The Tennessee Student Solidarity Network (TSSN), which is recognized by a Vanderbilt University student group, urged activists to “disrupt” a number of Nashville businesses on Saturday over their purported pro-Israel stance as part of the controversial Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Community organizing group Nour Nashville distributed a flyer on social media revealing a “BDS Direct Action” event scheduled for Saturday. The group explained the post is a “call for action to disrupt businesses in support of genocide,” and urged its followers to message the TSSN “for details.” Neither Nour Nashville nor TSSN posted updates about their planned disruptions by press time.
The BDS movement is openly anti-Zionist, and the New York Times reported in 2019 that many of its critics argue its specific refusal to accept the self-determinism of the Jewish people in the biblical land of Israel makes it inherently antisemitic. Around the same time, the U.S. House condemned the BDS movement in a resolution that declared it targets “Israel in a campaign that does not favor a two-state solution and that seeks to exclude the State of Israel and the Israeli people from the economic, cultural, and academic life of the rest of the world.”
Some of the most high-profile political figures associated with the BDS movement are Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12), who were both banned from entering Israel for their alleged plans to advocate for the movement while in the country under false pretenses.
Organized with the guidance of far-left Seattle Reverend Osagyefo Sekour in the wake of the Covenant School shooting, the Vanderbilt University website explained in May that TSSN was created by the Dores Workers Solidarity Network (DWSN). The website explained that Vanderbilt officially recognized DWSN following the May death of a construction worker on the university’s campus.
“DWSN formed the Tennessee Student Solidarity Network following the student activism movement in Tennessee after the Covenant School shooting,” the university website revealed in May. “Sekou joined the group of students and residents from all over Tennessee at Centennial Park to discuss safe practices for non-violent civil disobedience.”
Vice News profiled the organization when Sekou was in Nashville. It featured a video of Sekou instructing Tennessee students on how to “protect themselves if they encounter scenarios of police force,” according to the left-leaning outlet. Though TSSN was founded in the wake of the Covenant School shooting, the group told local media in May that there is “no shortage of issues around which to organize.”
The university website also explained that “Sekou trained Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Ferguson protestors. He studied under Rev. James Lawson. He emphasized that civil disobedience is meant to ‘preserve life’ and is out of a ‘deeper body love.’”
Though Jones did not appear to be tied to TSSN’s plans to “disrupt” Nashville businesses, he expressed pro-Hamas sentiment following the barbaric Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, which he framed through the lens of gun control. Jones claimed the “only morally consistent position demands we support a ceasefire now,” after declaring that his “Protect Kids, Not Guns” slogan “means protect kids, not guns in Gaza and Israel.”
Tennessee House of Representatives expelled Jones from its chamber in April after he and two other representatives attempted to seize control of a floor session to demand lawmakers pass gun control legislation. He was eventually returned on a temporary basis by the Metro Nashville Davidson Council and permanently returned after a special election.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].