By Julie Nathan
April 15, 2016
The ‘Boycott, Divest­ment, Sanctions’ (BDS) campaign poses threats to Israel’s legit­im­acy as a state and a member of the family of nations, and to diaspora Jew.
The BDS campaign is intrins­ic­ally deceptive in its aims and tactics. BDS cam­paign­ers talk about boy­cot­ting Israel, divesting from Israel, and sanctions against Israel. They rarely discuss, at least publicly, whether they support a one or two-state solution to the Israel-Palestini­an conflict, or even accept Israel’s right to exist.
According to the “Palestini­an Civil Society Call for BDS”, the BDS campaign seeks:
(1) an end to Israel’s “occu­pa­tion and col­on­iz­a­tion of all Arab lands” [not defined], as well as dis­mant­ling of the security barrier;
(2) recog­ni­tion of the “fun­da­ment­al rights of the Arab-Palestini­an citizens of Israel to full equality”; and
(3) real­isa­tion of the so-called “right of return” of “Palestini­an refugees”.
Implicit in these aims is the elim­in­a­tion of Israel as a State (see Inside BDS*). This unstated goal is openly admitted to by the BDS campaign founder, Omar Barghouti, who in 2013 said publicly that “we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.”
Given the decades-long official Palestini­an Authority and Hamas genocidal incite­ment against Jews, promoted in the media, mosques, schools, and the public square, if Israel ceased to exist, then any form of coex­ist­ence between Jews and Arabs within an Arab dominated state would be impossible. These are issues that BDS cam­paign­ers and sup­port­ers avoid address­ing.
Although the BDS campaign has had rel­at­ively little economic impact on Israel, it could do so in the future. And whilst BDS is ostens­ibly focused on economic measures, its true even if its unstated strategy is to del­e­git­im­ise Israel – the nation State of the Jewish people – and to make Israel a pariah state, just as Jews were once a pariah people. Terms like ‘racist’, ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘apartheid’, ‘war crimes’ and ‘genocide’ are regularly deployed in the BDS campaign so as to falsely attribute those traits to Israel. BDS is part of a long war against Israel – a war of nar­rat­ives and pro­pa­ganda, more than a war of economics.
The BDS campaign is, both in intent and effect, antisemitic – because amongst other things it seeks to deprive Jews alone of a homeland. Antisemitism from within the BDS campaign, both in its rhetoric and activ­it­ies, is becoming increas­ingly open. There have been threats to kill Jews at an Israeli trade expo in South Africa, a planned protest outside a synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath in Australia, throwing of kosher food on the floor in European super­mar­kets, and intim­id­a­tion of Jewish students on campuses in American uni­ver­sit­ies. The level of anti-Jewish hatred in the rhetoric emanating from within the BDS campaign, and the number of antisemitic incidents to which it gives rise, continue to escalate.
The BDS campaign opposes any cooper­at­ive endeav­ours between Israeli Jews and Palestini­an Arabs within Israel or the Palestini­an ter­rit­or­ies. This is part of the “anti-nor­m­al­isa­tion” program of BDS. It aims to ensure that Jews and Arabs are kept apart and remain enemies. It is not about healing the wounds of the conflict but, on the contrary, keeping the wounds festering. BDS cam­paign­ers even oppose Jewish and Arab children playing sport together, going on summer camps together, and any other joint activity.
Despite its veneer, the BDS campaign is not actually pro-Palestini­an. It only speaks out for Palestini­ans for the purpose of placing blame on Jews. Palestini­ans suffering at the hands of fellow Arabs or Muslims or others are of no interest to the BDS campaign. The Palestini­ans are used merely as a tool with which to attack Israel.
The BDS campaign is char­ac­ter­ised by three forms of behaviour – bullying, dis­crim­in­a­tion, and slander. Bullying aims to stop inter­ac­tions and rela­tion­ships with Israelis. Dis­crim­in­a­tion serves to exclude and mar­gin­al­ise Israelis (and Jews). Slander is aimed at demon­ising and dehu­man­ising Israelis (and Jews).
Bullying is a favoured tactic and includes demon­strat­ing in or invading public places and causing dis­rup­tion wherever Israeli people are per­form­ing or lecturing, or demon­strat­ing and invading malls and shops where Israeli goods are being sold. People planning to visit Israel to perform, lecture, attend con­fer­ences, or par­ti­cip­ate in other events, are subjected to bullying through various means including mass emailing and social media campaigns, often including intim­id­a­tion and threats, to deter them from attending events in Israel. Some examples of bullying include:

• In 2011, during per­form­ances by the Jerusalem String Quartet and Israel Phil­har­mon­ic Orchestra in London, BDS activists entered the hall and inter­rup­ted the per­form­ances.

• In 2014, in Birm­ing­ham in the UK, a hundred pro­test­ers entered a Tesco store, throwing Israeli produce around and shouting, intim­id­at­ing both staff and shoppers.

• In 2014, BDS activists occupied a Max Brenner store in Sydney, Australia, chanting loudly, intim­id­at­ing staff and customers.

Dis­crim­in­a­tion takes many forms. It includes refusing positions to Israelis, espe­cially in academia and at con­fer­ences, refusing to accept Israeli academic papers, refusing to sit with Israelis in forums, refusing to translate books into Hebrew, and not accepting bookings by Jewish or Israeli cultural groups. Some examples of dis­crim­in­a­tion include:

• In 2012, Alice Walker, American author of “The Colour Purple”, refused to permit her book to be trans­lated into Hebrew, thus depriving Israelis of reading it.

• In 2013, the ‘Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies’ (CPACS) at Sydney Uni­ver­sity in Australia, refused to sponsor an Israeli academic at the Hebrew Uni­ver­sity, Dan Avnon, solely because he is a Jewish-Israeli academic working at the Hebrew Uni­ver­sity. CPACS attrib­uted personal respons­ib­il­ity to Avnon for the alleged policies of the Hebrew Uni­ver­sity

• In 2014, George Galloway, then a British MP for Bradford, declared Bradford to be an “Israel-free zone” which banned all Israeli goods, services, academics, and tourists.

Slander, defam­a­tion and libel is committed by falsely accusing Israelis or Israel of wrongful conduct. For example, BDS advocates falsely accuse Israelis col­lect­ively or Israel of: flooding Gaza by opening non-existent dams; targeting Palestini­an children; and con­trolling the media, banking and politi­cians in the USA. Some examples include false accus­a­tions that Israel:

• is an apartheid state, having different laws for Jews and Arabs. (Palestini­an Arabs under Israeli control in the West Bank must by inter­na­tion­al law come under Israeli military law and not Israeli civil law, as the latter would imply annex­a­tion);

• is com­mit­ting genocide against Palestini­an Arabs – ignoring the fact that the Palestini­an Arab pop­u­la­tion in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza has increased more than fourfold since 1948. The conflict between Jews and Arabs as organised national movements dates from 1920 when Arab leaders in the Holy Land first organised riots against the Jewish pop­u­la­tion. It has been one of the least deadly of the world’s inter­na­tion­al conflicts claiming about 116,000 lives over almost 100 years. In com­par­is­on, there have been more than 250,000 deaths in Syria since 2011, and more than 500,000 deaths in Iraq since 2003;

• engages in organ stealing, for example, after the Haiti earth­quake and from Palestini­an prisoners.

The most insidious aspect of the BDS campaign is its antisemitism, which creates a poisonous atmo­sphere for Jews in the diaspora. Long-standing anti-Jewish canards, tropes, ste­reo­types, and imagery are now being used against Israel, and against all Jews who support Israel’s right to exist. It has become accept­able within the BDS campaign not only to demonise Israel, but also to openly dis­crim­in­ate against, vilify and threaten Jews simply for sup­port­ing Israel’s existence. Some examples of antisemitism by BDS sup­port­ers include:

• In March 2013, ‘Aus­trali­ans For Palestine’ published an image of a box of oranges labeled with Nazi-era yellow Star of David and the Dutch word for ‘Jew’. They felt this was an accept­able form of express­ing support for their call for the Dutch government’s labeling of Israeli products.

• In August 2013, at a BDS protest against an Israeli sax­o­phon­ist per­form­ing at the Uni­ver­sity of the Wit­water­srand in South Africa, pro­test­ers chanted “dubula e juda” (“shoot the Jew”) as concert attendees were entering the concert hall.

• In September 2014, ‘Students for a Free Palestine’ at Oberlin College in Ohio, USA, placed more than 2000 black flags on the lawn outside the building where Jewish students were to attend the Jewish High Holy Day religious services. The flags were a symbol to “honor the 2,133 Palestini­ans murdered by Israeli Defense Force over the 51 days of Operation Pro­tect­ive Edge.”

• In March 2015, the Red Rattler Theatre company, in Sydney, Australia, refused a booking by the Jewish group, Hillel, claiming the theatre does “not host groups that support the col­on­isa­tion and occu­pa­tion of Palestine” that is, support the existence of Israel.

• In August 2015, the BDS campaign in Spain, pressured the organ­isers of a music festival to cancel the per­form­ance by Matisyahu, an American Jewish reggae singer, unless he publicly stated support for the Palestini­ans. Matisyahu refused, and his per­form­ance was cancelled. Matisyahu was the only Jewish performer scheduled to play and was the only performer targeted by the BDS campaign. No other performer was required to make a political statement. Matisyahu is not Israeli.

The BDS campaign is based and built on bigotry. It bullies, dis­crim­in­ates and demonises, and slanders. It is basically a war by pro­pa­ganda and incite­ment, a war of words and hostile actions, targeting Israel aca­dem­ic­ally, cul­tur­ally, eco­nom­ic­ally, and in other ways. Pro­ponents of BDS use words in an attempt to legit­im­ise their openly hateful and repellent rhetoric and actions against Israel and Jews. They knowingly level false alleg­a­tions against Israel, scan­dal­ously accusing it of every con­ceiv­able evil and crime, including stealing body organs, poisoning crops, targeting children, blood lust, racism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, genocide, and more.
Peace and justice between Israel and the Palestini­ans can only be built on the found­a­tion of a nego­ti­ated two-state solution, something which both Israel and the PLO have agreed to. This alone would ensure that both Jews and Arabs can have their political inde­pend­ence and dignity and realise their own national aspir­a­tions. To work towards these ends, the BDS campaign must be exposed, countered and defeated.
*A more com­pre­hens­ive document – “Inside BDS” – on the origins and devel­op­ment of BDS, its tactics, strategy and aims, written by the author of this article, is available on the website of the Inter­na­tion­al Council of Jewish Women (ICJW).
Julie Nathan is the Research Officer for the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry.
These articles appeared in J‑Wire and Times of Israel