved in the Gaza Strip.[ii] As explained by one analysis: “The reports are based on incomplete data from sources in Gaza and disregard significant portions of aid shipments entering the Strip as well as the complex situation on the ground.”[iii]

Even according to the United Nations, no friend of Israel, the main impediment to the delivery of food aid to those who most need it is not Israel, but rather organized criminal groups and looters, including Hamas.[iv]

[i] Humanitarian Efforts, Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories, https://gaza-aid-data.gov.il/main/ (last visited 19 Jul. 2024).

[ii] Famine Review Committee: Gaza Strip, June 2024: Conclusions and Recommendations, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, 25 Jun. 2024, https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Famine_Review_Committee_Report_Gaza_June2024.pdf; see also David M. Litman, CNN Uses Gaza ‘Famine’ Myth to Slander Israel, The Algemeiner, 1 Jul. 2024, https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/07/01/cnn-uses-gaza-famine-myth-to-slander-israel/.

[iii] Tammy Caner, The Misleading Reports of the UN Over Famine in Gaza, The Institute for National Security Studies, 24 Jul. 2024, https://www.inss.org.il/publication/un-hunger-reports/.

[iv] Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, United Nations, 22 May 2024, https://press.un.org/en/2024/db240522.doc.htm (UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric: “I’m not disputing the fact that the Israeli authorities have moved in aid and trucks through the Kareem Shalom crossing.  From the Palestinian side, from the Gaza side, it is complicated for many reasons, including the fact that there is not enough security, that there is an active conflict going on in Gaza for us to pick up the aid and distribute it.”); Mike Glenn, U.S. says Hamas stole aid for Gaza sent through newly opened border crossing, Washington Times, 3 May 2024, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/may/3/us-says-hamas-stole-aid-gaza-sent-through-newly-op/.

False Claim # 34

Claimed Fact: “More than one hundred journalists have been murdered…” (P.20)

Actual Facts: The description of many of these individuals as “journalists” is highly misleading. Many of these individuals have turned out to be members of terrorist organizations actively engaged in attacks against Israelis.[i] Some, such as Al-Jazeera’s Ismail al-Ghoul, even participated in the October 7 massacre.[ii] Other supposed “journalists,” such as Abdallah Aljamal, held Israeli civilians hostage in their own homes.[iii] Many of them worked for “media” outlets directly connected to these terrorist organizations.[iv] These people were not actual journalists; they were propagandists in the employ of a terrorist organization.

The authors also once again allege a criminal intent without presenting supporting evidence that the journalists were targeted for being journalists, as opposed to being targeted for their terrorist activities or being tragic cases of collateral damage in a complex combat environment in a war initiated by Hamas.

[i] Al Jazeera 'journalists' killed in Gaza were terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, says IDF Spokesperson, I24 News, 10 Jan. 2024, https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel-at-war/1704918527-al-jazeera-journalists-killed-in-gaza-were-terrorists-from-hamas-and-islamic-jihad-says-idf-spokesperson.

[ii] Al-Jazeera ‘Journalist’ Was Hamas Nukhba Terrorist, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, 2 Aug. 2024, https://www.fdd.org/analysis/flash-briefs/2024/08/02/al-jazeera-journalist-was-hamas-nukhba-terrorist/.

[iii] Michael Starr, Rescued hostage sues ‘Palestine Chronicle’ for employment of Hamas captor, Jerusalem Post, 14 Jul. 2024, https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-810308.

[iv] Using Journalists’ Lives as Currency: Another Cynical Hamas Ruse, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), 12 Nov. 2023, https://www.camera.org/article/using-journalists-lives-as-currency-another-cynical-hamas-ruse/.

False Claim # 35

Claimed Fact: “Lifesaving resources are being slowed or outright blocked by Israeli government and military forces.” (P.20)

Actual Facts: Israeli forces are not responsible for the slow pace of aid delivery. In fact, enormous amounts of aid (over 920,000 tons)[i] have entered Gaza faster than aid agencies like the United Nations can deliver it within the territory. This has resulted in large amounts of aid just sitting on the Gaza side of the border waiting for pick up.[ii]

What BDC appears to be complaining about are the inspections carried out by Israel of aid shipments being sent into Gaza. Beyond not actually being responsible for the slow delivery of aid, there is nothing illegal or untoward about such inspections. This is especially so given the long history of Palestinian terrorists smuggling weapons into the territory,[iii] including by exploiting aid projects and aid organizations.[iv]

[i] G​AZA Humanitarian Aid Data, Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, https://gaza-aid-data.gov.il/main/ (last visited 26 Aug. 2024).

[ii] E.g., X Post, Embassy of Israel to the USA (@IsraelinUSA), 10 Jun. 2024, https://x.com/IsraelinUSA/status/1800150151027101854; see generally Tammy Caner, The Misleading Reports of the UN Over Famine in Gaza, The Institute for National Security Studies, 24 Jul. 2024, https://www.inss.org.il/publication/un-hunger-reports/.

[iii] Brad Lendon, How does Hamas get its weapons? A mix of improvisation, resourcefulness and a key overseas benefactor, CNN, 12 Oct. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/11/middleeast/hamas-weaponry-gaza-israel-palestine-unrest-intl-hnk-ml/index.html.

[iv] Josef Federman, Israel: Gaza sisters smuggled explosives on way to hospital, AP News, 20 Apr. 2017, https://apnews.com/general-news-5031dc17b2204da2929103af2f85612a.

False Claim # 36

Claimed Fact: “More than 100 aid workers affiliated with the United Nations were murdered in the first month of bombardment alone.” (P.20)

Actual Facts: Once again, the authors allege criminal intent without supporting evidence, namely that Israeli forces targeted these aid workers. Without that evidence, these accusations cannot be taken seriously, as they simply seek to mask the lack of substance behind the charge.

As with hospitals and journalists, the authors omit Hamas’s systematic exploitation of civilian infrastructure and special protections, a longstanding practice by Palestinian terrorist organizations that has been well-documented by Israel and the UN itself.[i] Entire UN compounds and headquarters have been turned into military targets by Hamas.[ii]

Overwhelming evidence also shows that the United Nations has employed hundreds of members of terrorist organizations, some of whom participated in the October 7, 2023 atrocities.[iii] Casting these individuals as “aid workers” who have been “murdered” shows disregard not just for the truth, but for basic tenets of morality.

[i] E.g., Yosef Goell, UN school housed Arafat’s school for terrorists, Jerusalem Post, 24 Jun. 1982, p.1; Israel to Protest P.L.O.'s Use Of U.N. Refugee Installations, New York Times, 30 Jun. 1982, p. A10; UNRWA strongly condemns placement of rockets in school, UNRWA, 17 Jul. 2014, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/unrwa-strongly-condemns-placement-rockets-school; UNRWA Condemns Placement of Rockets, For a Second Time, In One of Its Schools, UNRWA, 22 Jul. 2014, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/unrwa-condemns-placement-rockets-second-time-one-its-schools; Cache of rockets found in UN school in Gaza, UNRWA, 29 Jul. 2014, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/cache-rockets-found-un-school-gaza; UNRWA Condemns Neutrality Violation in Gaza in the Strongest Possible Terms, UNRWA, 9 Jun. 2017, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/unrwa-condemns-neutrality-violation-gaza-strongest-possible-terms; UNRWA Condemns Neutrality Violation in Gaza, UNRWA, 28 Oct. 2017, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-condemns-neutrality-violation-gaza; Statement about the discovery of military items in an UNRWA school in Gaza, UNRWA, 22 Apr. 2020, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/statement-about-discovery-military-items-unrwa-school-gaza; The Neutrality and Inviolability of UNRWA Installations Must be Respected at All Times, UNRWA, 4 Jun. 2021, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/neutrality-and-inviolability-unrwa-installations-must-be-respected-all; UNRWA Strongly Condemns Neutrality Breach Against the Agency in Gaza, UNRWA, 29 Nov. 2022, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-strongly-condemns-neutrality-breach-against-agency-gaza.

[ii] Emanuel Fabian, Directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters, IDF uncovers top secret Hamas data center, Times of Israel, 10 Feb. 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/directly-beneath-unrwas-gaza-headquarters-idf-uncovers-top-secret-hamas-data-center/.

[iii] Ronny Reyes, About 1,200 UNRWA staffers — or 10% — have links to Hamas with thousands more closely related to terrorists: Israeli dossier, New York Post, 29 Jan. 2024, https://nypost.com/2024/01/29/news/about-1200-unrwa-staffers-have-links-to-hamas-thousands-more-closely-related-to-terrorists-israeli-dossier/; Nine UNRWA staff to be fired for potential role in 7 October attacks on Israel, United Nations, 5 Aug. 2024, https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1152841.

False Claim # 37

Claimed Fact: “Attacks on aid convoys, limits on hours in which humanitarian vehicles can move through checkpoints, and lengthy inspections of shipments of food and medical supplies have bottlenecked access to vital resources that growing numbers of refugees are ‘wholly reliant on... to survive.’” (P.20)

Actual Facts: This is, once again, a flat out lie. As evidenced by the large amounts of humanitarian aid sitting on the Gaza side of the border (see False Claim #35), the bottleneck is not Israeli inspections or restrictions, but rather the inability of the United Nations to scale up its aid delivery within the territory.[i]

Moreover, since the IDF took control of the Gaza side of Rafah, it has been Egypt which has declined to coordinate with Israel to reopen the humanitarian aid crossing.[ii]

[i] E.g., X Post, Embassy of Israel to the USA (@IsraelinUSA), 10 Jun. 2024, https://x.com/IsraelinUSA/status/1800150151027101854.

[ii] Israel, Egypt said moving toward reopening Rafah Crossing amid US pressure, Times of Israel, 30 May 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-egypt-said-to-agree-to-reopen-rafah-crossing-following-us-pressure/.

False Claim # 38

Claimed Fact: “Israeli military control of checkpoints connecting Gaza to Israel and Egypt not only deny displaced Palestinians the ability to escape to safety but gives military forces the ability to deny them aid through border closures and blockades.” (P.20)

Actual Facts: Here, BDC misleads by omission. The full story is a case study in how “international law” seems to be applied differently against only the Jewish state. The reason Gazans were not able to escape to safety into Egypt had nothing to do with Israel. Gazans were prohibited from finding refuge in Egypt by Egypt which, contrary to international refugee law obligations, forcibly prevented them (and in the process, has built one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world for the sole purpose of keeping Gazans out of Egypt).[i] It was only recently that Israeli forces secured control of Gaza’s border with Egypt.

It is particularly telling that, to this day, no Arab country has agreed to take in displaced Palestinians, with the exception of a limited number of temporary entries to receive medical care.

[i] Eugene Kontorovich, America Helps Make Gaza an Open-Air Prison, Wall Street Journal, 21 Jan. 2024, https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-helps-make-gaza-an-open-air-prison-palestinians-policy-war-zone-refugees-0e5a9b28.

False Claim # 39

Claimed Fact: “85% of people living in Gaza have been forcibly displaced by Israeli attacks—nearly two million people are now refugees.” (P.20)

Actual Facts: Once again, BDC misleads by omitting the party responsible for the situation - Hamas. There is a reason for the prohibitions in the law of armed conflict on locating military targets in civilian areas: it puts civilians in harm’s way. Rather than give military forces a cynical incentive to engage in human shielding by forbidding the opposing military from defending itself and hitting back, the law places the primary responsibility on that party engaging in human shielding.[i]

Hamas has launched tens of thousands of rockets and built hundreds of kilometers of terror tunnels underneath civilian areas of Gaza.[ii] Both these rockets and tunnels have been used to target and harm Israeli civilians. Israel is under no legal or moral obligation to suffer these attacks and forgo its fundamental right to self-defense simply because Palestinian terrorist organizations have so thoroughly and systematically exploited civilian areas and the civilians of Gaza.[iii] As reported by the Wall Street Journal in the article noted above, Hamas actively seeks, and glories in, the deaths of its own people.[iv]

Israel’s evacuation orders have been designed, in compliance with international law,[v] to remove civilians from those areas in which it must operate to eliminate Palestinian terrorist targets that have been unlawfully embedded in those areas.

In other words, the legal wrong that led to this displacement is not that of Israel, but that of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations that built their terror infrastructure underneath their homes.

Finally, it is worth pointing out the inaccurate use of the term “refugee.” As discussed under False Claim #20, the vast majority of Palestinians do not meet the definition of “refugee.” Moreover, one cannot be a refugee while remaining within the borders of his own territory. Rather, the proper term would be “internally displaced people,” who are subject to a different set of rights and protections than refugees.[vi]

[i] Department of Defense Law of War Manual, June 2015 (Updated July 2023), Office of General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Jul. 2023, https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jul/31/2003271432/-1/-1/0/DOD-LAW-OF-WAR-MANUAL-JUNE-2015-UPDATED-JULY%202023.PDF, para. 5.12.3.4 (“The party that employs human shields in an attempt to shield military objectives from attack assumes responsibility for their injury, although the attacker may share this responsibility if it fails to take feasible precautions.”).

[ii] John Spencer, Gaza’s Underground: Hamas’s Entire Politico-Military Strategy Rests on Its Tunnels, Modern War Institute at West Point, 18 Jan. 2024, https://mwi.westpoint.edu/gazas-underground-hamass-entire-politico-military-strategy-rests-on-its-tunnels/; Gaza tunnels stretch at least 350 miles, far longer than past estimate – report, Times of Israel, 16 Jan. 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/gaza-tunnels-stretch-at-least-350-miles-far-longer-than-past-estimate-report/; 19,000 Rockets Launched at Israel Since Hamas’s October 7 Atrocities, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, 11 Jun. 2024, https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/06/11/19000-rockets-launched-at-israel-since-hamass-october-7-atrocities/.

[iii] Summer Said and Rory Jones, Gaza Chief’s Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas, Wall Street Journal, 10 Jun. 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-chiefs-brutal-calculation-civilian-bloodshed-will-help-hamas-626720e7.

[iv] Id.

[v] See Michael N. Schmitt, The Evacuation of Northern Gaza: Practical and Legal Aspects, Articles of War, 15 Oct. 2023, https://lieber.westpoint.edu/evacuation-northern-gaza-practical-legal-aspects/.

[vi] Internally Displaced People, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, https://www.unhcr.org/us/about-unhcr/who-we-protect/internally-displaced-people (last visited 8 Aug. 2024).

False Claim # 40

Claimed Fact: “The scale of destruction to civilians’ homes is staggering—nearly 80% of Palestinians in Gaza have no home to return to.” (P.20)

Actual Facts: This claim is unsupported even by the cited source. The UN News story cited by the authors derives a faulty conclusion from its own data, presumably to advance its own political narrative. The 80% figure appears to come from a subheading that claims “8 in 10 Gazans now homeless” without providing any source. However, what this subheading means appears to be clarified in the following sentence. It states that, according to UNRWA, “more than 85 per cent of the population in Gaza…have been displaced.”

None of this means “80% of Palestinians in Gaza have no home to return to,” as many – if not most – of those Gazans are displaced because of evacuation orders, not necessarily because their homes no longer exist.

Moreover, claims of the “scale of destruction” being to the degree claimed by the authors is contradicted by the UN’s own data. According to a recent UNOSTAT damage assessment, the total number of structures destroyed, severely damaged, moderately damaged, and possibly damaged is about 55% of the total structures in Gaza.[i] If one removes the “possibly” damaged structures, the figure drops to below 40% of the total structures.

[i] UNOSAT Gaza Strip 7th Comprehensive Damage Assessment - May 2024, United Nations Satellite Centre, 31 May 2024, https://unosat.org/products/3861.

False Claim # 41

Claimed Fact: “Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023…” (P.21)

Actual Facts: This claim, standing alone, warrants the dismissal in its entirety of the BDC proposal. It demonstrates the extent to which the BDC will make up anything and say anything to achieve its political objective, including inverting reality. It could not be clearer that Israel did not launch a war on Gaza. Precisely the opposite is true; Palestinian terrorists launched the war on Israel on October 7, 2023. The war began with a surprise attack by Palestinian terrorist organizations who murdered, raped, tortured, mutilated, and kidnapped Israeli civilians across southern Israel.[i] If the BDC is willing to lie about something so basic and obvious, none of its other claims can be taken seriously.

[i] See generally, Seth J. Frantzman, The October 7 War: Israel's Battle for Security in Gaza (Wicked Son, 2024); Alon Penzel, Testimonies Without Boundaries, (Spines, 2024).

False Claim # 42

Claimed Fact: “On December 7, prominent Palestinian poet and professor Rafat Alareer, who was known as the ‘voice of Gaza,’ was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Shajaliya, in northern Gaza.” (P.21)

Actual Facts: Refaat Alareer was not simply a “poet and professor.” Alareer was a notorious antisemite whose rhetoric was so extreme, the New York Times was forced to effectively retract an entire article profiling him and acknowledge his extremist, bigoted rhetoric.[i] Prior to his death, Alareer spent his time online celebrating and cruelly mocking the death of Israeli civilians, including children, murdered on October 7.[ii]

[i] Gilead Ini, In NY Times, Hagiography of a Hatemonger Misinforms Readers, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), 23 Nov. 2021, https://www.camera.org/article/in-ny-times-hagiography-of-a-hatemonger-misinforms-readers/.

[ii] See, e.g., X Post, Refaat Alareer (@itranslate123), 29 Oct. 2023, https://x.com/itranslate123/status/1718743066536706091.

False Claim # 43

Claimed Fact: “Recently, the Israeli Occupation Forces arrested 25 student activists at An-Najah University in Nablus, in the West Bank, during a sit-in where students were protesting internal university policies on tuition payment. Birzeit University students, staff, and faculty have faced similar and constant raids targeting Palestinian students who have been abducted, detained, and brutalized by the Israeli military for decades, which goes well beyond the obstruction of their rights to education.” (P.21)

Actual Facts: Students were not arrested for protesting internal university policies. To the contrary, they were arrested for their affiliations with the terrorist organization Hamas.[i]

Also omitted is that these universities have become hotbeds of terrorism and incitement. A recent report documented some of this extremism at Birzeit University during the years 2021-2023, when Brown professor Beshara Doumani was serving as Birzeit's president.[ii] During Doumani’s tenure at Birzeit, the student faction of Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist organization, won landslide victories in student elections where the candidates campaigned by glorifying the terrorist attacks Hamas had carried out against Israeli civilians. The student factions of Hamas and other terrorist organizations also regularly held rallies and parades glorifying terrorism, even parading a replica of a bomb that killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb as she was on a hike with her family. Numerous students from these universities have carried out terror attacks targeting Israelis or have been otherwise involved in terrorist activity.[iii]

[i] Gianluca Pacchiani, Palestinian higher education ministry condemns arrest of Hamas-affiliated students in Nablus university, Times of Israel, 15 Jan. 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/palestinian-higher-education-ministry-condemns-arrest-of-hamas-affiliated-students-in-nablus-university/.

[ii] David Litman, CAMERA Report: Anti-Israel Extremism and Corrupt Scholarship at Brown University, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, 13 Dec. 2023, https://www.camera.org/article/camera-report-anti-israel-extremism-and-corrupt-scholarship-at-brown-university/.

[iii] E.g., Emanuel Fabian, Hamas university students in West Bank arrested for planning ‘significant terror attack’, Times of Israel, 21 Jul. 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-university-students-in-west-bank-arrested-for-planning-significant-terror-attack/.

False Claim # 44

Claimed Fact: “These blatant obstructions of education should be of utmost concern to Brown University. Such obstructions are a clear contravention of the right to education enshrined in Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 13 of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Under no circumstance, including in situations of crisis caused by war or civil strife, are the duty to uphold these rights exempt to any state party to them.” (P.21)

Actual Facts: The actions of Israel are not, in fact, a “clear contravention of the right to education.” In international law, during times of armed conflict, the law of armed conflict forms the lex specialis.[i] In the law of armed conflict, as explained by Steven Haines, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Greenwich: “A school is ordinarily a civilian object, of course, and not subject to lawful targeting. If, however, military forces use it, the school loses its protected status and becomes a military objective.”[ii]

In that case, the clear contravention of the right to education flows not from lawful targeting of the schools or lawful operations to detain or eliminate terrorists inside, but from the unlawful actions of Palestinian terrorists who embed military forces and infrastructure inside the schools.[iii]

Notably, the war, which began with the savagery of Palestinian terrorists on October 7, 2023, has severely affected the ability of Israeli students to access education, particularly for the children of the thousands displaced in southern and northern Israel by the indiscriminate attacks of Palestinian and Hezbollah terrorists.[iv]

[i] Brian L. Cox, Foreign Assistance Act Resolution and the Lex Specialis Rule, Articles of War, 10 Jan. 2024, https://lieber.westpoint.edu/foreign-assistance-act-resolution-lex-specialis-rule/ (“As the current edition of the U.S. Defense Department Law of War Manual observes, ‘the law of war, as the lex specialis of armed conflict, is the controlling body of law with regard to the conduct of hostilities and the protection of war victims.’…As the Manual suggests in a subsequent section, “during armed conflict, human rights treaties would clearly be controlling with respect to matters that are within their scope of application and that are not addressed by the law of war” (emphasis added). During the conduct of armed hostilities, then, human rights law could apply, but only in relation to conduct governed by this body of law and only if that conduct is not addressed by LOAC as the lex specialis that specifically regulates hostilities.”).

[ii] Steven Haines, Protecting Schools in Armed Conflict, Articles of War, 17 Jul. 2024, https://lieber.westpoint.edu/protecting-schools-armed-conflict/.

[iii] In addition to the UN schools found to contain tunnels, rockets, or other weapons, recent examples (during the month of July, alone) for which the IDF has identified and provided evidence for include: the Hassan Salame and Nasser schools in Gaza City, eliminating terrorists including Jaber Aziz, the commander of Hamas’s Al-Furqan Battalion; the Hamama school compound, a weapon manufacturing and storage site; the Dalal School being used as a hideout for Hamas commanders and operatives; the Khadija School, housing a Hamas command and control center; the Abu Oraiban School containing operational infrastructure used for attacks on Israeli forces; a weapons warehouse in a school in the Shejaiya area; the Al-Jaouni School where several terrorists were operating and which contained operational infrastructure; and the Alqahirah and Musa schools, which were used as hideouts and contained military infrastructure. See generally the Israel Defense Forces Telegram channel at https://t.me/idfofficial.

[iv] See, e.g., Gavriel Fiske & Stuart Winer, ‘It’s a bit stressful’: Schools in Sderot reopen after five months of war, Times of Israel, 3 Mar. 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/schools-in-sderot-reopen-after-five-months-of-war/.

False Claim # 45

Claimed Fact: “Palestinian citizens of Israel” (Throughout)

Actual Facts: Throughout the proposal, the authors refer to Arab citizens of Israel as “Palestinian citizens of Israel,” in spite of the fact that very few actually identify as “Palestinian.” Surveys consistently show that only a small minority define themselves primarily as “Palestinian.”[i] Instead, these surveys show most prefer to be referred to as “Arab-Israeli.”[ii] The disregard for how these people self-identify demonstrates the extent to which BDC is less interested in advocating for their well-being and more interested in exploiting them for a partisan agenda.

[i] Idan Zonshine, Only 7% of Israeli Arabs define themselves as 'Palestinian', Jerusalem Post, 21 Apr. 2020, https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/only-7-percent-of-israeli-arabs-define-themselves-as-palestinian-625285.

[ii] See X Post, Gilead Ini (@GileadIni), 10 May 2023, https://x.com/GileadIni/status/1656348815752871936 (listing and providing sources for numerous surveys on how Israel’s non-Jewish population identify themselves as).

Conclusion

Brown University, as one of the leading institutions of higher education in the world, has a moral and professional obligation to embrace and embody intellectual honesty. Instead of being led astray by the BDC, Brown decisionmakers must tangle with the facts, fully and accurately. Those, like the BDC, who so readily resort to dishonesty are not interested in the cause of peace. Propagandists, like the BDC, treat facts as devices to be manipulated, hidden, and disguised in service of partisan ends. Peacemakers work with the facts as they are, not as they wish them to be. Solutions based on lies will only perpetuate conflict and the accompanying harms. As the record shows, the BDC is not willing to engage honestly with the facts. Instead, it seeks to exploit Brown for purely partisan ends. If Brown University is to maintain its image and uphold its mission, it must reject BDC's bad faith ploy.

Submitted by:

David M. Litman

Senior Higher Education Analyst

Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA)

Kenneth S. Cohen

Brown University Class of 1971

Ellen Ginsberg Simon

Brown University Class of 2000

Willis J. Goldsmith

Brown University Class of 1969

Carol S. Greenwald, Ph.D

Brown University Class of 1965

Trustee Emeritus