Beneath the surface long time adversaries Saudi Arabia and Israel actually have a lot in common and have become the strangest of bedfellows.

The Montgomery bus boycott energized the civil rights movement. The international boycott of South Africa helped bring an end to apartheid. Can a boycott of Israel bring an end to the occupation of Palestine?

Instead of observing their international legal obligations to hold Israel accountable for violations of human rights, the United States and members of the EU are chilling, punishing, and criminalizing what is protected political speech and one of the most effective non-violent tools available to Palestinians to combat the occupation.

If fighting Israeli occupying forces is barred as “terrorism,” and nonviolent boycotts against Israel are barred as “anti-Semitism,” then what is considered a legitimate means for Palestinians and their allies to resist and end the decadeslong, illegal Israeli occupation? The answer is: nothing.

The current situation in Palestine is particularly frustrating to a generation that has grown up after the Oslo Peace Accord because they have been brought up within a strange historical phenomenon: where the earth below their feet keeps shrinking and when time stands still.

The letter cited findings by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations of extrajudicial killings by the Israeli military and police as well as several cases of torture.

In the end, what is playing out is the abuse of power politics at its worst. AIPAC threatens the rights of our citizens and our allies to dissent by peaceful means from policies they oppose.

In coordination with the Israeli tech industry, government unleashes a new spy and sabotage plan.

It is perfectly legitimate to argue against BDS and to engage in activism to defeat it. But only advocates of tyranny could support the literal outlawing of the same type of activism that ended apartheid in South Africa.

Yesterday the Senate passed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 by a 75-20 veto proof margin. The large trade policy bill includes anti- BDS trade legislation promoted by AIPAC and introduces new U.S. policy language by including all “Israeli-controlled territories” as part of Israel.