Boycotting Israel as Native Nationalism

The second chapter offers a broad history of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, or BDS, movement and theorizes ways that it can be used in the service of Native nationalism. It explores the implications of academic boycott in the context of broader questions about decolonization, emphasizing the geographies of Indigeneity in America. While issues of academic freedom and activist strategy are central to BDS, it is important to keep sight of the movement’s engagement with the landscapes from which it arises. What does it mean for a BDS movement, one originating in Palestine, to do work in America, itself a colonized space? In what ways can and should BDS interact with Native communities? How do Native communities inform the tactics and philosophies of BDS? The chapter argues that BDS actually functions as an articulation of Native sovereignty, inside and beyond America, but only when it transcends its own nationalist paradigms.