Thanks for the coverage, but this application is not exclusively about Israel. It is an academic project to perform collaborative research for collective economic action. Content is entirely user generated, and campaigns can be positive or negative (buycott or boycott). While two of the eight campaigns available at the site launch focus on Israel and Palestine, the others are on a diverse set of issues ranging from Arizona's new immigration law to restrictive computer platforms. I invite new users to come and add their own campaigns on any topic they feel strongly about.

- Josh Levinger
Center for Future Civic Media
MIT Media Lab

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

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

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…

Great post Lee!

Lee Kaplan AKHBAR!