Burlington BDS January 2024 Explainer

You should know about what you might've signed and what it's telling the Jewish community.

Hi friends! I hope the dawning new year is treating you well.

I know that for many of you, like me, this is a harrowing time to be human.

I want to make sure that Vermonters have clarity on an urgent issue for Burlington’s public safety this January in hopes that when it is discussed it is done so with accuracy regardless of your position.

This summer a group of activists collected petitions in front of the Burlington Farmers Market in hopes of forcing the City Council to consider a ballot measure on the “BDS” movement. BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, & Sanction and its goal is to bankrupt the State of Israel.

If this group gets more signatures than 5% of Burlington’s voting population it will go before the council and force another ugly and divisive city council meeting. This will likely happen this January. It will almost definitely involve many hours of public comment on foreign policy, displacing most city business for another two weeks as happened during the ceasefire resolution meeting this November, and the previous BDS meeting in September 2021.

It’s important to know that BDS is not a referendum on the Netanyahu administration. It’s not an opportunity to stop the war. It will not bring peace.

Bringing this petition before the city council is a problem for a few reasons, but two stand out for me:

1. The Burlington City Council is elected to protect Burlington. It is a tireless job for which they are paid a sum total of $5k/year to manage the city. All of our councilors have run, and continue to run, on improving public safety.

This ballot measure will have no impact on the war. It will have a seriously negative impact on our community’s safety. A third city council meeting of hours of protesters shouting anti-Israel rhetoric into the microphone, is not a good use of the city council’s time. Particularly when we have major crises happening right here on housing, substance use, affordability, and climate action that we need movement on.

2. BDS is antisemitic. It is defined as antisemitic by the Anti-Defamation League. Here’s the why. BDS is not a set of benchmarks, metrics, or even values on human rights. BDS is simply targeted at the Jewish state. If Israel made every possible concession, the BDS punishments would still apply. The crime they seek to punish is being the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, other countries with clear and well-documented human rights violations, like China and Russia, are not being held to account by BDS. BDS is a coordinated effort to economically destroy Israel alone, regardless of its actions, and no other state is held to account, regardless of their actions. Singling out Israel, just because it’s Jewish, is antisemitic.

If you want to make a procurement policy that holds all countries to the same standard, as was done by Cambridge, MA, I could support that.

I’ve had several friends express mortification that this is what they signed. I think many people intended to sign something positive for suffering Palestinian people. This measure does not do anything positive for anyone. It is a weapon against Israel.

If you signed the petition, and you are not comfortable with the above, please use the link below to ask the City Clerk to remove your name from the petition. This can and should be done right away to be effective.

Review & Send Email to City Clerk Removing Your Name from the Petition

Regardless of if you’ve signed, if you’d like to stay up to date on efforts to support the Jewish community during this unfolding crisis you can subscribe to the Jewish Action listerv.