Transnational Activism is a much welcomed and sophisticated addition to the literature on social movements generally and solidarity with Palestinians specifically. Maia Carter Hallward describes four distinct manifestations of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the U.S. and demonstrates that pro- and anti-BDS activists operate with competing conceptions of peace and justice. Each chapter in the book discusses an individual case: (1) Code Pink's “Stolen Beauty” campaign targeting cosmetics that profit from the occupation of Palestinian territories, (2) the University of California at Berkeley's Student Government Divestment Bill, (3) Olympia Food Co-op's boycotting and de-shelving efforts, and (4) the Presbyterian Church's divestment from U.S. companies that directly benefit from the Israeli Occupation. The four campaigns are distinct, with different institutional cultures, values, and memberships.
This point provides the conceptual tools to problematize the counter-critique of anti-BDS voices, which portray BDS activism as a transnational “movement” with many tentacles, insidiously bringing anti-Semitism through the back door while deploying the discourse of human rights and international law. Transnational Activism recognizes this pattern of argumentation in the four cases examined and concludes that pro- and anti-BDS activists operate with competing conceptions of peace and justice. The first is grounded in a human rights paradigm, and the second in a dialogue paradigm.
Further scholarly investigation is needed to move beyond this descriptive observation to an analysis of the implications of the supposed incompatibility of these two paradigms. This difficult task requires researchers to recognize the instrumental and cynical use of the accusation of anti-Semitism or self-hate but also to take seriously the phenomenon of anti-Semitism and the instrumentalization of the human rights discourse itself. Transnational Activism only flirts with this important discussion. However, it provides an important conceptual intervention more broadly in social movement literature on collective action transnationally.
Hallward's connection of the peace and conflict literature on nonviolent resistance (especially her discussion of Gene Sharp's work) with a discussion of social movement theorizing is certainly the most profound contribution of this book. The author could have gone further in challenging and expanding the theoretical scope of the discussion on collective action as it relates to consumer boycotts and spent less space documenting microscopic details and interviewing activists in each campaign. Although the testimonies of interviewees from all four campaigns add personal texture to the analysis, the repetition of the take-away issues in each case diminished their impact. The reader is left wishing for more conceptual unpacking than the book provides.
In analyzing each BDS campaign, Hallward illuminates the contestability of the discourse within which each group operates and which informs the debates surrounding boycotting and divestment efforts. The question of Jewish identity and its contestability is threaded throughout each campaign, with a careful consideration of the forcefulness of the label of anti-Semitism as well as how Jewish white privilege plays out in the deliberations surrounding each BDS campaign. The four cases all include Jewish actors, whether as full participants or as supportive “certifying” interlocutors. The question of Jewish identity and its contestability is a crucial point needing further development and contextualization because it intersects in profound ways with the primary focus of Palestine transnational work to change the prevailing narratives about the conflict.
The success of nonviolent resistance, as many scholars and activists have noted, hinges on generating empathy, outrage, and recognition in third parties of their own complicity in some evil (in this case, the Occupation, by way of consumerism and investment). But as Hallward rightly argues, the impact of each instance of activism does not necessarily need to be measured in terms of bringing a significant economic challenge to Israel. Rather, the aim of each campaign is to challenge the legitimacy of a particular Zionist narrative and make audible silenced Palestinian narratives. This point conveys the importance of cultural and contextual sensitivities in imagining an effective counter-narrative. The efforts of BDS campaigns are threatening precisely because they challenge the narrative and image of Israel, which explains why Israel has launched, as Transnational Activism mentions, a rebranding campaign portraying itself as friendly to gay rights and environmental concerns. Hallward brings to life effective counter-discourses through concrete examples of focused efforts to boycott or divest. She captures the voices of activists and reflects analytically on patterns of debates as they unfold within a specific context. In this regard, an explicit discussion of Orientalism could have been beneficial. Still, Transnational Activism offers an impressive interpretive frame that illuminates the complexity of the BDS “movement” as well as transnational solidarity activism more broadly.
