The True Intent of BDS

As part of the Palestinians' PR war against Israel, they established something called Boycott, Divest and Sanctions against the Jewish state. One of their co-founders, Omar Barghouti. travels the world giving anti-Israel speeches-usually on university campuses, where their movement is strongest.

The stated objective is to promote boycotts of Israel, its academics, and companies that do business with Israel. As to what should happen to Israel itself, the stated objective is that they want to force Israel to change its policies and give the Palestinian people their due justice (whatever that is).

Their true intent is to help bring about an end of the Jewish state.

Let's begin with the proposition that the Palestinian leadership and most of its people want not just the West Bank and Gaza plus any land where Israeli settlements have sprung up; they want it all. They want the complete elimination of the Jewish state. They want a land called Palestine, not existing peacefully next door to Israel, but all of it.

Let me also state my opinion that the 70-year conflict is not really over who is entitled to the land. Both the Arabs and the Israelis have claims on the land, and both sides have valid points to argue. The real issue is that the (overwhelmingly Muslim) Arabs don't want a Jewish state in their midst. Fortunately for Israel, many of the Arab nations have come to the realization that they cannot defeat Israel militarily, and that many of Israel's enemies (Iran, for example) are their enemies as well.

Getting back to BDS and its proponents in the US, the question is whether these activists, like Barghouti, would all go away if Israel and the Palestinians were to make a peace deal. Barghouti himself has answered that question. That occurred  when he spoke at the University of California at Irvine in 2013 on behalf of the Students for Justice in Palestine and the  Muslim Student Union. I was present in the first row and videotaped the event (over the SJP/MSU's objections). Barghouti was asked about that possibility and answered that BDS would not accept it unless its (BDS) conditions were satisfactory to them (again BDS). He listed the right of return as an example.  But don't take my word for it. Watch it yourself. This was my posting after attending the event. His comments on that issue are in the last clip after the 4-minute mark.

You will also note that Barghouti, who was not even born in the disputed region but got his higher education at Tel Aviv University after moving to the West Bank at some unclear point in his life, refused to answer my question as to where he was born.

As I said above, BDS has its strongest presence on college campuses. Every year student governments at various universities have to spend days and long overnight hours debating resolutions to call on their universities to boycott companies that do business with Israel. Sometimes these resolutions pass and sometimes they don't. If passed, virtually every university has rejected its demand. One would wonder why the Israeli-Palestinian dispute has become such a hot button issue on US campuses, but it has as I can personally attest having just completed 18 years teaching part-time at UC Irvine (1998-2016). It was a nice post-retirement gig for me teaching two hours a day after my law enforcement career. However, I did get involved  in campus issues like this (out of the classroom. Unlike many professors, I did not express my personal opinions in class. I was teaching English to foreign students.)

I have seen first-hand the anti-semitism that accompanies the anti-Israel drive on campus. SJP and the Muslim Student Associations deny they are anti-Jewish, just anti-Zionist. Many of their invited speakers whom I have observed put the lie to that. I mention people like Amir Abdel Malik Ali, Mohamed al Asi and Abdul Alim Musa as examples. I invite the reader to Google them. They have a long history of hate-filled rhetoric against Jews including at UC Irvine. As another example, when a BDS resolution was passed at UC Davis in 2015, it was accompanied by a swastika being painted on the outside wall of a Jewish frat building. I can list many documented examples of anti-semitism on college campuses including the University of California system that have accompanied this movement.

I saw Barghouti speak a second time at UC Riverside. On that occasion (2014), he was sponsored by no less than the Dept.of Humanities, but specifically by Professor David Lloyd, a BDS activist. (I believe that Lloyd is also Jewish, but trust me; more than a handful of Jewish activists in academia are vociferous enemies of Israel. I consider them to be left-wing misfits.) Again, I videotaped the event and took part in the q and a. I pointed out to the audience that Barghouti's own origins were something he was uncomfortable speaking about, and I also asked the university sponsors if they planned to invite a pro-Israel speaker so that their students could be exposed to both sides of the issue instead of just this one-sided presentation. Lloyd in his response termed the question "absurd".

What is absurd is David Lloyd and the UCR Dept. of Humanities who are indoctrinating their students instead of educating them.

Given the fact that universities are routinely and universally rejecting BDS resolutions, I am optimistic. BDS may be gaining symbolic victories, but other than swaying a few opinions, they are not resulting in what they want to achieve. Nevertheless, the PR war is important, and those who support Israel will need to continue combating the propaganda of Omar Barghouti and BDS.