BDS unmasked
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was unmasked last week, in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Omar Barghouti, a leader of the anti-Israel movement, declared that if Israel discovers a cure for the deadly disease even those who support BDS should take it.
Barghouti was speaking in a live video on the BDS Arabic Facebook page as part of a webinar on “BDS and Anti-normalization: The most important strategies to fight against the deal of the century, even in the time of COVID-19.”
As reported by The Jerusalem Post’s Lahav Harkov, the BDS leader warned that coronavirus should not be a “honeymoon” for Israel and questioned why the Palestinian Authority hasn’t stopped security cooperation with Israel.
Nonetheless, he said, “If you use medical equipment from Israel – it’s not a problem. Cooperating with Israel against the virus – to begin with, we didn’t consider it normalization.
“The BDS announced normalization criteria long ago,” Barghouti said. “If Israel finds a cure for cancer, for example, or any other virus, then there is no problem in cooperating with Israel to save millions of lives.”
Barghouti added, however, “Up until now, we have not been in a situation where we need Israel urgently and no one else can save us but Israel. If that will happen, saving lives is more important than anything else.”
True to form, the webinar was used to make unfounded allegations against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians especially during the pandemic and condemned continued normalization in “the Arab official system.”
Barghouti’s double standards should not come as a surprise. Although he has become one of the most prominent faces of the BDS movement, Barghouti has exempted himself from practicing what he preaches.
Born in Qatar to Palestinian parents, Barghouti was raised in Egypt and married an Arab Israeli. Living in Israel, he studied philosophy and ethics at Tel Aviv University. He has called for the international boycott of the institution while studying for a doctorate there.
Of course he’s not alone in this. Palestinian Authority leaders and their families have regularly been treated in Israeli hospitals, seeking higher quality care than is available to ordinary Palestinians in PA areas and Gaza, while at the same time continuing to incite and fan terrorism against the “Zionist state.”
With its hi-tech developments and medical and agricultural breakthroughs, Israel has truly become the StartUp Nation – a world leader in technology in a broad range of fields. It would be hard for Barghouti and his ilk to completely avoid any product with an Israeli connection, be it on mobile phones, laptops or in the medical sphere – well before the age of the coronavirus.
Israel is rightly proud that it has been working together with the PA to help fight the spread of COVID-19, including holding Israeli training programs for Palestinian medical teams, as well as offering donations of protective gear to Palestinians.
Some of the assistance has been more unusual. Last week, Harkov reported that Israel helped evacuate five Palestinian sheikhs from Indonesia, with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations, after it banned foreigners due to the spread of corona.
Amsalem Tours, which has worked with the Foreign Ministry on many of its operations to bring home stranded Israelis, helped the sheikhs who had been stuck for three weeks in Jakarta. The PA was unable to bring them back after several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan, refused to allow them to travel through their territory to reach their homes in Nablus.
We must ask what policy helps the Palestinians and the cause of true peace more: cooperation and assistance or calling for a boycott and the destruction of Israel as the Jewish state?
The novel coronavirus pandemic has caused much suffering and devastation but it also opens a window of opportunity for something good to happen – new alliances and cooperation to the benefit of all. Barghouti actively seeks to delegitimize and ultimately destroy Israel while pretending this helps the Palestinians and furthers the cause of human rights. Wearing an anti-coronavirus mask cannot disguise the two faces of Barghouti and the BDS movement he represents.
It’s time to reveal the true face of BDS and work together to make the world a better, healthier, place.