BDS is not a Zionist movement

[Israeli]

The Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is not about the number of states, it’s about a just outcome that guarantees basic rights for everyone.

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man

Liberal Zionists and progressive Jews have a hard time with the BDS Movement. Many liberal Zionists very much want to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign as a non-violent vehicle for opposing the occupation. Unfortunately, they quickly find that they have difficulties with its clearly-defined goals and tactics, the way it defines those goals, and sadly, the fact that it is a Palestinian-led movement.

Coming at the tail end of countless failed peace processes, BDS (short for boycott, divestment and sanctions) is at the helm of an effort to shift the world’s understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict toward a rights-based discourse. For subscribers of this paradigm shift, the Palestinians’ biggest problem is not the denial of national self-determination. Statehood, or the two-state solution, is a means, not an end in itself. Any political structure that grants Palestinians — and Israelis, for that matter — basic fundamental rights and equality is an acceptable outcome.

The liberal Zionist perspective cannot accept such an approach. In fact, it seems some liberal Zionists cannot even register it. In a recent Haaretz op-ed, Bradley Burston demands a set of crystalized goals from the BDS Movement:
"" I’m just asking for clear goals. And straight talk. I want to know if BDS wants to encourage two states … or if the goal is a one-state Palestine. I believe that a boycott can only work if its organizers are clear about what they want to achieve. … Short of disbanding the country altogether, is there anything that Israel can do, that would satisfy the conditions for an end to the boycott campaign? ""

Burston’s article is astounding in three ways, all of which are symptomatic of the wider, liberal Zionist community that at least partially defines itself with its opposition to the occupation.

Continued @ : http://972mag.com/bds-is-not-a-zionist-movement/107104/

[hack89]

1. Is full RoR negotiable to BDS?

Last edited Thu May 28, 2015, 08:05 AM - Edit history (1)

That is the crux of the issue- full RoR means the end of the Jewish state and BDS knows it. Will any solution that does not include full RoR be acceptable to BDS?

[oberliner]

2. No

As is made clear from the website and Wikipedia page that this 927mag article suggests people Google, Israel could remove all settlements, withdraw completely from the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), dismantle the wall, and end all restrictions on Gaza, and the BDS movement would still continue to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel. Even allowing full RoR for all Palestinians would not be enough to call off the boycott, divestment, and sanctions.

[oberliner]

3. No one thinks it is

It is fairly clearly the opposite.

[King_David]

4. BDS is an anti Zionist movement

And it has been hijacked by the extreme right and extreme left.

Just look at the severed pigs head left by the BDS movement in a kosher supermarket. That incident was not only anti Zionist but very much antisemitic.

[Scootaloo]

5. Such breathless replies from three people who prove the article right n/t

[oberliner]

6. The article is definitely right

Certainly the headline at the very least.

[Scootaloo]

12. Also this part:

The liberal Zionist perspective cannot accept such an approach. In fact, it seems some liberal Zionists cannot even register it.

The only mistake is that there's no such thing as "liberal zionism" just as there's no such thing as "compassionate conservativism."

[King_David]

8. BDS is certainly an antiZionist movement

it is "antiZionist " against Jewish institutions too for example a kosher butchery / supermarket in South Africa found a severed head of a pig in it. BDS movement was responsible.

What is it with these antiZionists and kosher supermarkets? Happened in France recently too where the terrorist claimed he was a "soldier for Palestine".

[Scootaloo]

11. And Zionism is an anti-human movement

For instance, when a trio of Zionists kidnap a boy, pour kerosene down his throat, and light him up.

What is it with Zionists and little Arab boys? Setting them on fire, throwing mortars at them while they play football on a beach, pinning them down and kicking them repeatedly in the face, breaking their arms with pvc pipes, shooting them in the head with gas cannisters, shooting them in the back with machine guns.

All while you cheer it on, no less. What is it about Arab boys that inspires such violent hatred in you and your fellows, David? I mean Oberliner has argued that gunning down Arab males over th age of 12 is absolutely acceptable, "becuase of the role htey play in Palestinian society." shira has this weird fantasy of an Arab boy who was killed, not having been killed and also having been murdered by his father at the very same time.

Can you explain this to me, David? i find the rage to be absolutely mystifying.

[King_David]

15. This post doesn't even warrant a reply.

Except to say it proved my point.

(Especially the parts where you talk ugly about fellow DUrs and proud Democratic Party members)

[Scootaloo]

16. And what was your point?

My point is that if I as an antizionist am held responsible for a pig's head in a South African Walgreens by dick BDS'er, then you as a Zionist, get to be held responsible for the torture and incineration of at least one little boy by your fellow Zionists.

This is your logic, Dave. If you don't like it, stop using it.

if you like we can trade a few times. You rattle off a dick BDS move, I'll rattle off a dick Zionism move. I can understand if you don't want to though, since you have a pig's head to argue with, and I have the ethnic cleansing of over seven hundred thousand human beings followed by seventy-plus years of violence and oppression.

[aranthus]

7. Unmitigated horse hockey.

BDS doesn't prioritize Palestinian self-determination over Jewish self determination? What a crock. Okay, maybe the movement doesn't use those words, but that's only to hide its intent from gullible Western liberals. The website and the leaders of BDS are very clear that the foremost purpose of BDS is to enforce RoR, which de facto substitutes an Arab state for a Jewish state. BDS is all about destroying Jewish self-determination.

"Basic fundamental rights," includes the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own (But I bet Omer-Man doesn't see it that way. How about you Israeli?) So the lie of BDS is to speak in the language of rights and justice when the movement doesn't really give a crap about rights and justice. It's a total fraud.

[Israeli]

9. Israel's president calls BDS a 'strategic threat'

The resources and attention Israel’s government is investing in fighting BDS indicates that the Palestinian-led boycott movement is making serious inroads.

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man |Published May 28, 2015

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin held an “emergency” meeting Thursday with the heads of Israel’s universities and colleges to discuss the academic boycott, which he described as a “strategic threat.”

Israeli institutions and officials have begun addressing the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement more seriously and investing more resources into fighting it in recent months and years.

In the meeting with President Rivlin on Thursday, Technion University President and head of a council of university presidents, Peretz Lavie, warned that “it’s still possible to stop the [BDS] snowball but we are in the eleventh hour.”

Rivlin told the university presidents that he has been taken by surprise by the momentum the academic boycott movement is achieving.

“I didn’t think that there would be a real danger to Israeli academia but the atmosphere in the world is changing,” Rivlin said. In the new reality, the president continued, Israel must treat BDS “as a strategic threat of the highest degree.”

BDS has successfully entered the mainstream in recent years. Whereas Israelis’ contact with the BDS was once relegated to the occasional foreign musicians refusing to perform in Tel Aviv, is now being felt in academic forums across the world, as international corporations pull out of Israeli public works projects, and major investment and religious institutions begin divesting from companies that do business with Israel.

The non-violent grassroots movement modeled on South African anti-apartheid campaigns is viewed by a threat by many in Israel. Of the movement’s three demands — an end to the occupation, full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and a resolution for Palestinian refugees of 1948 — Israelis specifically cite the refugee issue as a veiled attempt to undermine Israel’s Jewish identity.

On the other hand, Palestinians and supporters of the boycott movement argue that BDS simply demands that Israel end the occupation and fully respect Palestinian rights, without prejudging any political outcome.

Up until recently consensus wisdom in Israel was that despite increasing gains and small isolated victories, the boycott is a marginal movement. By allocating significant resources to fighting it and describing BDS as a strategic threat, however, the Israeli government is now telling us that boycott might actually be more effective than previously thought.

President Rivlin said on Thursday that he sees himself “as a soldier” in the war against the boycott of Israel, but he did not define what Israel is fighting for in that war: continued occupation? Inequality? Segregation?

Source: http://972mag.com/israels-president-says-bds-is-a-strategic-threat/107156/

[shira]

10. Of course it's not. BDS aims for the destruction of Israel

Norman Finkelstein:

I’ve earned my right to speak my mind, and I’m not going to tolerate what I think is silliness, childishness, and a lot of leftist posturing.

I mean we have to be honest, and I loathe the disingenuous. They don’t want Israel. They think they are being very clever; they call it their three-tier. We want the end of the occupation, the right of return, and we want equal rights for Arabs in Israel. And they think they are very clever because they know the result of implementing all three is what, what is the result?

You know and I know what the result is. There’s no Israel!

. . .

It’s not an accidental and unwitting omission that BDS does not mention Israel. You know that and I know that. It’s not like they’re “oh we forgot to mention it.” They won’t mention it because they know it will split the movement. ‘Cause there’s a large segment of the movement that wants to eliminate Israel.

. . .

Are you going to reach a broad public which is going to hear the Israeli side ‘they want to destroy us?’ No you’re not. And frankly you know what you shouldn’t. You shouldn’t reach a broad public because you’re dishonest. And I wouldn’t trust those people if I had to live in this state. I wouldn’t. It’s dishonesty.

[oberliner]

13. “We want to abolish Israel, and this is our strategy for doing it.”

That is the BDS movement in a nutshell.

[Scootaloo]

14. I find it absolutely fascinating...

How Norman Finklestein went from "self-hating autoantisemtie race traitor" according to Zionists, to an apparently sane and respectable source.

I kinda hope Gilad Atzmon comes out against something pro-Palestinian just so I can watch you spin your gears to hail him as a hero, shira

[azurnoir]

17. Finklestein contradicts himself in the video

he claims BDS doesn't mention Israel but then says one of BDS's 'nefarious' goals is equal rights for .....Israeli Arabs but he sort of slurs Israel, I wonder if what he really means is that BDS does not mention Israeli Jews, and apparently he equates equal rights for Arabs in Israel and ending the occupation with destroying Israel- interesting and really quite revealing. The one not being clever is Finklestein. no wonder we haven't heard much from him since

here are BDS's goals

The campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) is shaped by a rights-based approach and highlights the three broad sections of the Palestinian people: the refugees, those under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinians in Israel. The call urges various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law by:

Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall;
Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

The BDS call was endorsed by over 170 Palestinian political parties, organizations, trade unions and movements. The signatories represent the refugees, Palestinians in the OPT, and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
- See more at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro#sthash.3YaoAWSm.dpuf

[Scootaloo]

18. I remember hearing that "equality = destruction" argument before

Golly but where...

[azurnoir]

20. yep seems sort of familiar to me too

[Little Tich]

19. I support BDS as long as it's about apartheid and nothing else.

I buy Israeli products sometimes, but I never buy anything from the settlements.

I think the so called BDS movement is barking up the wrong tree, because BDS isn't about Israel. In fact, all the BDS (apart from some Brookyn Coop) done by governments and companies are against the settlements and the companies that are connected to them.

So I think that if you support zionism or Israel, it's very much possible to be against apartheid and the settlements at the same time.

[shira]

21. So you're for the 1st of the 3 goals of BDS, ending the occupation. But not so much...

....the other 2 goals that would lead to Israel's destruction via one state.

Is that correct?

[Little Tich]

22. It's not the occupation that I boycott, I boyott apartheid.

If the Palestinians were given at least minimal democratic and civil rights, and the local population could live in the settlements on equal terms, there would be no apartheid, and no need to boycott.

There is a self-appointed political BDS movement that seems to have it in for Israel proper, something I don't agree with. But they have no influence on actual BDS. In fact, all actual BDS (except for a Brooklyn coop), is exclusively about the settlements and the occupation. Veolia, Mekorot, Soda Stream, etc, are all subject to boycott due to activities in the settlements. I don't think you can find any goverment or company that boycotts Israeli firms or products because they're Israeli.

[shira]

23. It's inaccurate & intellectually dishonest to use a term like Apartheid for emotional effect...

There are plenty of Israeli Arabs living without apartheid, so what you're trying to describe is based on citizenship (occupation) not race or ethnicity.

Labeling Israel apartheid is as much for emotional effect as accusing Israel of being a Nazi state committed to carrying out a genocide of the Palestinian people.

There is a self-appointed political BDS movement that seems to have it in for Israel proper, something I don't agree with. But they have no influence on actual BDS. In fact, all actual BDS (except for a Brooklyn coop), is exclusively about the settlements and the occupation. Veolia, Mekorot, Soda Stream, etc, are all subject to boycott due to activities in the settlements. I don't think you can find any goverment or company that boycotts Israeli firms or products because they're Israeli.

When the BDS movement is referred to it's the one led by Omar Barghouti, Ali Abunimah, FreeGaza, etc... and cheered on by the Mondoweiss crowd. It's the BDS movement you claim to reject.

If you want to see genuine full-on apartheid vs. Palestinians, look north of Israel into Lebanon.

Pity that allegedly anti-Apartheid "pro-Palestinian" activists could care less about that. It's because they can't blame the...ahem, Zionists.

[Little Tich]

24. There is a difference between the occupied territories and Israel proper.

In Israel there's no apartheid, as the Arabs that were allowed to remain were given Israeli citizenship. However, the Arabs living in the occupied territories have no political rights whatsoever, while the Jewish settlers have full rights, and are allowed to colonize the the West Bank with full support from Israel. This disparity is what makes it apartheid.

Lebanon? It's barely functioning as a state. When Lebanon becomes a democracy, but the Palestinians living there have no rights, then perhaps the apartheid analogy is possible.

[shira]

25. And yet more denial of Apartheid in Lebanon. The charge is for emotional effect only...

....when applied to Israel.

It's been apartheid vs Palestinians since 1948 in Lebanon, where they are denied public education, healthcare, and entry into professions. Almost all Palestinians in Lebanon were BORN in Lebanon. It has nothing to do with Lebanon "barely functioning" as a state, or not being a democracy. Palestinians do not enjoy the same rights other Lebanese citizens have.

It's not just Lebanon either, as Palestinians born in other Arab nations are denied the same rights as citizens born there.

[Little Tich]

26. We seem to disagree on what constitutes apartheid. n/t