Panel Video: How Now BDS? Media, Politics and Queer Activism

[Earlier, Jadaliyya Reports re-published critical statements (see here and here) in responses to the NY LGBT Center's decision to cancel the "Party to End Apartheid." Below is a brief description and the video of a panel ("How Now BDS?") organized by Adalah-NY as part of Israel Aparthied Week, wherien Judith Butler and John Greyson also address the NY LGBT Center's decision.]

Video: How Now BDS? Media, Politics and Queer Activism

A conversation with John Greyson and Judith Butler, moderated by Jasbir Puar.

This event was held on March 11 at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan, as part of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) in NYC. John Greyson, Judith Butler and Jasbir Puar discussed new forms of activism in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, focusing on both the cultural and academic boycott and the importance of queer BDS activism in Palestine and elsewhere. "How Now BDS" centered on how BDS is done now, and what must still be done. The panelists also discussed the NYC LGBT Center’s controversial decision to cancel the IAW event “Party to End Apartheid,” and to ban the event organizers Siegebusters from holding its meetings there.

Judith Butler is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, and numerous other works. She is also active in gender and sexual politics and human rights, anti-war politics, and Jewish Voice for Peace.

John Greyson is a Toronto video artist/filmmaker whose features, shorts and installations include Fig Trees, Proteus, and Lilies. He is an associate professor in Film at York University.

Jasbir Puar is professor of Women's & Gender Studies at Rutgers University, the author of Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times , and a board member of the Audre Lorde Project. She has written on Israel’s strategy of “pinkwashing,” exploiting Israel's gay community to improve Israel's international image.

This year marked the 7th Annual International Israeli Apartheid Week and the 5th year that IAW was held in NYC.