Israel Boycott's Hot Air

Don't Buy the Israel Boycott Hype - David Rosenberg 

The media has bought into the notion that a new wave of Western boycotts against Israel is underway.

There were countless editorials for and against the boycott in newspapers around the world, strategies offered up on how to stop it and speculation about who would blacklist Israel next. 

But as soon as one examines the individual cases, the boycott story melts away. They are either not new, not motivated by the boycott movement or have limited impact.
    
The true story is that after nearly 10 years of campaigning, the global BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement has not had the slightest economic impact. Its victories have consisted of coaxing a handful of pop stars and academics to cancel appearances in Israel, and winning empty, sanctimonious declarations of support from the likes of student governments, cooperative grocery stories and leftish church groups.
    
Far from being isolated, Israel's exports are reaching record highs and it attracts billions of dollars in foreign investment. For now the boycott is nothing more than a creature of the media's imagination.
(Wall Street Journal)


Some Questions for BDS Campaigners - Ant Katz
 
On Feb. 6, a "Solidarity Conference in support of the people of Palestine, Cuba and Western Sahara" took place at the South African Parliament.

Vivienne Myburgh, an activist Christian Zionist, was shocked to find that the declaration under consideration was all about BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions), and that nobody had been invited to make the case for Israel. So, when the chair briefly opened a window of opportunity for comments from the public gallery, Vivienne promptly jumped in.
    
"Will BDS also consider a BDS campaign against Lebanon, where apartheid laws legally ban Palestinians from owning property and working in most professions?" she asked. "Will BDS consider a campaign against Kuwait, which expelled a quarter of a million Palestinians?" "Will BDS consider sanctions against a potential future Palestinian state if they practice apartheid, as Mahmoud Abbas has stated: 'I would not agree...that there will live among us even a single Israeli on Palestinian land.'" "What alternatives are BDS offering the 15,000 Palestinians employed in the...West Bank who are presently employed by Israeli companies?" 
(South African Jewish Report)
*