The Levels of Hypocrisy in BDS - And Will You Have Fries With That?

In a recent post, Elder of Ziyon pointed out an ignored truth about the campaign to boycott Israel: BDS isn't about boycotts. It is about turning Israel into a pariah state.

Even BDSers admit that they choose their targets of boycott for maximum leverage and publicity, even as they use Israeli products themselves. The boycotts are indeed a sideshow to their real aim - to have average people associate Israel with racism and apartheid.

By repeating the lies that Zionism is racism, Israel is an apartheid state, Israel must be boycotted for human rights abuses, and so on - over and over again - it makes an impression on college students and people who don't follow Israel closely.

When an artist boycotts Israel, it makes a huge impression on people who want to identify as supporting social justice.

When an academic group calls to boycott Israel, it puts an aura of respectability on hating Israel.

BDS is a tactic, it is not a movement whose goal is to remake Israel as the previous boycott movement was capable of forcing change on the level it did with South Africa.

And the strategy behind that tactic is publicity.

Why Is It The New State Anti-BDS Laws Don't Violate The First Amendment Right of Free Speech?

The BDS Movement has demonstrated over and again its dedication to free speech -- its own free speech -- to the extent of protesting against pro-Israel speakers and events, with one goal:

Depriving them of their free speech.

For example, here is a video of anti-Israel members of the Palestine Solidarity Committee at the University of Texas at Austin last November during an event held by the Israeli Studies Department:

Historically, Have Boycotts Ever Really Worked -- And What Does That Mean For BDS and Israel?

With all the talk of boycotts, especially talk of the BDS movement against Israel, it has been a given that boycotts work. So leave it to Freakonomics to ask the question: Do Boycotts Work?. The entire broadcast is embedded below at the end of this post, but there are some key points worth highlighting.

The podcast starts with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in response to the treatment of Rosa Parks, quoting a political scientist on the difficulty of tracing a causal connection between the boycott and the Supreme Court decision declaring bus segregation to be unconstitutional:

the bus company was ready to cave in early. It was the politicians who held out. The holdout was followed by more and more press coverage, which was followed by the Supreme Court case, which was followed by desegregation of the Montgomery buses. So how much credit should be given to the boycott?

NGO Monitor Statement on BDS Law Decision in the High Court

Press Release
April 16, 2015
Contact: Yakira Heller
NGO Monitor
058-668-9603

Statement on BDS Law Decision in the High Court

Jerusalem - The decision of Israel's High Court of Justice (April 15) to uphold the central provisions of the "Anti-Boycott Law" marks an important milestone in the response to political warfare. This complex and carefully reasoned decision highlights and places limitations on activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that pursue boycott campaigns in Europe and America, using false and distorted legal and factual claims. These discriminatory economic attacks are central to the "Durban Strategy" (adopted in the NGO Forum of 2001 UN Durban Conference) of demonizing and isolating Israel through BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions), lawfare (legal attacks), and other strategies.

NGO Monitor: Antisemitism Exposed Within Presbyterian Church Activist Group Behind Divestment Vote

Antisemitism exposed within Presbyterian Church activist group behind divestment vote

Jerusalem - NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem based research institute, has released evidence that anti-Jewish prejudice was prominent among the internal church advocates for boycott and divestment (BDS) efforts. The Israel-Palestine Mission Network (IPMN), a church affiliated activist group centrally responsible for lobbying the church to divest from companies that do business with Israel and publisher of the highly controversial booklet, Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study, also promoted antisemitism on its Facebook page.     "The IPMN's Facebook page is in fact a hate site operating under the protective wings of the Presbyterian Church," said Yitzhak Santis, NGO Monitor's Chief Programs Officer. "None of the antisemitic postings were repudiated by the IPMN leadership or other members of this Facebook group. Several Presbyterian Church senior staff members are also members of this group, and they remained silent."

Photo: Poster Boy For The Not So Friendly BDS Movement

In The Washington Free Beacon, Adam Kredo writes that BDS Leader Posts ‘Overtly Threatening’ Photo to Facebook:

The latest image raising concern among civil rights leaders comes from a Facebook posting by Michigan student Yazan Kherallah, a leading voice in the campus’s Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a virulently anti-Israel movement that championed the divestment measure.

Kherallah posted photo to his Facebook account of him wearing a traditional Arab headscarf and jamming a knife into a pineapple.

Wearing a traditional Arab headscarf and jamming a knife into a pineapple:
 a kinder, gentler BDS? Credit: Washington Free Beacon, Yazan Kherallah / Facebook 

Video: William Jacobson Speaks on The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom

Law Professor William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection spoke on Tuesday at Ithaca College in opposition to the academic boycott of Israel.

He appeared in response to a talk by Ithaca College of Cornell Professor Eric Cheyfitz, who is a vocal supporter of the anti-Israel BDS movement and the American Studies Association academic boycott of Israel.

When Professor Jacobson requested that to be allowed to appear with him so students could hear both sides, he was offered a mere 5 minutes to rebut his arguments -- and was also denied the opportunity to build an event around his talk as they had done for Prof. Cheyfitz.

In the end, the Ithaca College Hillel agreed to sponsor his talk, which followed right after Cheyfitz’s talk, directly across the hall.

Apparently all that talk we hear about allowing anti-Israel voices to be heard is a strictly one-sided affair.

In his post, The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom, Professor Jacobson recommends listening to the question asked by a BDS supporter and his answer at the 54 minute mark.

Here is the video of Professor Jacobson's talk.

Video: Ben Shapiro at UCLA: "BDS is Just Another Form of Anti-Semitism"

Speaking at a BDS hearing in UCLA, radio talk show host Ben Shapiro exposed BDS for what it is, after which he received thunderous applause.

Here is the video:



-----

If you found this post interesting or informative, please it below. Thanks!

Technorati Tag: Israel and BDS and Antisemitism and Ben Shapiro.

Efraim Inbar on Israel and The BDS Mirage

The following by Efraim Inbar is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

The Boycott Mirage

by Efraim Inbar
Israel Hayom
February 6, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3745/boycott-mirage

Efraim Inbar

US Secretary of State John Kerry is warning that Israel faces economic embargoes if a US-drafted framework agreement with the Palestinians fails to go forward. While the merits of the current American diplomatic initiative are debatable, Kerry's warnings clearly have a deleterious effect: they feed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign being waged by Israel's enemies, and create the false impression that this campaign is a significant threat to Israel.

The BDS effort has thus far had little success. For the moment and for the near future, it constitutes a bearable nuisance for Israel, not more.

Arlene Kushner: Is John Kerry Behind European Boycotts of Israel?

From Arlene Kushner:
January 8, 2014

A Long, Hard Struggle

I’m encountering a lot of anger here in Israel, and the depression that often follows.  Pit-of-the-stomach anxiety, too.  How could it be otherwise?

Kerry took off on Monday but plans to be back very soon.  His “framework” is still not in place, and the rumors continue to fly.  Some of those rumors suggest that the framework might be verbal and not in written form at all.  This may be because he cannot put together a document that both parties would sign – which would be good news.

Netanyahu:

"There is still no document and the Americans are not succeeding at obtaining agreements between the sides." 

Read: PM: In peace deal, no settlements will be evacuated

~~~~~~~~~~

According to Israel National News yesterday:

“Governmental sources report that US Secretary of State John Kerry is behind the European boycott threats on Israeli products and companies operating in Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

American Studies Association Discriminatory Boycott of Israel Faces Legal Challenges

Last month, Jewish Press reported US Academic Group May Boycott Israeli Universities. At issue is the American Studies Association (ASA), which at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. entertained a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

The reason?

A primary reason offered in the body of the petition in support of the boycott resolution is that the Israeli “Occupation” has a severely deleterious effect on the academic freedom rights of Palestinian Arabs. To wit:

Palestinian universities and schools have been periodically forced to close as a result of actions related to the Occupations, or have been destroyed by Israeli military strikes and Palestinian students and scholars face restrictions on movement and travel that limit their ability to attend and work at universities, travel to conferences and to study abroad, and thereby obstruct their right to education.

The petition goes on a bit in that vein, and includes the fact that foreign academics face interference when trying to reach “Palestinian” academic institutions.

As Lori Lowenthal Marcus, the irony -- or ignorance -- displayed by the ASA is that none of the 19 degree-granting institutions serving the Arab Muslim population of the "West Bank" or Gaza existed before 1967.

Logo of the American Studies Association:
encouraging the exchanging of ideas through discrimination

But beyond the challenge of logic, the American Studies Association will be facing legal challenges as well.

Cartoon: The Extent of BDS on College Campuses

Chava Light, a cartoonist and illustrator, has illustrated for The Algemeiner the extent of the abuse of BDS on campuses with her cartoon of A College Miseducation:

Video: Ari Lesser's New Rap Video Reveals Hypocricy of BDS Movement

Ari Lesser's rap video addresses the hypocrisy of those who want to boycott only Israel -- ignoring other countries in the Middle East and around the world

Here is the video:

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters' Crass Antisemitism Ranges From Pigs With Jewish Stars To Boycotting Israel

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters was last seen with his flying pig, complete with a Jewish star, as The Algemeiner reported: Pig Balloon at Roger Waters Concert Features Star of David; Wiesenthal Center Calls Him ‘Open Hater of Jews’:

Rogers Waters has a thing for flying pigs with Jewish stars. Credit: The Algemeiner

At the time, Waters promptly sought a fig leaf of legitimacy by gushing with the obligatory "some of my best friends are Jewish."

NGO Monitor: Spanish Gov't Funding of NGOs Campaigning Against Israel

PRESS RELEASE June 18, 2013  Contact: Lenny Ben-David NGO Monitor 054-216-8155 lenny.bendavid@ngo-monitor.org

Spanish Gov't Funding of NGOs Campaigning Against Israel Jerusalem - The Spanish government provided funding between 2009 and 2011 to political NGOs leading the campaigns to delegitimize Israel through demonization, boycotts, lawfare and other forms of political attacks, concluded an NGO Monitor report issued today. The report provides comprehensive and detailed evidence of the use and/or misuse of official Spanish funds, including regional governments.

Mideast Media Sampler 6/13/13: The UN Observer Force Turns To Fiji For Help

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

1) Fiji rescues UNDOF

With the Syrian civil war moving closer to Israel, Austria has withdrawn its contingent of peacekeepers from the UNDOF.

Job Opportunity: Peacekeepers Wanted bit.ly/18ie3ra
— MediaBackspin (@MediaBackspin) June 9, 2013

Not to worry, Fiji is slated to pick up the slack.

Report: EU Funds Radical Groups Undermining Peace in the Middle East

PRESS RELEASE June 9, 2013  Contact: Lenny Ben-David NGO Monitor 054-216-8155 lenny.bendavid@ngo-monitor.org

NGO Monitor Report: Secret EU Funding for BDS Leader Jerusalem - In a new report presented to members of the European Parliament, NGO Monitor details the damaging impact of highly secretive EU funding for radical political advocacy NGOs. According to NGO Monitor, EU funds are going to organizations involved in anti-Israel boycotts and violent demonstrations, which undermine the EU's efforts to secure peace in the Middle East.   The report, Lack of Due Diligence and Transparency in European Union Funding for Radical NGOs, shows how EU-funded NGOs lead the campaigns to demonize Israel through the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) - actions that totally contradict the EU's proclaimed objectives of supporting peace and democratic development.

Mideast Media Sampler 5/14/13: The Need To Blame Bush For Obama's Hesitancy In Syria

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

1) Syria considerations

Last week former executive editor of the New York Times, Bill Keller wrote Syria is not Iraq. The gist of his argument is that he trusts President Obama but shouldn't have trusted President Bush. It's a silly argument. However, as Dexter Filkins reports, Keller's thinking is mirrored in the administration. 

Was Stephen Hawking Simply Badgered Into Boycotting Israeli Conference?

Palestinian academics sent a barrage of letters to Hawking in recent weeks in an attempt to persuade him to join the boycott movement.
Furore deepens over Stephen Hawking's Israel boycott, The Guardian, May 8, 2013

The constant prodding of physicist Stephen Hawking by BDS activists as described by the Guardian explains the apparent contradiction in Hawking's decision not to attend the conference in Israel.

After all, as Haaretz points out, Hawking has felt free to visit Israel numerous times in the past:

Abbas's Palestinian Authority Sued For Terrorism By Shurat HaDin

Ynet News reports Israeli NGO to sue PA for terrorism:

An Israeli civil rights NGO is preparing to sue the Palestinian Authority in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its alleged responsibility for thousands of terrorist attacks on Israel.

"Terrorizing Terror" is the Shurat HaDin - Law Center's tagline for the campaign, meant to deter Palestinian efforts to file lawsuits against Israeli soldiers.