Boycotting Israel? There’s an App for That
According to a press announcement:
[The Boycott Toolkit] is a resource where users can generate lists of specific products and companies targeted for boycotts. Right now, the site lists a raft of wines, food products, and cosmetics made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights. The site also lists the locations of stores that sell each product.
The official Arab League boycott that began in 1950 is illegal per U.S. law, though this is not enforced.
The Boycott Toolkit site also calls for a boycott of Arizona over that state’s new immigration law, and a boycott of companies that “advertise on air during Glenn Beck’s right wing Fox News talk show.”
Levinger says of his product:
[It is] a platform for consumers to share information on the politics embedded in the products that they then buy. Users can learn why specific products are targeted by a boycott, add their own research and share information with their friends.
…
[The Boycott Toolkit] provides tools to organize collective economic action, both negative and positive, to make a difference in their community.
The announcement of Levinger’s internet tool was greeted with much enthusiasm by groups like Al Awda — the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, which just held its 8th International Organizing Conference at the Anaheim, CA, Hilton last weekend. One of the guest speakers was a Palestinian previously jailed by Israel for terrorism activities. The group, which calls for Israel to be dismantled from the river to the sea, has been enthusiastically emailing its members and affiliates regarding Levinger’s application.
I don’t care what his name is or the fact that Hebrew blood flows through his veins, this guy is NO Jew. He will regret his perfidy one day, that I am sure of.
Unfortunately, yes he is. No less so than these guys. http://www.nkusa.org/
Am I to infer from the tone of this article, that conservatives are in favor of the free market, so long as you only purchase goods and services that they find politically palatable?
Any “boycott Israel” app is equally useful as a “support Israel” app. It is one of the paradoxes of logic that a person who always lies is just as reliable as a source of truth as a person who always tells the truth. That is why truly pernicious lies are always mixed with elements of truth, and it is a mistake to assume that *everything* a lying enemy says is wrong.
Be careful using logic and reason #2 Richard, it will bring about tortured rationalities that will invariably end up in the pages of old testament.
Sorry to disappoint you, Alex– you should listen in, too, Richard–no torture or old testament involved at all.
You see, one of the things I like best about the free market is the free part. The part that gives me the freedom to purchase only goods and services that I find to be . . . yep . . . pollitically palatable.
Alex,
Are you willing to be so outspoken on the tortured rationalities that are based on the Quran?
Richard,
so you’d have no problem with an App that let potential employers, landlords, etc. know exactly what kind of psychologically twisted tool Levinger is?
Jewish history is unfortunately dotted with Jews like Levinger who so cravenly sought love, acceptance and approval from their oppressors that they ended up turning on their own community.
Fixed this for you: Modern Western history is unfortunately dotted with liberals like Levinger who so cravenly sought love, acceptance and approval from their oppressors that they ended up turning on their own community.
“Self-hatred” is a misnomer: this is (as you and Ronnie rightly point out, albeit not in these words) a textbook case of malignant narcissism.
Of course, any “boycott” app is also a “buycott” app…
Self interest. Goes all the way back to Flavius Josephus and beyond. Think of the prestige and publicity!!
I’d hate to give this guy money by buying his app, but…
wouldn’t his app also be an excellent way to identify products made in Israel so that you could BUY them in order to support the Israeli economy (and nation)?
I’m just saying…be kinda funny if the thing got used that way given what a dipstick the creator of it is.
Exactly. Even w/o this idiots softwear, it’s quite simple to identify products made in Israel. Just do a search on line and you’ll pull up lots of links. And when you buy products from Israel, thank the business for carrying the product.
Excellent! Going to grab this app and make an extra effort to buy things on his “boycott” list.
Thanks Josh!
So, is there an APP for goods produced in Paleostinian/Arab/any other muslim country to boycott? Oh wait, muslim countries don’t produce anything but jihadis. Oh, and oil produced by non-muslims.
Drill Here, Drill Now, Drill Baby Drill
I’d use his app as a shopping list. I’ve no dog in that fight, but I do know where my sympathies lie.
It’s come full circle, we now have anti-Jewish boycotts promoted by the left.
Book burnings to follow. Ironic, Israel has emerged as a world leader in software and high tech innovations. A Jewish student attending a pre-eminent technology institution wants the world to boycott these innovators. Yeah, I know, its just the West Bank he wants to boycott…sure.
I am sure it will provide a competitive advantage to all those high tech innovators in the Arab world.
Yes, a university with such intellect as Chomsky…
There’s no more evidence of a proper siege than there is that Israel has committed genocide. The numbers just aren’t consistent with those claims. Levinger also conveniently forgets that Gaza has a border with Egypt, not just with Israel. Is he proposing a boycott of Egypt? They won’t boycott anything of Israeli origin if it might inconvenience them (that Intel CPU in their laptop, for example). That makes Levinger and his kind hypocrites. Here’s the latest tally of what went through the “siege” of Gaza (from IsraelNationalNews):
Palestinian Authority residents of Gaza received more than 13,000 tons of humanitarian aid last week via the various crossings from Israel, according to the IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (CoGAT).
A total of 619 trucks bearing 13,593 tons of supplies delivered various foods and other goods into the region. Among the supplies provided were 76 truckloads of fruits and vegetables, 27 truckloads of wheat, 34 truckloads of meat, chicken and fish products, 45 truckloads of dairy products, 16 trucks of sugar, 50 trucks of clothing and shoes, and 37 truckloads of hygiene products.
In addition, 114 truckloads of animal feed were transferred via the conveyor at the Karni Crossing.
At the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, 1,461,000 liters of diesel fuel were pumped into the region’s tanks for the power station, while an additional 293,796 liters of diesel fuel were pumped in for transportation purposes. Also, 44,704 liters of gasoline and 919 tons of cooking gas were transferred via the fuel terminal as well.
Traffic was brisk at the Erez Crossing as well: 378 medical patients and their escorts crossed into Israel from Gaza to obtain medical treatment, including those who continued on to Judea and Samaria. An additional 111 PA Arab residents of Gaza entered Israel for various other reasons as well, as did 231 staff members of international aid organizations. Meanwhile, 160 international staff members entered Gaza, also through the Erez terminal.
Raymond in DC.
You want to use a rational argument with irrational people? These people are impervious to facts, this is a mental condition, a kind of psychological pathology. This guy is no different than the Muslim lunatics he supports. They don’t care about reality, they live in a distorted world that exists only in their own heads. I’m originally from an Arab country & I used to argue all the time, using facts, logic, etc. to no avail – the only result when they couldn’t answer was to become even more enraged. Now that I live in Israel, I’ve had occasion to debate with Leftists here, guess what? Same result as with Muslim fanatics. These people are hopeless.
there is no rational argument, but there are rational steps to take. cripple hezbullah. paralyze iran. and if syria doesn’t like it, carpet bomb damascus. these are the only appropriate responses to the sh*t we have to listen to and put up with daily. and you know where this is going to go unless it is stopped dead in its tracks.
That is why liberalism is a mental disorder.
Michael Savage wrote a book about it.
Raymond,
you can read about aid trucks going into Gaza at the http://www.idfspokesperson.com site as well.
Well, this adds credibility to the rumor that the SS had a special unit made up of Jews during WWII. Seems like the Jews try to take all sides of every argument or position possible, and they will make one up if necessary.
Does the Bar Mitza involve a whack over the head?
Richard, my only regret is that I would have no other use for anything made by Apple than to run this ap…
… so I would know what to buy to support Israel.
And, I’m an atheistic pagan. Neither Christian nor Jew.
I am a conservative and a free marketer and a Jewish lady. I will support those in the private sector who also believe in free markets and say no to government hand-outs. The most recent example is that I will never buy GM or Chrysler products again. If the government gets out of the automotive industry, I may reconsider that decision.
So Richard, the answer to your question is Yes, free marketers support and buy from those companies whose economic and political policies are in the “Right” place and you can interpret that in all ways…
Didn’t you know that no loyal Jew bought any German car for about 50 years, post WW II? Wasn’t that economic payback for the atrocities of the Holocaust? Get real …. the FREE marketplace rewards and penalizes for all sorts of reasons… if the marketplace is government-controlled, then we are forced to support all sorts of bad products and bad policies… and that includes health-care…
My father and I still won’t buy German cars. I’m 50. I worked for a Taiwanese businessman for 12 years that to this day won’t buy Japanese cars.
Some of us still remember history and honor its victims. Some don’t.
You can say what you want, these boycotts have real effects. The existing laws of this country should be enforced where such nonsense is not allowed.
How in the world do you enforce a law against a boycott? Hey, you’re not buying that product! Buy it or you’re under arrest! Pretty sure that’s as unconstitutional as Obamacare. Besides, most boycotts do not work.
Wonderful. Some putz Sonderkommando doing this?
As for Jews not buying German cars, I lost a friend over this: He was upset that I bought a (very used) Mercedes….while he continued to buy Stoli vodka…
Lenin had a name for such … people. Mine is useLESS idiots.
Thanks, Doc. I learned someting new today. I had to look it up, but now I know the meaning of sonderkommando. (I shudder.)
A kapo/sonderkommando this boy is.
16. H. Bowman, MD
Wonderful. Some putz Sonderkommando doing this?
Dr. Bowman,
It’s disrespectful to the Sonderkommandos to compare them to a self-loather like Levinger. The Sonderkommandos had no choice, they were forced to do that job. The few who survived were permanently warped by the experience.
I think it’d be more appropriate to compare Levinger to a kapo. The Kapos, concentration camp trustees who often beat other prisoners, served the Nazis and harmed their fellow Jews out of selfish desires.
OK, point taken.
Ronnie: as I wrote above, scratch a “self-loather” and reveal a malignant narcissist who thinks everybody would give him the adulation he so craves (“narcissistic supply”) if only it weren’t for the accident of their birth. Those of us who happen to share that accident of birth then become the targets of “narcissistic rage”.
These people don’t hate themselves: they WORSHIP themselves (just like the payaso currently inhabiting 1600 Penn does).
This should be an interesting application. First on the list what not to buy or possess is the computer running the program (internal ICs). Then the application should say “discard computer”.
Definitely going to participate in this buy-cot
All my life I have heard how superior in intellect the Jews are. Except for a few individuals, I don’t find this to be true. Maybe we are confusing Jews in general with the Jews of Israel.
FYI the media center at MIT which this kid studies is chaired by none other than noam chompsky. Go figure.
Nope, Danny, the head of the Media Lab is Nicholas Negroponte. Chomsky is at MIT, but in Linguistics.
Levinger apparently suffers from Stockholm Syndrome. He loves those who hate him.
I’m going to buy myself some Carmel wine. That’s my answer to this self-hating creep.
4. Ronnie Schreiber;
Yes i am outspoken in all cases of nonsense and illogic. However since this article is written regarding the boycott of Israeli made products it seemed LOGICAL to stick with the context of the article. Maybe others should try this approach as well.
How can a boycott of any product, or nation be illegal per US law..? If such law exists, of course it cannot be enforced. It violates the basic core of the Constitution.
Who cares if people buy this APP and boycott Israeli made products..? is Israel so weak that it cannot overcome this, but has overcome 50 years of boycotting by the Arab
League..? Ive lived in Israel in early 1980′s. I don’t remember any weaklings.
The only thing that occurs when mountains are made of molehills is advertising the product and promoting it for free.
Congratulations.
As usual Kaplan brings a wealth of knowledge to his writing. No one knows more about the ISM than he does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4VAz6yuNkc&feature=player_embedded
I just find it ironic that someone sent me this 2 days before reading this article
Great video.
The facts are wrong:
Israel provides Gaza with all vital foods and medicine and hospilize the sicks from Gaza in its hospitals.
Also, People of Gaza can come and go through the Egyptian borderwith Gaza twice a week.
One should not forget that Israel is in a state of war with Gaza.
Is the American army in Afganistan provides the Taliban and Ben Laden with the same itemes Israel sends to Gaza every week?
I should have read further before posting. This goy has learned from you both.
That great soul should refrain from using his laptop and cell phone since the involved technologies were developed in Israel …
He is a cretin for sure
Here’s an idea, why don’t the pro-israel groups create an app about the truth of the Gaza blockade and list Israeli products so that ppl can buy them without having to use the Boycott app. Everytime someone downloads that kapos app he gets money. How about a BUYCOTT app.
Thanks for the coverage, guys.
Because this site is open to all contributors, you can start a “support israel” campaign if you want to showcase the wonderful exports of our people’s state. The web application is entirely free, open source and open content. You can log in with a Facebook account, or register directly in 10 seconds. I do ask for an email address, so I can contact you later to conduct research; this is an academic project after all.
Just for clarification, the Media Lab is corporate funded, and not supported by taxpayers other than as part of the larger Institute. Frank Moss is the current director, not Nicholas Negroponte or Noam Chomsky. On the question of the legality of the site, my lawyers at Harvard have indicated to me that this is entirely within political free speech exemptions granted under US export law. Oh, and the Sonderkommando and Kapo comments are a low blow, demonstrating Godwin’s law in less than an hour. Can’t we disagree and stay civil?
Hey Josh..
Good Work…I love a independent mind. Josh..can you review my computing project?
What I am going to do is submit your name to the FBI..your ignorance and naivete is a vast resource, beyond your comprehension and it should be exploited. During your ISM indoctrination I am just sure in all your gullibility you were talking to some bonafide murderers and terrorists, perhaps we can pin a charge of aiding and abetting terrorists on you? By writing some legal software to exploit the gaps your data base…lets it
call it Suburban Moron vol 1.0 we can get you on a few no fly lists, then work up to passport revocation…and perhaps just perhaps a day in court and then a jail cell with real muslims who will kick your teeth in. Hey I can dream cant I?
Josh
Your “idealism” is impressive..and I am sure you recognize that the fight for
“social justice” requires sacrifices..right? You can take as a hero fellow ISM’er Richard David Hupper ISMs star Moron of the Month. Rich
gave gave $20,000 to Hamas..and sadly was sentenced to 31/2 years in jail.
An inspiring story for us all, both you and me. Win-Win right Josh?
Josh, is Hamas “civil” when it shoots rockets at kindergartens? Google search
Afik Zahavi.
To Josh Levinger:
Josh, MIT is taxpayer funded. Your corporate funding is supplemental. But thanks for the heads up because now we will contact your corporate sponsors about all this. At issue, Josh, is have you read the Hamas Charter? It calls for annihilation of all the world’s Jews, not just Israelis. READ IT and ask mommy and daddy who subsidized your trips among Jew killers making you one of the most traveled students in the world. How clever you must feel, having found a way to further aid those who would starve children in Israel. I find your pedantic comment about Godwin’s Law ridiculous since you aid Hamas. For God’s sake, grow up. You are not advancing “peace” but helping Hamas use “peace” as a deception to murder Jews and destroy Israel. And Gaza isn’t starving either, but I’m sure that matters not to you.I urge readers here to write to MIT’s chancellor or president and to Josh’s corporate sponsors about what this litte Jewish-American prince does with their money and name. In a word: DISGUSTING.
Slight correction – MIT isn’t taxpayer funded. It’s been a private institute of technology since 1865. Trust me, or rather my parents that paid much more than if I had gone to a state school. Sure, its spinoff enterprises get a fair number of defense contracts, but the school’s endowment is funded by 145 years of private donations.
Meanwhile, my friends and I are using this site to pursue our own campaign to boycott opponents of gay marriage in California. It is an open platform – use it as you will.
As many here will use your list to oppose proponents of gay marriage at your invitation. In addition, we will use your list to further our holdings in those you oppose.
At the end of days, your list will have obtained you nothing.
Carry on…
Ooh, goodie you read Orwell. You like to take on the mantel of the hurt and defamed tuning reality on its head. When you project lies that lead to the death of others you are not entitled to respect never mind civility. This is not a poltiical exercise in voting rights what you promote is death. Those that help in the murder of their own people are traitors and are called to account.You don’t like others reactions to you too bad. How nice you have Harvard trained lawyers is that supposed to scare people or give you some validity? Believe me it only adds to the notion of your pomposity and self-indulgent self-righteousness.
Terrific!
Now I will be able to get a comprehensive list of Israeli products that I WILL buy and that I will ask, urge or demand my vendors to carry.
P.S. Thanks for all those links. They need monitoring — if you don’t want to join ‘em, you have to beat ‘em.
Josh Levinger
Do show people the proper example.
Also, do yourself a favor – avoid Israeli medical equipment. And be sure to check your medicine.
A Jewish MIT graduate student involved with the International Solidarity Movement has developed software to help anti-Israel activists know what not to buy.
The International Solidarity Movement is the group that recruited Rachel Corrie, a naive 20 something American Jewish girl, to come on over and wave off the Israeli bulldozer as it was destroying smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza.
After using Rachel Corrie for their anti-Israel agenda, ISM used her some more, as a martyr. Then, naturally, the American Left picked up the theme, completely mis-representing the true story of how and why Rachel Corrie died.
Levinger et al. are perhaps more despicable than HAMAS, couching the agenda in pedantic gobbleygook.
Why do they seem so fond of Jewish canon fodder?
ISM intentionally recruits Jews.
In the case of Rachel Corrie, I recollect reading that she could move about & gain access more easily. At the time of her débacle in Gaza, Israel had not exited the territory.
Besides the violent arm of Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda etc., there is the parallel agenda of bringing economic ruination to the enemy, as regards ISM, to Israel. (As regards Al Qaeda and copious adjunct organizations throughout the world, obviously NYC is a major economic symbol they wish to bring to its knees.)
It sounds like the ISM is using the MIT student in service to that arm of its agenda.
Apostates have always been the bane of Jews, often establishing the utterly false circumstances that have led to death, expulsions, and generally consequences expected to be beneficial to them. Self-centredness drives the apostates, the Palestinians, and by and large all aggressive sons of Ishmael who have been indoctrinated into the illiterate would-be prophet’s ways.
If this guy is really serious about boycotting Israel he and his followers should discard the cellphones they use to run the app, becuase the cellphone was originally developed in Israel, they can’t use their PCs for it either, because all Intel CPUs are developed, for the most part, in Intel-Israel and are made in Israel.
Besides being self-efacing, these guys are kind of self-defeating too…
that is a great point. and you could take it even further: the reason little Josh never got polio and was able to live a healthy life hating Jews was because of the vaccine invented by a Jew. you could go on and on. but logic is not what these people respond to.
And you use the number zero because…?
Moslems are one of the least inventive people in history, they get credit for introducing ideas as their own, but they actually got “zero” from India, and navigation from the Axumite Empire (Ethiopian Christians). “Medicine”? From India and the Jews.
Hey Josh,
What a privilege – the author of his own destruction visiting the board. Kind of like a virtual autograph for PJM, before the jump from the bridge?
Have you enjoyed your 15 minutes of fame – even if infamous?
But there’s a sad truth as the end as predictable as the sun rising in the east. You are but one of many in the cast of fools who believing themselves clever, later experienced that not only were they useful idiots on the wrong side of the equation, but their reputation in tatters once dragged from the darkness into the light. Real truth eventually wins out.
Once your “new friends” at the university are through using you and have determined you have outlived your usefulness, expect to find yourself without ally in every direction you turn. I’m afraid your introduction to fame will end in the finale of abject failure. The pity at such a young age.
Speaking of boycotts, I recommend this one…
http://www.boycottscotland.com
It’s all about the release of the bomber of Pan Am 103, on “compassionate” grounds, but in reality due to the british, “uk”ish PASSION for libyan oil contracts.
I just sent this guy an email, thanking him for the handy shopping list that will make it so much easier to purchase Israeli products.
what a POS.
Josh Levinger-
I encourage you to send a letter to the President of the USA, summoning him to ban using UAV.
Although this is a human life-saving technology, it’s full of Zionist know-how and hi-tech. Israel pioneered this specific field.
No decent American should owe his or her life to Israeli products, however intelligent these may be.
To all:
For a complete list of corporate sponsors of MIT’s Media Lab that provided
Josh Levinger with the chance to assist Hamas and starve Jews in Israel go
to: http://www.media.mit.edu/sponsorship/sponsor-list
Anyone disturbed by this article can write these corporations and suggest boycotting them for funding this precious little Jewish boy for Hamas. Copy all correspondence to the head of the University as well.
I think a new word for Jewish vernacular should be to Levinger someone. Definition: to assist anti-Semites to destroy fellow Jews. Example:
He levingered the Jews in Israel for Hamas…Think it might stick?
Lee, I like your writing except for the last part. Levinger is also an honorable name, as in Rabbi Levinger of Israel who stood up for Jews’ right to settle in all of their historic homeland. Unfortunately, THIS Levinger isn’t part of that honorable family.
Response also posted to:
http://jlev.media.mit.edu/Projects/BoycottToolkitPajamasResponse
This article makes several accusations against me, my project the Boycott Toolkit, and my political motivations. The piece by Lee Kaplan of ISMWatch, and the comments that follow it, border on slander and are indicative of the lack of civil discourse on several right-wing blogs. While it would give undue credence to their argument to respond in kind, I cannot let the article go unanswered.
While the author clearly took time to read through my work website and personal blog, he makes several factual errors.
- The Boycott Toolkit is part of my Master’s Thesis at the MIT Media Lab. I am not a Ph.D. candidate.
- The conference I attended in Amman (Mobile Data Collection for Social Action in Iraq and the Middle East) was in December 2009, and was sponsored by UNICEF and MobileActive.org
- The event I witnessed in Ni’lin on July 19 2009 was a protest against the theft of land by the “Separation Barrier”, not a riot. It began with a peaceful march to the barbed wire and concrete fence, which was immediately met by a teargas volley. This disproportionately violent response was instigated by the IDF. I was there with a journalist and photographer from Ma’an, as a member of the press, in clearly marked protective armor. At no point did I participate in aggressive actions against Israeli forces.
- I have never met or had any contact with members of the International Solidarity Movement.
- The talk I gave at MIT Palestinian Awareness week on April 29 was at the request of a local student group, not a national organization.
Beyond these factual errors, the piece contains a larger misrepresentation of my work. The Boycott Toolkit is not an anti-Israeli project. It is an exercise in collaborative research for collective economic action. It can be used for any activist target, in any country, for goals positive and negative. As pilot projects, I started several campaigns on the site that are currently running in the wider activist community. Of the eight available at the project launch, two are about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One is a selective boycott of products made in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the other is a list of Palestinian products that contribute to peaceful economic development. A third campaign lists Israeli wines produced in the occupied Golan heights. Several other campaigns focus on such diverse targets as: advertisers on the Glenn Beck Show, financial supporters of California Proposition 8, computer companies that build DRM into their systems, and donors to the Arizona Republican party that recently passed anti-immigrant legislation.
The Boycott Toolkit is open source, open content, and entirely user generated. If readers disagree with the politics behind some of these campaigns, I invite them to sign up and create their own lists of companies and products to support or oppose. The Boycott Toolkit is intended to be a non-ideological resource, and can support any kind of campaign, from any part of the political spectrum.
Finally, the article, many of the comments, and several personal emails used hateful language to accuse me of being anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, or somehow “self loathing.” I wholeheartedly reject these labels. The use of Holocaust imagery to smear me is particularly inappropriate, as one of my grandparents is a survivor of Kristallnacht.
I self identify as Jewish, I am b’nai mitzvah, and I attend shul on a regular basis. However, my personal religious beliefs are immaterial to the question of the utility of the site, or the appropriateness of my work in general. I am concerned about the wellbeing of both Israelis and Palestinians because of my Jewish background, my American citizenship, and my human sympathy. I need not be a Jew to decry injustice where I see it, anywhere in the world. The Jewish qualities I was taught included a lifelong commitment to learning, mutual respect, and a concern for others. To me, “never again” means more than “never again, to us”. It means that I will not stand idly by while my people, or any people, subjugates another. This the the essence of my Judaism, and I practice it proudly.
To Josh Levinger in reply to the above comments:
Please see my ebedded remarks in capital letters to your comments (I am not shouting but wish to answer thoroughly your comments above).
You said:
This article makes several accusations against me, my project the Boycott Toolkit, and my political motivations. The piece by Lee Kaplan of ISMWatch, and the comments that follow it, border on slander and are indicative of the lack of civil discourse on several right-wing blogs. While it would give undue credence to their argument to respond in kind, I cannot let the article go unanswered.
THE TRUTH IS NOT SLANDER. YOU HAVE GONE TO THE WEST BANK DURING THE SUMMER OF 2008 AND 2009 AT LEAST. ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN DIARY ON THE WEB THAT I HAVE COPIED, YOU MET WITH BIRTHRIGHT UNPLUGGED, B’TSELEM AND OTHER ISM ORGANIATIONS. SO NO LIE THERE. IN NO PLACE IN MY ARTICLE WAS I UNCIVIL. I MERELY REPORTED THE FACTS. THE TRUTH APPARENTLY HURTS NOW THAT YOU HAVE BEEN OUTTED. BY THE WAY, I AM NOT A RIGHT WINGER. I DID NOT ENGAGE IN NAME CALLING.
You said:
While the author clearly took time to read through my work website and personal blog, he makes several factual errors.
- The Boycott Toolkit is part of my Master’s Thesis at the MIT Media Lab. I am not a Ph.D. candidate.
EMAILS WERE SENT OUT BY THE ISM AND OTHER SOURCES ANNOUNCED YOU AS A PhD CANDIDATE. IF THIS WAS AN ERROR ON THEIR PART I REPEATED< THEN I APOLOGIZE FOR GIVING YOU HIGHER ACADEMIC STATUS THAN YOU DESERVE.
You said:
- The conference I attended in Amman (Mobile Data Collection for Social Action in Iraq and the Middle East) was in December 2009, and was sponsored by UNICEF and MobileActive.org
THE ARTICLE MERELY SAID YOU MET WITH "ARAB GROUPS". THERE WERE ARAB GROUPS AT THE MEETING. IT DID NOT SAY WHICH GROUPS. THE UNICEF AGENTS WERE ARABS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, NO?
You said:
- The event I witnessed in Ni’lin on July 19 2009 was a protest against the theft of land by the “Separation Barrier”, not a riot. It began with a peaceful march to the barbed wire and concrete fence, which was immediately met by a teargas volley. This disproportionately violent response was instigated by the IDF. I was there with a journalist and photographer from Ma’an, as a member of the press, in clearly marked protective armor. At no point did I participate in aggressive actions against Israeli forces.
THERE IS NO "THEFT OF LAND" BY THE SECURITY FENCE DESIGNED TO KEEP OUT TERRORISTS. YOU ARE STATING AN OPINION AS FACT, USING RHETORIC AS ISM ACTIVISTS LIKE YOURSELF ARE TRAINED TO USE.YOU MARCHED TO A CLOSED MILITARY ZONE VIOLATED THE LAW AND PARTICPATED IN THE EVENT THAT WAS IN FACT A RIOT.
MA'AN IS A PALESTINIAN PROPAGANDA NEWS SITE AND IN NO WAY IMPARTIAL SO WHY WERE YOU PALING AROUND WITH THEM? IF YOU MARCHED TO THE FENCE AS YOU CLAIM IN A CLOSED MILITARY ZONE THEN YOU WERE COMMITTING AGRESSIVE ACTIONS.LOOK UP THE DEFINITION OF A RIOT. YOU REFUSED TO DISPERSE.
You said:
- I have never met or had any contact with members of the International Solidarity Movement.
THE ABOVE IS CLEARLY A LIE. YOU MENTIONED MEETING WITH BIRTHRIGHT UNPLUGGED< HANNAH MERMELSTEIN'S ISM AFFILIATED GROUP AS WELL AS OTHER ISM AFFILIATES LIKE B'TSELEM. I BELIEVE YOUR BLOG HAD YOU ALSO MENTIONING ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ISM. YOU ALSO VISITED WITH THE HEZBOLLAH AND HAD PRAISE FOR THEM AS WELL AS VISITED SYRIA. I NOTE YOU BLACKED OUT SEVERAL DAMNING PAGES SINCE MY ARTICLE EXPOSED YOU.
You said:
- The talk I gave at MIT Palestinian Awareness week on April 29 was at the request of a local student group, not a national organization.
MY ARTICLE SAYS YOUR TALK WAS ANNOUNCED ON THE UPFJ WEBSITE. NOT THAT YOU SPOKE TO A NATIONAL ORGANIZATION. UPFJ SAW FIT TO ADVERTISE YOUR EVENT AND IS THE RENAMED US COMMUNIST PARTY AS MY ARTICLE STATED.
You said:
Beyond these factual errors, the piece contains a larger misrepresentation of my work. The Boycott Toolkit is not an anti-Israeli project.
THE ABOVE IS A BOLD-FACED LIE. THE APPLICATION FIRST AND FOREMOST HAS BEEN PROMOTED AS AN ANTI-ISRAEL BOYCOTT TOOL AND WAS BEING TOUTED ON ISM LISTS THAT MY ORGANIZATION MONITORS. THAT WAS THE PRIMARY APPLICATION FOR IT AND YOU PROMOTED IT AS SUCH. WOULD YOU KINDLY STATE HERE YOU ARE OPPOSED TO THE BOYCOTT AND DIVESTMENT OF THE JEWISH STATE OF ISRAEL IN ANY WAY TO PROVE ME WRONG? YOUR SAMPLE PAGE HAS A BOYCOTT ISRAEL TEMPLATE AND LISTS NOTHING BUT ISRAELI PRODUCTS AND WHERE THEY SELL TO BOYCOTT THEM. YOU ARE LYING, JOSH.
You said:
It is an exercise in collaborative research for collective economic action. It can be used for any activist target, in any country, for goals positive and negative. As pilot projects, I started several campaigns on the site that are currently running in the wider activist community. Of the eight available at the project launch, two are about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One is a selective boycott of products made in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the other is a list of Palestinian products that contribute to peaceful economic development. A third campaign lists Israeli wines produced in the occupied Golan heights. Several other campaigns focus on such diverse targets as: advertisers on the Glenn Beck Show, financial supporters of California Proposition 8, computer companies that build DRM into their systems, and donors to the Arizona Republican party that recently passed anti-immigrant legislation.
CAREFUL, PINNOCHIO, YOUR NOSE IS GROWING. THE ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS ARE NOT ILLEGAL AND YOUR USE OF ISM RHETORIC SAYING SO PROVES MY POINT. THEY ARE SUBJECT TO NEGOTIATIONS. YOU EVEN EXPRESS GIVING SYRIA THE GOLAN HEIGHTS WHERE ARTILLARY FIRE RAINED DOWN ON ISRAELI COMMUNITIES FROM PRIOR TO 1967.
AS FOR GLENN BECK, IMMIGRATION, ETC. I MERELY REPORTED THAT AS FACT WITHOUT EXPRESSING AN OPINION EITHER WAY.
You said:
The Boycott Toolkit is open source, open content, and entirely user generated. If readers disagree with the politics behind some of these campaigns, I invite them to sign up and create their own lists of companies and products to support or oppose. The Boycott Toolkit is intended to be a non-ideological resource, and can support any kind of campaign, from any part of the political spectrum.
YOU ARE BEING DISINGENUOUS. YOU DID NOT PROMOTE YOUR INVENTION THAT WAY BUT AAS A TOOL FOR ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVISTS TO PROMOTE THE BOYCOTT AND DIVESTMENT FROM ISRAEL AND IT WAS ANNOUNCED FOR THAT PURPOSE. I NOTE YOU ALSO HAVE A VIRTUAL GAZA SITE THAT TRIES TO SUGGEST A SIEGE OF GAZA WHEN IT IS NO UNDER SIEGE. YOU GIVE AID TO HAMAS WHOSE CHARTER CALLS FOR THE ANNIHILATION OF WORLDS JEWRY. NOW, ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD JEW. YOU WROTE A TERM PAPER STATING HAMAS HONORED A CEASEFIRE THEY DID NOT HONRO FIRING MISSILES INTO SDEROT AND YOU ALSO PRAISED HEZBOLLAH AS A RATIONAL MOVEMENT.
You said:
Finally, the article, many of the comments, and several personal emails used hateful language to accuse me of being anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, or somehow “self loathing.” I wholeheartedly reject these labels.
THERE WAS NO HATEFUL LANGUAGE IN MY ARTICLE. IF YOU DISAGREE PLEASE QUOTE IT.
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT OTHERS SAY TO OR ABOUT YOU WHEN YOU AID JEW-KILLERS. I DO NOT THINK YOU ARE SELF-LOATHING AT ALL, BUT RATHER A SPOILED BRAT WHO THINKS HE"S A REVOLUTIONARY, A NARCISSIST WHO THINKS HE"S VERY CLEVER–YOU AREN'T.
The use of Holocaust imagery to smear me is particularly inappropriate, as one of my grandparents is a survivor of Kristallnacht.
I DID NOT MENTION THE HOLOCAUST IN MY ARTICLE, NOR DID I SMEAR YOU.I TOLD THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU. YOU SUPPORT STARVING JEWS IN ISRAEL VIA A BOYCOTT WITH YOUR TOOLKIT A MEANS TO FURTHER THAT END. YOU PLACE HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH ON AN EQUAL FOOTING WITH ISRAELI SELF-DEFENSE. IF YOUR GRANDPARENTS SURVIVED KRISTALLNACHT AND YOU STILL DO THIS. YOU ARE INDEED A DISGUSTING INDIVIDUAL AND I HAVE PROVEN YOU TO BE A LIAR. TELL US NOW: DO YOU REJECT BOYCOTTING ISRAEL? DO YOU SUPPORT ISRAEL'S EXISTENCE AS A JEWISH STATE. DO YOU RECOGNIZE HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS? YOU'VE ALREADY SAID THE OPPOSITE.
You said:
I self identify as Jewish, I am b’nai mitzvah, and I attend shul on a regular basis. However, my personal religious beliefs are immaterial to the question of the utility of the site, or the appropriateness of my work in general. I am concerned about the wellbeing of both Israelis and Palestinians because of my Jewish background, my American citizenship, and my human sympathy. I need not be a Jew to decry injustice where I see it, anywhere in the world. The Jewish qualities I was taught included a lifelong commitment to learning, mutual respect, and a concern for others. To me, “never again” means more than “never again, to us”. It means that I will not stand idly by while my people, or any people, subjugates another. This the the essence of my Judaism, and I practice it proudly.
WORDS ARE CHEAP AS ARE LIES. JOSH. I REPEAT, DO YOU CONSIDER HAMAS WHOSE CHARTER CALLS FOR THE END OF ISRAEL AND THE MURDER OF WORLD JEWRY AN ANTI-SEMITIC TERROR ORGANIZATION? THE HEZBOLLAH WHO IMPRESSED YOU SO (YOUR BLOG TALKS OF A "HEZBOLLAH BIRTHDAY PARTY") THEIR LEADER NASRALLAH SAID HE WISHED ALL THE JEWS IN THE WORLD WOULD MOVE TO ISRAEL SO HEZBOLLAH COULD KILL THEM ALL IN ONE PLACE. YOUR BALONEY ABOVE ASIDE, YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE JEWS, A QUISLING ENABLER OF TERRORISM AGAINST JEWS, INCLUDING ECONOMIC TERRORISM. YOU ARE A TERRIBLE LIAR AND ONLY HELP TO PERPETUATE ENDLESS WAR AGAINST JEWS. SOME PROUD JEW YOU ARE WITH YOUR BALONEY…
Josh LEvinger says he has nothing against Israel. The following links, his websites, says he i active in the Boycott ISrael campaign. So much for this lying ISM activist who claims he is a faithful Jew:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TjR5I5Cq6B4J:jlev.media.mit.edu/Projects/BoycottToolkit+Boycott+Israel+%2B+JOsh+Levinger&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:tluvY7aQlAoJ:boy.co.tt/community/user/josh/+Boycott+Israel+%2B+JOsh+Levinger&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
MIT’s donors and corporae sponsors might be interested in what this man does in addition to rubbing elbows with Hamas and Hezbollah and helping them. Please note also that Hezbollah murdered 241 US marines in 1983 and Josh has praise for them.
The following was written about Hezbollah when Josh LEvinger visited them in the summer of 2008 in Lebanon. Note at the same page on Josh’s blog a photo of
a girlfriend of his with a Hezbollah flag towel:
“After two days of downtime due to sickness, we’re back in action. We went south to Tyre yesterday and spent the afternoon on the beach. Found some sweet towels, which will make excellent souvenirs.
Hizbollah Beach Party Today we got permits to visit the “secure zone” of Hizbollah controlled towns. Our permit required color photocopies of our passports and new photographs, but ended up being a slip of paper with a number written on it. Sometimes things are just laughably ad-hoc in the Middle East. Stormed a castle that was originally built by the romans, captured by the Crusaders in 1139, used by the PLO to shell northern Israel until 1982, was used by the Israelis during the occupation which ended in 2000. Now there is a yellow Hizbollah flag on the top, and the castle is in rough shape.
Chateau Beaufort
Storming the castleWe also toured through several villages that were heavily bombed by the Israelis in the 2006 war, where reconstructions is still underway. As our gracious host explained, the Lebanese are experienced at rebuilding. We also saw a former Israeli detention center, which was also bombed during the most recent conflict. Hizbollah banners and martyr posters line the streets, and it isn’t hard to see why the population supports them. Of all the “non-state actors” in the region, they are the only one to achieve any real gains against Israel. My feelings about the group are mixed, however despicable the qassam rockets were they haven’t been involved in suicide attacks within Israel. They do seem to be a more classic nationalist organization than your stereotypical international terrorist group.”
THe fact that Josh, a Jew with the ISM got a “premit” from Hezbollah shows an association with the group. See the page here before Josh removes it:
http://www.levinger.net/josh/2008/07
Oops..typo..Permit
Yarden makes a really good wine.
Josh is a really pathetic tool.
Let’s go have some Israeli wine!
These are great links for identifying what Israeli products to buy-cott:
(Keep up the good work- Israeli exports were up 33% last year)
http://www.buycottisrael.ca
http://www.buycottmonth.com
http://www.buyisraelgoods.org