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arindambanerjee/Shutterstock.com In February of this year, Benjamin Netanyahu elicited strong reactions from world governments when he pointed his finger at the BDS movement. Pulling no punches, the Prime Minister told his audience that it is time for Israel to “delegitimize the delegitimizers.” Calling them classical anti-Semites, Netanyahu made it clear that the only goal of the movement’s adherents is the destruction of the State of Israel.
BDS is an acronym for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, a Palestinian-led movement that encourages economic action against the State of Israel. It actually had its genesis at the 2001 World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa. There, 1,500 delegates from international NGOs (non-governmental organizations) came together with a plan to delegitimize Israel. Calling for the complete and total isolation of the state as an apartheid regime, they demanded the full cessation of all links, including diplomatic, economic, social and military, between ALL states of the global community and Israel. Among the delegates were 35 Christian organizations, representing a number of churches worldwide.
In 2005, its founding principles were published in a document called the “Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights of 2005.” In addition to urging various forms of “non-violent punitive measures” against Israel, the document makes three specific demands:
The document was signed by 171 “Palestinian political parties, organizations, trade unions, networks and NGOs,” and was directed at “all people of conscience.” One of its first official campaigns urged the international academic community to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions until all three of the founding demands were met.
Since then, dozens of campaigns have been launched, calling for boycotts of Israeli companies and products sold in the international marketplace, boycotting musical and sporting events and divestment from companies such as Caterpillar. Although BDS proponents maintain that they are targeting products and activities specific to “Israeli settlements,” anything Israeli has become fair game. Even events outside of Israel have been boycotted because of Israeli participation.
Today the movement is supported by many in the EU and the UK, academic institutions and student groups in Canada and the USA, trade unions in Ireland and South Africa, postal workers unions in Canada and the largest media group in Egypt to name a few. Actors, musicians, politicians, priests, nuns and evangelical leaders have jumped on the bandwagon and are clamoring for economic measures against Israel. The EU alone has poured millions of euro into the coffers of Palestinian NGOs that are being used to support the movement.
Until very recently, the impact of the BDS movement has been felt primarily in the public relations arena as Israel is constantly labeled an apartheid state and an illegal occupier, and accused of crimes against humanity. Of late, however, concern is growing among Israeli leaders as European businesses and pension funds have cut investments or trade with Israeli firms. Israel’s Finance Minister Yair Lapid has warned that such action could cause exports to drop by US $5.7 billion.
Further, as the peace process teeters on the brink of failure, the US is warning that Israel could find itself increasingly targeted by the movement if it fails to reach a deal with the Palestinians. PM Netanyahu has made it clear that BDS is currently one of his three main concerns for Israel’s security.
Unfortunately, the Jewish people are no strangers to the concepts of boycott and divestment, and for many, the actions of the movement seem eerily reminiscent of another very dark period in history.
Beginning as early as 1933, Hitler’s regime in Nazi Germany adopted hundreds of laws, decrees and directives that increasingly restricted the rights of the Jews in Germany. Boycotts and divestment were tools widely used by the Reich to delegitimize the Jews as a people group and isolate them from the rest of German society. Beginning in 1933, academic boycotts removed Jewish educators from German schools and eventually Jewish students as well. Social boycotts prevented interaction between Jews and Germans, prohibiting Jewish athletes from participating in sporting events and banning Jewish musicians from performing with their orchestras. Germans were encouraged, and eventually required, to boycott all Jewish-owned shops and cancel all contracts with Jewish-owned businesses. German investors were compelled to divest from all Jewish-owned companies. It quickly became apparent that Hitler’s virulent anti-Semitism had one goal: the total destruction of the Jewish people.
Even though the movement vehemently denies any anti-Semitic motivation, the parallels between BDS tactics and those of the Third Reich are alarming and cannot be denied. Clearly, the final goals are dangerously similar as well. BDS, by its own admission, seeks to isolate Israel from the rest of the international community and denies the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations summed it up well when he said, “Seventy years ago, they said, ‘Kill the Jews’—today they say, ‘Kill the Jewish state.’ The politically correct way to be anti-Semitic today is not to say, ‘I hate Jews,’ but to say, ‘I hate Israel.’”
How tragic and potentially disastrous it is that the international community is playing into the hands of those bent on the destruction of Israel. It is time for “all people of conscience” to raise their voices together with PM Netanyahu and call the boycotters out for what they are: classical anti-Semites in modern garb.
Source: By Cheryl Hauer, International Development Director
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