BEAT BDS WITH TRUTH
First off, let’s get one thing out of the way: the Boyc ott , Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel is a demonstrably ineffective, hopelessly tired, morally disingenuous preoccupation that has achieved basically nothing in terms of territorial concessions, unless you count the occasional yield of meeting spaces on North American university campuses. Activists have tried for the last decade to put an economic stranglehold on Israel — as well as on companies that do business with Israel — while remaining blissfully blind to the innumerable products, technological advances and medical breakthroughs from Israel that touch our everyday lives.
Those who campaign for BDS are remarkably obstinate and won’t withdraw their gaze on Israel for anything: not for Russia, back when it invaded and occupied territory in Crimea, or more recently, dropped bombs on schools and private homes in Syria, indiscriminately killing civilians; not for Saudi Arabia, which continues to operate a tire fire of a kingdom where dissidents are imprisoned and executed with gratuitous impunity; and not for the brutal dictatorial regime in Syria, which has persecuted, gassed and slaughtered its own civilians, and home to the largest global refugee crisis in generations. No, for BDS activists, it’s still all about Israel — the only real democracy in the Middle East, its very existence threatened by its immediate neighbours — even though babies are literally starving to death 150 kilometres northeast.
It is because of that singular fixation with Israel that many people dismiss the boycott movement as thinly veiled anti- Semitism, and indeed, why many of those same people feel compelled to shut it down. Last week, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel introduced a motion in the House of Commons condemning the BDS movement in Canada, which, according to the motion, “promotes the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel.” The motion further “call( s) upon the government to condemn any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement, both here at home and abroad.” On Monday, the motion passed by a vote of 229- 51, with the Conservatives and Liberals ( less two errant MPs) voting in favour, the NDP opposed.
The motion was introduced in the wake of news that students at McGill University in Montreal would soon be asked to vote on a BDS motion for the third time in less than three years. ( It also presented as a ripe prospective wedge issue for the new Official Opposition — especially in the wake of the Liberals’ recent tough talk for Israel — but unfortunately for the Conservatives, the Liberals didn’t take the bait.) After it passed, the motion was celebrated by parliamentarians and Israel advocates as a strike against anti- Semitism, and decried by its detractors as an assault on free speech. In practice, it won’t approach either level of significance, or relevancy. It’s a gesture — nothing more.
Still, those who support the anti- BDS motion will tell you that symbols are important, and while nothing tangible will actually change in the wake of this vote, it sends the right message. And while that’s certainly true in some cases, in this case, when the whole point of the BDS movement is about standing up to the establishment and rejecting the alliances between Western governments and the State of Israel — well, a parliamentary condemnation might not end up having the desired effect. Indeed, if anything, the government’s censure will probably embolden the BDS movement, much more than it will discourage it.
But the main issue I take with the Conservatives anti- BDS motion i s not about unintended consequences, or empty symbolism, or the government sticking its nose somewhere it probably doesn’t belong. Rather, it’s about lending credibility to a movement that deserves none, and yet, is granted legitimacy by a discussion in the House of Commons. But if we are going to talk about BDS, the proper response is not censure, but facts: here’s why it’s ludicrous to see people marching against Israel in Toronto’s Gay Pride Parade, let me tell you about the technology that went i nto running your l aptop, do you know how many Palestinian workers were employed by the SodaStream factory in the West Bank?
We shouldn’t be trying to silence BDS activists: the more they talk, the more they expose the glaring inconsistencies in their own vacuous reasoning. For that reason, we shouldn’t try to shut down their campus marches or celebrate our parliamentarians’ collective “condemnation.” Instead, we should wait patiently while they prattle on about the oppressive colonialization behind Sabra Hummus, or whatever, and then proceed to methodically deflate each one of their arguments. The antidote to BDS nonsense isn’t denunciation — it’s reality.
THE ON-CAMPUS ZEALOTS ARE SO OBSESSED WITH ISRAEL THEY CAN’T EVEN NOTICE THE SYRIAN BABIES STARVING TO DEATH 150 KM AWAY.