Wednesday, March 12, 2008
We haven't heard from Ron Francis and the SDP for awhile. This article at The Bridge has some of the reason why: Group that sought to cut funds for Israel fades in Somerville
...At the group's Annual Meeting on June 17, 2007, half the active members were, in effect, expelled. . SDP's leader Ron Francis began the meeting by explaining that there were two classes of SDP membership. He said that only Active Members were allowed to vote for the Board.
In point of fact, SDP bylaws stated that all SDP members are voting members.
Francis then defined Active Members as those working on projects approved by the SDP Board. He excluded members working on a Palestine film series on the ground that the Board had not updated its initial approval of their project.
Finally, he called on all present to state support for the exact wording of the 2004 divestment resolution rejected by the Somerville Aldermen. Those who did not, he pronounced, could no longer be SDP members.
Although the newer members had not even seen this document, they were now suddenly required to take a loyalty oath to it. Henceforth and for the first time, disagreement with any part of this document meant instant exclusion from membership. Thus it became a holy text that could never be challenged...
...The fateful phrase in the 2004 document condemns "armed attacks where civilian casualties are likely." Inclusion of this phrase was supposed to answer accusations that SDP "supports suicide bombers." However, it did not impress the Aldermen in 2004. None of them voted for the divestment proposal.
The expelled SDP members were not calling for endorsement of any sort of violence. Their point was that Americans in SDP are in no position to criticize or give any kind of political advice to people in Palestine. Therefore SDP should not take sides within Israeli politics or among Palestinian political forces...
This is confusing, since it leaves the impression that Francis was trying to moderate the SDP by including a controversial (for this group) anti-violence element when we know that Francis is well on the record with an opinion in line with those who would have removed such heretical wording. Ah well, best not to spend too much time probing the psychology of these folks.
