Reactions to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
[1][2][3] Critics of the movement, such as Elhanan Yakira, Ethan Felson, and Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, have argued that BDS is a campaign motivated by anti-Zionism and anti-Israel sentiment.
[4][5][6] Executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein called BDS a "'politically correct' form of anti-Semitism.
"[17] Following the incident, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that the "campaign does not serve the cause of peace and diplomacy for agreement on a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine", and added that Australia has always had firm opposition to the BDS movement.
On 29 May 2013, Jewish Australian academics Andrew Benjamin, Michele Grossman, and David Goodman condemned the Coalition's election promise as "an anti-democratic gesture par excellence".
[24][25][26] According to the Canadian academics Abigail Bakan and Yasmeen Abu-Laban, the BDS campaign has been important in contesting what they describe as "the hegemonic framing of Israel as a victim state in the face of Palestinian 'terrorism'.
[28][29] Dublin's City Council passed two resolutions on 9 April 2018 endorsing the BDS movement that included a motion to boycott Hewlett Packard (HP) goods, for its complicity concerning Israeli occupation.
Tal Brody is the honorary chairman of the initiative and said the purpose is to "fight back against those who think that they'll be able to destroy Israel by waging economic warfare".[33][importance?]
It calls on the government "to indicate in a visible and convincing way that it encourages relations between Dutch and Israeli businesses and institutions" because "economic cooperation promotes peace, security, stability in the region."
[50] In another March 2015 event in South Africa, a mob of BDS supporters threw rocks, broke equipment, and looted a store that sells products from Israel.
It passed a motion that requested Spain "suspend its ties with Israel until the country ceases its policy of criminal repression of the Palestinian population.
[56] The organizers of the week long Rototom Sunsplash music festival held in Spain from August 15 to 22nd 2015, cancelled the scheduled appearance of Jewish American rapper Matisyahu after he refused to sign a statement supporting a Palestinian state.
"[57] El País Spain's highest-circulation daily paper wrote "The decision by the organizers of the Rototom Sunsplash music festival in Benicássim to ban reggae singer Matisyahu from performing this Saturday is a serious case of religious and political discrimination.
The organizers stated that "it made a mistake, due to the boycott and the campaign of pressure, coercion and threats employed by the BDS País Valencià.
The boycott, which was not compulsory, was set to last until Haifa "ceases its victimisation of academic staff and students who seek to research and discuss the history of the founding of the state of Israel"[64][65][66][67] and by Universities UK.
After both internal and external backlash and condemnation, members of the AUT, headed by Open University lecturer Jon Pike – gathered enough signatures to call a special meeting on the subject.
Reasons cited for the decision were the damage to academic freedom, the hampering of dialogue and peace effort between Israelis and Palestinian, and that boycotting Israel alone could not be justified.
[68] At the 2006 annual conference of the United Kingdom lecturers' union, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), members were asked to support a motion calling for a boycott of Israeli academics and universities that did not distance themselves from "apartheid policies".
"[70] In contrast, Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg argued: it is never a good idea for academics to boycott colleagues in other countries on political grounds.
During the Cold War, American and Soviet scientists were careful to keep intellectual communication open; this not only served the cause of science, but promoted personal relationships that led to initiatives in arms control.
In a similar spirit, when I ran the Jerusalem Winter School of Theoretical Physics we did what we could to recruit Arab students from Muslim countries whose governments discriminated against Jews.
However, the vote was immediately declared invalid as UCU attorneys repeated previous warnings that such a boycott would likely trigger legal action against the union.
He said, "The condemnation was in line with a respectable body of opinion, including the UK government, the United Nations General Assembly, the European Union and the International Court of Justice."
'[81] In July 2014, UK department store John Lewis removed all SodaStream products from all its shelves, amid growing pressure from the public and declining sales.
[82] In November 2015, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and Conservative MP, described proponents of a "so-called" boycott of goods and services, as well as other punitive measures such as sanctions or divestment of shares in Israeli companies, as "corduroy jacketed-academics... by and large lefty academics who have no real standing in the matter and are unlikely to be influential on Britain".
The prominent activist for Palestinian human rights stated he supports the "boycott and divestment of firms that are carrying out operations in the occupied territories"[85][86] but the current BDS movement's "hypocrisy rises to heaven".
[87] In the same interview, he also criticized BDS founder Omar Barghouti for advocating a full boycott of Israel, despite having studied at Tel Aviv University.
[88] In a subsequent letter to Artists for Palestine, Chomsky clarified his position, writing "I've been involved in activities to hold Israel accountable for its international law violations since before the BDS movement took shape.
[100] In February 2016, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church(USA) was lobbied by its Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) to lay aside a quest for a two state solution and support BDS.
[103] In October 2016, BDS advocate Roger Waters lost $4 million in sponsorship after American Express refused to fund his North America tour due to his anti-Israel rhetoric at a previous festival.
[112] Omri Boehm argued in the Los Angeles Review of Books that "a boycott on Israeli academics is an obvious form of a violent political action".
