Debunking BDS--again

I recently interviewed Haaretz editor Aluf Benn for this profile in The New Republic. One topic we discussed briefly was BDS. As I reported, some of the idiocy of the BDS activists meant that protest organizers at Columbia University refused to talk to a reporter from Haaretz because she is Israeli, though the newspaper has constant access to sources in the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories) and Gaza, often, in fact the only Israeli news outlet doing extensive reporting here. (There is a lead story in the paper today about two Haaretz reporters being harrassed seriously by Jewish settlers and the IDF not coming to their aid, just as an aside).

But, the other thing about BDS that comes up time and again is the performance of it all—and the harm it does to individuals—especially artists, academics, left-wing activists—and has done nothing to harm the Israeli economy. To say that you are pro-BDS makes you part of a movement, but it doesn’t do a thing to change the political situation on the ground. It’s pure performance.

In our interview, Benn pointed out that one reason for this is that Netanyahu figured out how to fortify the economy years ago, an economy that is dependent today on hi-tech. Benn lifted up his IPhone and said to me that there are at least “eight components” in this phone produced or created in Israel. How many BDS activists plan to give up their IPhone or Apple products???????

And—I was reminded as I recently drove on the highway past a massive campus for the hi-tech company Mobile-Eye, based in Jerusalem, that this newish technology is now mandatory in every US sold car. Any BDS activists giving up their cars?

AI—Nvidia—the company is opening a new campus in Israel’s North, employing thousands of people. Will BDS supporters not use AI on their Apple computers?

The list goes on and on. The reality is that BDS has seriously hurt young academic researchers , many of them —if not most of them—opponents of the current Israeli government, but who find themselves disinvited from academic appointments or conferences overseas, unwanted in juried journals, and rejected by publishers in the US (as are Israeli creative writers, most of whom also oppose Netanyahu). Ditto for film, dance, classical, jazz, visual art, TV. (The current Israeli government has tried to defund the arts especially because most Israeli creatives are anti-Netanyahu’s policies).

Meanwhile, the very fact of the campaign is wind against the back of Netanyahu, propelling him to play the role he loves to play—telling his voters that the world hates Israel, regardless of his policies being much of the cause. It’s endemic to the world, he argues.

BDS has not saved one Palestinian. It ignores the impressive network of NGOs inside Israel that seek an end to the oppressive occupation of the Palestinians by their own government. This is a ready network of allies who are sophisticated, dedicated, and tireless, but they are being ignored and worse —demeaned—by the BDS movement. I see these folks in action every time I go to Israel—and travel into the OPT. I work with some of them as an advisor.

There is zero reflection or self-criticism among the activists promoting this policy. So much so that when my neighborhood food coop—the Park Slope Food Coop—voted to boycott Israeli-made products, the delusional leaders of that campaign actually thought that by taking a popular children’s snack and olive oil made by Palestinian women citizens of Israel from Nazareth off of their shelves, they would actually send a message to Netanyahu. Instead, they lost members and left bad feelings in a beloved neighborhood institution.

So what would I recommend as an alternative?

I support boycotting goods made in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, goods created as part of a mechanism to embed industry inside the occupation. And, I strongly support enforcing these goods to be labeled. The US and EU should do this—and activists should demand it.

Whenever I am in Israel or the OPT, I try to order local products for food/drink. Shepherd’s Beer, for instance, is a Palestinian beer made in the Bethlehem Region and Taiybe Beer is made by Palestinians in the West Bank. Why are there not campaigns to bring these to US shelves instead of taking olive oil from a women’s cooperative off of the shelves? Promote Palestinian artisans and artists?

There is also no doubt that by stopping the attacks and boycotts of individual Israeli artists and paying attention to their work and their voices, there would be more done to piss off (the technical term) the Netanyahu regime and diminish their hegemony over the debate than is happening now by silencing artists (something I believe the left should never ever do).

Read about and support the Israeli NGO network of activists who are 24/7 for more years than many can count to fight against the occupation and the current situation in Gaza. I’m happy to provide a list of NGOs to anyone who can’t find them by googling.