Is BDS Today's Amalek?

BDS = Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions

A. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ B. http://bdsmovement.net/bdsintro

Boycott: A. “to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with … to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditions.”

B. “Boycotts target products and companies … that profit from the violation of Palestinian rights, as well as Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions…. Campaigners and groups call on consumers not to buy Israeli goods and on businesses not to buy or sell them.

Israeli cultural and academic institutions directly contribute to maintaining, defending or whitewashing the oppression of Palestinians, as Israel deliberately tries to boost its image internationally through academic and cultural collaborations. As part of the boycott, academics, artists and consumers are campaigning against such collaboration and ‘rebranding’.”

Divestment: A. “finance : to sell (something valuable, such as property or stocks).”

B. "Divestment means targeting corporations complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights and ensuring that … university investment portfolios and pension funds are not used to finance such companies. These efforts raise awareness about the reality of Israel’s policies and encourage companies to use their economic influence to pressure Israel to end its systematic denial of Palestinian rights.”

Sanction: A. “an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country, by not allowing economic aid for that country, etc.”

B. “Sanctions are an essential part of demonstrating disapproval for a country’s actions. Israel’s membership of … diplomatic and economic forums provides both an unmerited veneer of respectability and material support for its crimes. By calling for sanctions against Israel, campaigners educate society about violations of international law and seek to end the complicity of other nations in these violations.”

• BDS traces its roots to a 2005 call from Palestinian Civil Society to apply non-violent resistance to punish Israel. According to the International Socialist Review, BDS can be traced to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, where a draft statement opposed “movements based on racism and discriminatory ideas, in particular the Zionist movement, which is based on racial superiority.” Palestinian activists met with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and later received support from Archbishop Desmond Tutu about stark similarities between the Occupation and South African apartheid.
• The BDS Movement is a global network of individuals and organizations who aim to isolate Israel politically, economically and culturally. Their objective is to challenge Israel’s right to exist as the sovereign homeland of the Jewish people, which is often called delegitimization.
• Their strategy is to delegitimize Israel’s very existence in order to secure a one-state solution to the conflict through Israel’s dissolution as a Jewish and democratic, multicultural state.

Methods Include:

• Divestment Campaigns in Student Government, Boards of Trustees, Boycott of Israeli goods and speakers
• Israel Apartheid Week
• Guerilla/Street Theater (Mock Checkpoints, Die-Ins, Disrupting Cultural Events and Speakers

Israel Apartheid Week:

Raise awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project and apartheid policies over the Palestinian people.… The apartheid analysis of Israel has helped highlight the colonial context of Zionism. Israeli Apartheid Week uses this framework to make historical and concrete connections with other struggles against racism, discrimination, and colonialism.

Building support for the Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

Ten years since its launch, the BDS movement is now widely recognized by Palestinians, the solidarity movement, Israel and its supporters as a key way in which we can hold Israel to account and end international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.

Is BDS (or other Anti-Israel Activity) Anti-Semitism?

US State Department Fact Sheet SPECIAL ENVOY TO MONITOR AND COMBAT ANTI-SEMITISM June 8, 2010

"Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."

--Working Definition of Anti-Semitism by the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia

What is Anti-Semitism Relative to Israel?

EXAMPLES of the ways in which anti-Semitism manifests itself with regard to the state of Israel, taking into account the overall context could include:

DEMONIZE ISRAEL:

• Using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism to characterize Israel or Israelis
• Comparing contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis
• Blaming Israel for all inter-religious or political tensions

DOUBLE STANDARD FOR ISRAEL:

• Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation
• Multilateral organizations focusing on Israel only for peace or human rights investigations

DELEGITIMIZE ISRAEL:

• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, and denying Israel the right to exist

However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.

http://www.state.gov Home » Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights » Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor » Releases » Fact Sheets » 2010 » Defining Anti-Semitism