Israel, Palestine, and Latin America: Conflictual Relationships

• Author: Ronaldo Munck,Pablo Pozzi
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X19834508
• Published date: 01 May 2019
• Date: 01 May 2019
• Subject Matter: Introduction

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X19834508

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 226, Vol. 46 No. 3, May 2019, 4–12

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X19834508

© 2019 Latin American Perspectives

4

Introduction

Israel, Palestine, and Latin America

Conflictual Relationships

by

Ronaldo Munck and Pablo Pozzi

Latin American studies were not immune to the “Palestinian question” in

the past, but there has been renewed interest since the launch, in response to a

call from Palestinian civil society in 2005, of the Boycott, Divestment, and

Sanctions (BDS) movement, which has attracted exponentially growing sup-

port among Latin American academic and intellectual institutions and associa-

tions. Popular organizations and civil society organizations have also begun to

support it. Another strand of boycotts, popular among Jewish communities,

has emerged that is not associated with the official BDS campaign but supports

selective actions such as those targeting the Israeli blockade of Palestine or set-

tlements on land lying outside of the June 1967 Israeli borders.

In this context, there was an online debate among editors of Latin American

Perspectives in the summer of 2015 about whether the journal as an institution

should formally endorse the BDS campaign, including an academic boycott.

Although editors agreed on solidarity with the Palestinian people and condem-

nation of Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, they held a variety of positions

on the endorsement proposal advanced by a group of editors including those

of this issue. More details on the debate, including the compromise statement

adopted by the Collective of Coordinating Editors in October 2015 and the peti-

tion by proponents of formally endorsing BDS, were published in the January

2016 issue.

One of the outcomes of this debate and its resolution was the idea of dedicat-

ing a forthcoming issue of LAP to critical analysis of the Palestinian conflict and

its consequences for both Jewish and Muslim communities in their national

and international context in Latin America, as well as the broader implications

for the Latin American region. We suggested focusing on four main areas:

Ronaldo Munck is head of civic engagement at Dublin City University, where he drives the “third

mission” of engaging teaching and research with the needs of the community. He is also a visiting

professor of international development at the University of Liverpool and the University of

Buenos Aires. He has written widely on Latin America and on the impact of globalization on labor.

His current project is a collaborative on the prospects for the new social movements in Latin

America. Pablo Pozzi is a full professor of history at the University of Buenos Aires, where he

holds the chair in United States history and teaches the dissertation seminar on Argentine labor.

Among his works are La oposición obrera a la dictadura (1976–1982) (1988), Los setentistas: Izquierda

y clase obrera,1969–1976 (2000), and Por la sendas argentinas: El PRT-ERP, la guerrilla marxista (2001).

The collective thanks them for organizing this issue.

834508LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X19834508Latin American PerspectivesMunck and Pozzi / INTRODUCTION

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