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Americans’ support for Palestine ‘too little, too late’

Wednesday, 02 December 2015 2:30 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 02 December 2015 8:43 AM ]

Palestinian artists paint the facade of a house in the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, on November 12, 2015. (Photos by AFP)

Support for Palestine by American groups and institutions, including the US National Women’s Studies Association, is “too little; too late,” says a Denver-based author, yet calling such moves “necessary.”

Richard Forer, the author of Breakthrough: Transforming Fear into Compassion, told Press TV on Tuesday that the group’s recent decision to join the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is “necessary” but does not stop him from being “pessimistic” about the situation in Palestine under the Israeli regime’s occupation.

The US National Women’s Studies Association announced last week that the decision was made after a 653-86 vote, conducted during the organization’s annual conference earlier this month.

Joining BDS “mobilizes public opinion,” Forer said, yet voicing doubts on whether it is actually going to bring about any real change, especially in the United States policy towards the conflict there.

Palestinians rush to help a demonstrator, wounded in the eye, during clashes with Israeli forces following a demonstration against Israeli occupation, in the Palestinian town of al-Bireh on the outskirts of Ramallah in the West Bank, on November 29, 2015.

“Israel has already consolidated so much of the (Palestinian) land under their control, so it’s a necessary movement for mobilizing the public consciousness but I’m not sure it’s going to have its intended effects, at least in my lifetime,” he said.

‘BDS should talk to US Jews’

Forer, a Jew himself, noted that the main target of the BDS movement in the US should be the Jewish community, many of whose members are “resistant” to the movement.

“There are a lot of Jewish people who are offended about what Israel does in their name… but there is possibly a far greater number, at least a lot of, more money in the hands of Jews to support Israel,” he noted.

*Demonstrators march to protest the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of the White House November 9, 2015 in Washington, DC.*

“The BDS movement needs greater support. The leaders of the BDS movement do need to reach out to greater segments of society… (especially those) that are not involved in Israel-Palestine (issues). I’m talking about spiritual seekers and people who don’t know who to believe.”

The supporters of the movement are “small in numbers,” Forer said, however, noting that BDS was “growing.”

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