February 26th, 2020 | Written By - Valerie Zborovsky '21
The Jewish people have been persecuted, murdered, and slandered: Anti-Semitism has permeated throughout our present and past for thousands of years. After the atrocities of the Holocaust, in the vision of Theodore Herzchel’s Zionist movement, the Jews were finally allowed to return to Israel.
In December of 2019, Berkeley's Peace and Justice Commissioner, Hatem Bazian, told California locals to boycott Trader Joe’s Israeli feta cheese. While this incident seems trivial, it is a part of a much larger issue: the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement that developed in response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to the organization’s website, Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) calls for the end of “Israel's oppression of Palestinians and [to] pressure Israel to comply with international law.” While this movement appears to call for justice, it is quite the opposite. In this article, I will bring attention to the anti-semitic and anti-zionist sentiment behind the BDS movement; furthermore, I will display the contributions of Israeli companies and organizations that have benefitted not only Palestinians but also the international community. While disagreeing with the politics of the Israeli government is not necessarily antisemitic, supporting the BDS movement, according to International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, is against the Jewish people and against the existence of the State of Israel.
BDS hides behind its shield of “social justice” to perpetuate anti-semitism through the actions of its proponents, including but not limited to: leaders of the BDS movement stating that Israel should not exist; build-up of subtle delegitimization of the country; vilification of Israel, Israelis, and Jews through social media; holding diaspora Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government; denial of Jewish self-determination; the comparison of the Israeli government to the Nazi regime or South African Apartheid; and most importantly, misconstruing facts and evidence to pressure companies to divest and boycott Israel. Whether it is through an Instagram post or graffiti on a billboard, these actions show a completely one-dimensional and negative side of Israel. BDS conveniently forgets to mention all the good that Israeli companies and organizations have done for not only Palestinians but also for the international community. For example, Save a Child’s heart and Zaka are both non-profit organizations that provide services and care to the international community. Save a Child’s Heart, established in 1995 at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, provides cardiac health services to children regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, or religion. This organization has taken many children from under the Palestinian authority and provided them with medical care. In addition, Zaka is a community emergency response team. They have been recognized by the UN as an international volunteer humanitarian organization. But Israel has done even more than that. Remember that device you are incredibly attached to? The cellphone? The Israeli company, Motorola, developed the original cell-phone technology. In fact, this country is a tech powerhouse and has a largely beneficial influence on the international community. Purposefully ignoring the good work of Israeli companies contributes to BDS’s vilification of Israel and of the Jewish people.
But the BDS movement is also against the existence of the state of Israel and exaggerates the truth by comparing the country to past and present oppressive regimes. For example, in an interview with the +972 magazine, co-founder of the BDS movement, Omar Barghouti,“has stated unequivocally that the BDS movement is opposed to the existence of a Jewish state.” In that same interview, Barghouti claims that the government's actions towards Palestinians mimic fascism, ignoring all the terrorist attacks Hamas has committed against Israel. Furthermore, according to a published paper the new anti-semitic BDS activists “are [also] trying to isolate Israel and to defame it as an alleged apartheid state.” According to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, denying Jews the right to self-determination by claiming it is racist or oppressive is outright antisemitism. This comparison disparages the Jewish people and their homeland because the current Israeli government does not parallel the Nazi regime. It is offensive to the six million Jews that died in the Holocaust and to the Jews of the world.
Yet, when the BDS movement claims the conditions of land under the Palestinian Authority is purely due to the actions of Israeli government or organizations, they do not mention the terrorist groups, such as Hamas, who take humanitarian aid from its people and use it to fund terrorist activities. Innocent Palestinians die at the hands of Hamas terrorists. By claiming Israel is imperialistic or fascist, BDS brainwashes people into believing Israel is the only one at fault and forgets the actions of Palestinian terrorist organizations. It is important to realize the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and one must recognize the good with the bad.
Israel is not perfect, and no country is. However, people often disguise anti-Semitism by holding the Israeli government to higher standards than other countries. By doing this, there is an implicit bias against the Jewish people and their right for self-determination. The Israeli government has its faults, but BDS is not the way to fix it, nor is it the most effective approach. BDS does not heavily affect the Israeli economy, nor has it produced effective change. Since 1948, Israel was an “economic island” and could not rely on other countries for products. Furthermore, because 40% of Israeli exports are intermediate goods, implying the country is integrated into global value chains, boycotting Israeli companies would only backfire. Lastly, because Israel is an international leader in research and development, “it makes it even more difficult for firms to bypass Israeli industry and technology.”
Therefore BDS may scream for social justice, but it is an anti-semitic and anti-zionist organization because it vilifies the Jewish people and their homeland. I want to leave you with this information to allow you to look at complicated and controversial issues with a closer lens. I want you to know that although an organization might preach one thing, it is important to recognize its true intentions, that being skeptical is not always a bad thing. Most of all, I want you to know that the country that I love is more than what BDS has made it out to be: it is full of culture, innovation, and people.
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