Israel Matzav

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Travel day

Today is a travel day once again - by the time you see this I will have left the San Diego airport heading for this place.

Let's go to the videotape.

I will be there only briefly. Very quick connection to another flight to.... Hmmm.

Labels: Los Angeles, personal stuff, travel

Sunday, October 19, 2014

LA hotel won't exclude Israelis in compliance with academic boycott

As you might recall, the American Studies Association has implemented an academic boycott of Israelis. The group is holding its annual meeting at the Los Angeles Westin Bonaventure Hotel and the Washington Post reported last week that, in compliance with the group's wishes, the hotel planned to exclude Israelis from staying at the hotel during the meeting.

In early November, the American Studies Association will be having its annual meeting at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. Per the ASA’s recently adopted policy, Israeli academics will be subject to unique exclusionary restrictions based on their national origin.

The use of a public accommodation for such a discriminatory event has led a civil rights group to warn the hotel that hosting the conference could violate California’s civil rights laws. The Unruh Civil Rights Act provides that “no business establishment of any kind whatsoever shall discriminate against, boycott or blacklist, or refuse to buy from, contract with, sell to, or trade with any person in this state on account of” national origin and other characteristics. It also extends liability to those who “aid or incite” a denial or rights under the law.

I am not an expert on the application of California’s anti-discrimination laws, but the notion that a public accommodation cannot host an event that itself violates the law would at least seem consistent with the text of the statute. I also happen to generally disfavor anti-discrimination laws on, among other things, First Amendment (free association) grounds, but unfortunately for the ASA, these arguments do not fare well in courts.

The ASA’s argument that it does not bar Israelis, but only Israelis who attend as representatives of their academic institutions, will not likely help them much, as the normal way for academics to attend academic conferences is as representatives of their institutions. In any case, this argument amounts to saying the ACA is not discriminating as much as they could have, which is not an advisable defense in discrimination cases.

But even the International Tennis Federation eventually got it. And so did the ASA. They've backed off.

Professor Kontorovich’s blog post apparently got under the skin of the ASA, as it wrote to Prof. Kontorovich claiming that there was no boycott of any individuals whatsoever, as Prof. Kontorovich describes in a follow up post, ASA pretends to partially drop Israel boycott:

The ASA’s executive director, John Stephens, wrote to me demanding a correction, claiming that my description of their policy was entirely “false.” Stephens claims that despite the boycott

Our conference is open to anyone, including Israeli academics and non-academics. If someone were to register for the conference as a representative of an Israeli institution, he or she would not be turned away.
* * *
Stephens went on to write that:

[The ASA] does not bar Israelis, it does not bar Israeli institutions. Prime Minister Netanyahu can attend if he wants to.
But their very own policy makes clear that it excludes Israeli institutions and their “representatives,” as well as those of the “Israeli government,” of which Netanyahu would be a prime example.
As Prof. Kontorovich further demonstrates, since the ACLJ letter, the ASA has added language to its policy (indicated by an asterisk):

Heh. Read the whole thing.

Labels: American Studies Association, BDS, constitution, Los Angeles

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

#BDS_Fail: BDS'ers cause Port of Oakland to lose business to LA

For the second time in recent weeks, a ship owned by an Israeli company was prevented from unloading at the Port of Oakland (California). But this time, instead of circling around until it could sneak in, the ship sailed for the Port of Los Angeles, arriving on Tuesday morning. If this works out, Zim may use Los Angeles, rather than Oakland as a port of call, which could result in a loss of jobs in a very hard-hit port.

The Zim Shanghai docked in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, according to tracking by the website marinetraffic.com. It was still carrying its original cargo.

The ship, which is owned by Zim Integrated Shipping Services, Israel’s largest shipping company, was unable to unload Saturday after some 200 activists prevented workers at the Oakland Port from getting near the ship. Approximately 50 police officers were on hand but did not intervene.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union released a statement saying, “The ILWU is not among the groups organizing the protests, and the leadership and membership of the ILWU have taken no position on the Israel/Gaza conflict.”

Staytuned....

Labels: BDS, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco