BDS – Understanding the Fallacies – Part One

by Dan Kaskel
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Part One of Four – Creation of an Illegitimate Movement

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) enterprise masquerades as a peaceful movement with the goal of securing rights for Palestinian Arabs in Israel.  The reality is that its leadership, the puppet masters, seek to establish a caliphate-like state in Israel, leaving Jews with no rights to the sole country legally established by international law as the nation of the Jewish people – Israel.

In this four-part series we will look at the background and deceptive, misplaced narrative of BDS, with the goal of sharing speaking points to counter this age-old form of antisemitism. 

While BDS purports an objective of bringing economic and other pressure to bear upon Israel so they might unclench the brutal iron fist crushing the Palestinians, this is an absolute farce.  In actuality, the true aspirations and consequences of BDS are the antithesis of peaceful.  This is not surprising as BDS was specifically engineered to shun peace. 

Background of the BDS Movement

Its founders and leaders seek neither peace nor human rights for the Palestinian Arabs.  The founder is Omar Barghouti.  His goal is a single Palestinian state in Israel and eradication of a Jewish state.  In furtherance of this position, he has stated that even if “occupation” (as characterized by BDS) would end, BDS would not end.  BDS hides behind a slogan of “Free Palestine,” but at rallies and protests supporters chant, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”  Israel is situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.  BDS’s objective of abolishing the State of Israel is evident.

Omar Barghouti was born in Qatar, raised in Egypt, and educated in the U.S. and Tel Aviv University.  He is a hypocrite who benefitted from Israeli education, refused to attend Arab schools in Israel, and now boycotts all things Israel.  He has refused to personally debate Alan Dershowitz and other informed anti-BDS leaders. 

BDS cares little about Arabs

The movement does not care about Arabs.  More than 500,000 Arabs were killed in the Syrian civil war.  Children were tortured and imprisoned, and more than 10,000 people were summarily executed in prison.  Where is the BDS outrage? 

In South Sudan 400,000 people have been killed in the past five years in ethnic wars, disease and hunger.  Again, where is the indignation from BDS?  Four years of war has left 16 million Yemenis facing “sever acute food insecurity” according to the U.N.  In Afghanistan, 18,000 people were killed in fighting in 2018.  The list goes on, but still, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement singles-out the world’s only Jewish state. 

Formation of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement

The present day BDS enterprise started to take shape following the UN World Conference Against Racism (an ironic name), held in Durban, South Africa in August/September 2001.  That conference included an NGO (non-governmental organization) Forum under UN auspices, which devolved into an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hate-fest.  The result of the NGO Forum, from which Jewish and Israeli NGOs were excluded, was the “Durban Strategy.”  The Forum’s declaration demonized and vilified Israel, falsely accusing Israel of being an apartheid state, and of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.  The goal of the Durban Strategy was to bring about the downfall of the State of Israel through boycott and isolation, much like the outcome of Apartheid South Africa. 

Invoking parallels between the free and democratic State of Israel and Apartheid South Africa were and remain blatantly false.  The UN Human Rights Commissioner and over 100 NGOs denounced the results of the Durban Strategy.   Since the terrorist attack on 9/11 occurred a mere few days following Durban, world attention was focused elsewhere, otherwise there would have been considerably more indignation and condemnation of Durban.

Other Boycotts of Jewish Businesses

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement is by no means an original attempt to boycott Jewish businesses.  In the early 1920’s, Arabs boycotted Jewish businesses in Palestine.  In 1945, less than 9 months after forming the Arab League, it commenced an economic boycott of the Jewish Community in Palestine.  Boycotts of Jewish businesses were widespread beginning in Nineteenth-Century Europe through the Holocaust. 

More about the Founder and Supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement

In the spirit of the Durban Strategy – the goal of which was the elimination of the Nation of Israel, Omar Barghouti started the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, after being involved in several other Jewish and Israeli boycott schemes.  He’s a proponent of terrorism, promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories, and seeks the destruction of the State of Israel. 

The fact that Mr. Barghouti, openly anti-Israel, characterizes Israel as an apartheid state while living in Israel and attending university in Israel, is one of countless examples of both the democracy that exists in Israel, and the fallacy of BDS’s claims.

The leadership of BDS seeks the destruction of the single nation state of the Jewish people.  The BDS movement and its supporters cannot be distinguished from its leadership.  It is disingenuous to be a proponent of singling out and boycotting the world’s only Jewish economy and simultaneously suggesting the absence of antisemitic motives.  And it is equally insincere to distance oneself from the genocidal, propagandist origins and leadership of BDS yet advocate for it. 

List of Antisemitic Supporters

The list of supporters of BDS includes a who’s who of leading antisemitic organizations.  BADIL, an NGO dedicated to eliminating Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, promotes martyrdom and engages in virulent antisemitic activities.   Miftah, another NGO, started by a member of the Durban fiasco, as late as 2013 published an article that repeated the antisemitic blood libel that Jews use Christian blood to bake matzah.  This organization promotes the glorification of terrorists.  The list goes on.  The background and motives of the leadership, its supporter and the “movement” can in no way be bifurcated.  The foundation, the bricks and mortar of BDS are nefarious. 

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement rejects Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state – within any borders.  Its financial supporters include Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and other known terrorist organizations.  Many in the BDS leadership have been imprisoned for terrorism and murder.  BDS fundraiser Laila Khalid of PFLP was involved in two civilian airplane hijackings and planning terrorist attacks.  BDS fundraisers Rani Sourani, another PFLP operative, and Iyad al-Alamo, also provide legal aid and advice to Hamas. Convicted terrorist Salah Hammouri, who attempted to assassinate a chief rabbi of Israel, is a BDS promoter.  The Ramallah-based BDS National Committee is staffed by a notorious group of Hamas, PFLP, Islamic Jihad and other terrorists.  This is the true face of BDS, hiding behind misguided, duped college students holding signs, chanting antisemitic, offensive tropes, wearing cool-looing Arab/Bedouin scarfs.

The articles to follow in this series will dispel and challenge other BDS myths.


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