The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement schism over the mapping of Boston Jewish and Zionist organizations deepened on Thursday when a faction of anti-Israel NGOs challenged BDS leadership with a joint statement in support of the controversial Mapping Project.
"We reject any attempts to isolate or ostracize segments of our movement that are doing this critical work, especially in the face of backlash and repression," the NGO faction said in support of the mapping database listing Boston Jewish and Zionist institutions and linking them to a network that included US media, police and government.
"No one in our movement has a monopoly on movement tactics, including BDS," the statement, co-signed by at least 21 NGOs, continued. "The work to uncover the relationship between policing, Zionism, and imperialism is critical movement work that should be uplifted."
View this post on Instagram
BDS ultimatum
The statement came in response to the BDS National Committee's (BNC) Wednesday rejection of the Mapping Project and its rhetoric supporting "resistance in all its forms." The BNC said that support for the project was in conflict with BDS affiliation, and reportedly issued an ultimatum to BDS Boston, the chief promoter and champion of the database.
The BNC allegedly demanded that BDS Boston cease promotion of the Mapping Project and issue a statement distancing itself from it, or else lose the right to use the BDS brand.
I have obtained a letter that @BDSmovement sent to @BDSBoston telling them to take down the Mapping Project from their social media or else "remove the BDS acronym from your name." "The association of the BDS name with such groups and activities hurts our entire movement." pic.twitter.com/czRYWFLjRL
— Aaron Bandler (@bandlersbanter) June 22, 2022
As of Sunday morning, BDS Boston had not removed its social media posts promoting the initiative, and shared the pro-map faction statement, though not signing onto it itself.
"BDS Boston continues to feel that the Mapping Project is an important source of information and useful organizing tool."
BDS Boston
Response by BDS affiliates
"BDS Boston continues to feel that the Mapping Project is an important source of information and useful organizing tool," the Boston BDS branch said Wednesday night not long after the BNC statement. "The Mapping Project is its own collective that works autonomously from BDS Boston."
We’ve received a lot of messages about the Mapping Project, so we want to issue a point of clarification for our followers: pic.twitter.com/4b5Qmua1Jo
— BDS Boston (@BDSBoston) June 22, 2022
Canadian BDS Coalition, defied the BNC and joined the pro-map faction, saying on Wednesday that "principled research that points out connections of imperialism and Zionism is so important for our movement."
One of the endorsers, Africa4Palestine, is a rebranded BDS affiliate from South Africa.
Other notable endorsers of the pro-map statement included the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Within Our Lifetime, National Students for Justice in Palestine, and Masar Badil.
Both Masar Badil and Samidoun are allegedly associated with the terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which stated its support for the Mapping Project on Friday.
"The Front considered that the state of panic that afflicted the Zionist organizations, which are trying to discredit and criminalize this project, reflects the confusion of the Zionist forces on the one hand, and the growing awareness of the existing relations between the police and the militarized security services in the United States, monitoring programs and support for Zionist colonialism in Palestine," said the PFLP.
Code Pink, a progressive women's NGO also came out in support of the database on Thursday.
"No one in our movement has a monopoly on movement tactics, including BDS."
NGO joint statement on the Mapping Project
Jewish groups concerned about Mapping Project
The Mapping Project, launched in early June, has been condemned by Boston Jewish groups as engaging in antisemitic tropes on Jewish wealth, control and conspiracies, blaming Jews and Zionists for all the perceived ills of the community. Critics have expressed concern that listing the location of Jewish and Zionist institutions while tying them to perceived evils could both enable and encourage violent attacks.
"The innocuously named 'Mapping Project' is promoting a list of Jewish communal organizations in Massachusetts that it contends are 'responsible for the colonization of Palestine or other harms such as policing, US imperialism and displacement,'" the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), Antidefamation League (ADL) New England, and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP) said in a joint statement on June 8.
"Virtually every Jewish organization in the Commonwealth, along with its leadership, is listed in this map along with the relationships of each to civic, governmental, university and other community organizations."
Dozens of US politicians have condemned the map, such as US senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who were also included in the database.
The FBI said it was tracking the Mapping Project on June 13. On Tuesday, 37 US congresspeople sent a letter to law enforcement heads calling for investigation, Jewish Insider revealed.