Last week Naomi Klein, a Canadian writer, political activist and an internationally prominent speaker for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel (BDS), published a vitriolic response to an interview I gave on CBC/Radio-Canada, in which I mentioned her name as a one of the few significant individuals living in Toronto that promote Israel’s delegitimization. This response turned into an angry exchange published on a U.S.-based blog. In her most recent response, Klein really went beyond the pale raising a set of arguments and accusations that range from the ridiculous to the un-based.
I decided not to respond directly to Klein’s claims about our document, as ALL of them are covered in FAQ’s Reut published in English about our document. Actually, these FAQs were published even before we released the full English version of our document, which suggests that either Klein didn’t read the document in full, or read it but chose to ignore those parts that didn’t support her claims.
Naomi Klein herself is largely insignificant in light of the greater phenomena at work. In an op-ed I published in Haaretz, I took Naomi Klein as a metaphor to unravel the core of a broader dynamic – “Kleinism,” if you will – which damages the quest for a two-state solution.
Comments will be more than welcome.
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I read her last response to you. She raises valid questions regarding your accusation of her as a delegitimizer.
Specifically, your evidence did include a paper that she wrote for the campus newspaper when she was 19 – come on! And your ‘proof’ that she calls for a one-state solution was indeed taken out of context. Also, I found myself agreeing with her argument that a boycott should be used on those cases where it could actually work. She did not say, as you suggested, that Israel is the “only country” for which it can work.
All in all, I started favoring your side, but now I actually think she is not the demon you made her to be.
Due to the Passover vacation, my response arrives with a delay, but I thank you for your considered comments.
I would like to respond to the arguments you raise, although – as I recently argued in my Haaretz piece – the real issue is a core phenomenon that Naomi Klein represents, whereas she as an individual is actually peripheral to the main point.
Even if Klein don’t like a specific reference I used in my piece, it is actually only one out of few sources that I quoted in support of my argument; Moreover, even without this source, there are numerous sources that support my arguments:
In regards to the central claim I make pointing to Klein’s demonization of Israel – the examples I provide could be easily replaced by innumerous sources in which Klein compares Israel with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
I read the article you both mention about the one state solution over and over again, and truely I don’t see why my quote is out of context. The whole paragraph actually strengthen my point.
The argument, proposed by Klein and that you support, promoting BDS tactics on the basis that they could prove effective when levied against Israel reflects a simplistic, artificial view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The logic is fallacious unless you assume that BDS could settle the constitutional deadlock within the Palestinian Authority, contribute to a Hamas-Fatah unity that would enable the Palestinians to speak in one voice, change Hamas’s declared goal to bring about the destruction of the State of Israel, ensure the establishment of an agreed-upon ratification mechanism on the Palestinian side, stop the smuggling of arms into Gaza, annual the security threat the Israelis face, etc. If these eventualities reflect your analysis, well, now it’s who has lost me.
Isolating Israel through BDS reflects a one-sided and highly biased worldview that fails to take into consideration the manifest complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and problematic dynamics on the Palestinian side in terms of Hamas’s control of Gaza and the absence of formal ratification procedures
Klein’s argument that she did not say Israel is the only country in which BDS can actually work is interesting, especially given her op-ed (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel) in the Guardian, in which she explains exactly that. A “flat out lie” by Klein.
In summary, if you had read my latest piece in Haaretz, you would have understood that I have no intention of demonizing Klein as a person, but to denounce the phenomenon that she represents – a phenomenon that I truly believe to be destructive to a two-state solution and antithetical to the ultimate goal of achieving peace between the two sides.