Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

File:Boycott Israel-poster.jpg

"Refuse to finance the occupation – Boycott Israel" — A Swedish poster calls for a boycott of Israel

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a campaign started on 9 July 2005 by 171 Palestinian non-governmental organizations in support of the Palestinian cause for boycott, divestment and international sanctions against Israel.

Background

Main article: Boycotts of Israel

In January 2005 the Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI) presented a call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to the 5th World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil (26 January and 31 January). The launch of the campaign coincided with the first anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling on the Israeli West Bank barrier.

Goals

According to the movement's website, the BDS campaign is shaped by a rights-based approach and urges various form of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligation under international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

Achievements

French multinational firm Veolia Environnement, which has been involved in developing the Jerusalem Light Rail as well as waste and transport services for settlements in the West Bank, has been targeted by the BDS movement. A civil society campaign in Stockholm led Veolia to lose a €3.5 billion ($4.3 billion) contract for the operation of Stockholm's metro system. Additional campaigning has led the company to lose a further €5 billion ($6.2 billion) worth of contracts in France, England, Wales, and Australia.

In 2011, the Unified Workers' Central (CUT), Brazil's main national trade union, representing over 20 million workers, endorsed the BDS movement. In a statement signed by the union's National President, General Secretary, and International Relations Secretary, CUT stated:

“The advancement of the Israeli offensive, symbolized by the construction of the wall of apartheid and the constant bombing of Gaza requires solidarity with the Palestinian People from us all to carry out policies that go beyond humanitarian assistance and can contribute in a relevant way to build peace in Palestine. Thus we urge trade unions, social and popular movements to support the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions to policies of occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel.”

The French Coalition contre Agrexco, consisting of over 100 NGOs and five political parties, led a campaign for the boycott of Agrexco, Israel's then-largest producer of agricultural produce among further boycotts, blockades, and demonstrations against the company throughout Europe. The company was ordered into liquidation in August 2011, with debts of €175 million ($217 million).Some reports attribute Agrexco's bankruptcy partially to the global boycott of the company's produce. Agrexco was responsible for 60-70% of the agricultural produce grown in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and was owned largely by the Israeli government.

In May 2010, the Congress of the British University and College Union (UCU) voted to support the BDS campaign and to sever all ties with the Histadrut, Israel’s organization of trade unions. The motion’s initiator, Brighton University lecturer Tom Hickey, said that the Histadrut had supported “the Israeli assault on civilians in Gaza” in January 2009, and “did not deserve the name of a trade union organization.” The boycott motion calls to “campaign actively” against the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The union also passed a motion to give support for Palestinian academic trade unionists and a resolution to start the process of boycotting the Ariel University Center of Samaria, an Israeli college located in the West Bank.

In April 2012 the UK's 5th largest supermarket group, the Co-operative Group, announced that it would be "no longer engaging with any supplier of produce known to be sourcing from Israeli settlements." This involved terminating contracts amounting to around £350,000 ($538,000) with companies such as Agrexco and Arava Export Growers. The Co-operative stated that it is not an Israeli boycott and that it will continue to “use other suppliers in the country that do not source from illegal settlements [in the West Bank].”

A few days after the Gaza flotilla raid in 2010, the Swedish Dockworkers Union, which handles over 95% of Sweden's foreign trade, launched a week-long boycott of Israeli ships. However, medical equipment and other critical goods, including equipment for dialysis machines destined for Israel from the southern Swedish port of Helsingborg, were exempt from this boycott. Swedishj officials said they expected the boycott to have a minimal impact on Swedish-Israeli trade, which accounts for only 0.2 per cent of the Sweden's country's total imports and exports.

In April 2010, both the Scottish Trades Union Congress and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions voted to reaffirm their support of the BDS movement. The British Trades Union Congress also launched a campaign to implement a boycott of Israeli goods and services, and indicated its intent to adopt a more comprehensive boycott campaign against Israel.

In early 2010, Danske Bank divested from the Israeli company Elbit Systems, which supplies electronics equipment for settlement construction as well as the West Bank wall, citing that Elbit Systems' involvement in such activities is "in conflict with human rights norms." A Danske Bank spokesman commented, "We handle clients' interests, and we do not want to put customers' money in companies that violate international standards."

In January 2010, PKA Ltd, one of the largest pension funds in Denmark, decided to divest from Elbit Systems and sold nearly $1 million worth of shares of the company's stock. PKA's investment director cited Elbit's involvement with the West Bank wall as the reason for the divestment, stating, "The ICJ [International Court of Justice, the Hague] stated that the barrier only serves military purposes and violates Palestinian human rights. Therefore we have looked at whether companies produce custom-designed products to the wall and thus has a particular involvement in repressive activities."

In 2010, students at UC Berkeley led a publicized divestment campaign, with support from figures including retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, author and activist Naomi Klein, and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein.

Supporters

University of Illinois law professor Francis Boyle has supported the campaign since first calling for its establishment in 2000. He has remarked, "As of 2000, the Palestinians did not have a grassroots movement in their support, so I decided to set one off, and it's doing quite well. Indeed, it's take[n] off worldwide." Boyle has further expressed his belief that "grassroots movement[s] by common, ordinary, everyday people" such as BDS lead to progressive change..

Israeli historian and Exeter University professor Ilan Pappe has also voiced his support of the BDS campaign. During an Israel Society forum at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Pappe said that the BDS campaign is one of the foremost avenues in promoting the Palestinian cause. In reference to the BDS movement, he stated, "it is the failure of the peace process, and I would say it is the abuse of the peace process . . . that led people to support pressure from the outside."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called on the international community to treat Israel as it treated apartheid South Africa and supports the divestment campaign against Israel.

In March 2011, Pink Floyd founding member, vocalist and bassist Roger Waters voiced his support for a cultural boycott of Israel, calling the West Bank barrier "an appalling edifice to behold." Waters said his tour of the West Bank affected him deeply and led him to relocate his performance from Tel Aviv to Neve Shalom, a cooperative village founded by Jews and Arabs in which they reside side by side. Waters has written the lyrics, "We don't need no thought control" from Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" on the wall.

In August 2011, the American National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus (NMEPC) endorsed the BDS campaign against Israel.

Artists supporting the BDS movement include Hollywood actors Meg Ryan and Dustin Hoffman, who cancelled their attendance at the 2010 Jerusalem Film Festival after the Gaza flotilla raid. Gorillaz, Elvis Costello, Gil Scott-Heron, Pixies, Mike Leigh, and Klaxons have also cancelled concerts and events in Israel. Furthermore, figures such as Pete Seeger,Brian Eno, writers Eduardo Galeano and Arundhati Roy, filmmaker Ken Loach, John Berger, Judith Butler, Naomi Klein, Sarah Schulman, Aharon Shabtai, Udi Aloni, John Greyson, Adrienne Rich, John Williams, John Greyson, Ken Loach, and The Yes Men have explicated their support for the cultural boycott of Israel. Augusto Boal, Andre Brink, Vincenzo Consolo, and Nigel Kennedy have refused to participate in official Israeli cultural events, citing political reasons. Artists Bono, Bjork, Jean-Luc Godard and Snoop Dogg have either declined offers to take parts in events in Israel or have cancelled planned events without giving explicit political reasons.

Reaction

Australia

Australia held its first national BDS conference in 2010.

Australian pro-Palestinian groups have targeted, in particular, the Israeli-owned business Max Brenner. In Victoria in 2011, a picket was staged of a Max Brenner store located in the Queen Victoria Village, in Melbourne's central business district, for the company's alleged support for the Israeli Defense Forces. Nineteen activists were arrested during the protest, and 16 were charged and bailed on offenses including assaulting police, riotous behaviour, besetting premises and trespass. The Australian Jewish News reported the protesters were not peaceful and that no member of the public was injured; however, The Palestine Telegraph reported that the protest was peaceful and that a protester suffered a dislocated shoulder from police. The incident led conservative blogger and author Pamela Gellar to label Students for Palestine, one of the groups involved in the protest, as a "terrorist organization". Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and Gerry Conlon were signatories to the petition to defend those arrested, known as the "Boycott Israel 19".

Although Max Brenner is targeted by some Australian Palestinian activists the Australian Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, "I don't think in 21st-century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business." In addition, the Reverend Jim Barr, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, while supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, disagreed with the protest, saying, "that stuff just discredits the whole movement."

In New South Wales in 2011, Walt Secord of the Labor Party's NSW Legislative Council, called on the NSW Minister for Police, Michael Gallacher, to "provide assurances for the protection of businesses with Israeli links" after two BDS protesters were arrested outside a Max Brenner store. Also in New South Wales, on April 19, 2011, the town council of Marrickville held a fiery meeting over whether to support the global BDS campaign. Though they struck down the motion, one councilor went on record hoping that Israelis and Palestinians could, "live in peace in the future without Marrickville Council trying to interfere."

The NSW Greens State Conference prior to the 2011 NSW State Election adopted a resolution in support of BDS. In support of the statement, Senator Lee Rhiannon said it was "motivated by the universal principles of freedom, justice and equal rights" and also "I see the value of that tactic as a way to promoting Palestinian human rights." Following the election, Federal leader Bob Brown said that he had conveyed his disapproval of this policy emphasis to Rhiannon. In December 2011, the NSW Greens reviewed their support the BDS campaign against Israel, bringing the branch more closely in line with the federal Greens Party position. However, they did vote to support BDS as a "legitimate political tactic." Rhiannon said that this was not a defeat, but rather, "The resolution recognizes the legitimacy of the BDS as a political tactic."

Canada

The most visible face of organizing in support of BDS in Canada is Israeli Apartheid Week, originally started in Toronto in 2005.

However, IAW is not without considerable opposition in Canada, Dax D’Orazio, media spokesman for Israeli Apartheid Week, claimed that in 2010, he was personally assaulted while putting up posters for the Israeli Apartheid Week event, and in 2011 a peaceful protest set up by Students Against Israeli Apartheid was dismantled by Carleton University’s board of governors.

On March 21, 2012, graduate students at Carleton University overwhelmingly voiced their support for the Palestinian people, by voting for the university's pension fund to divest from four companies that are complicit in the occupation of Palestine.

According to Quebec-Israel Committee (QIC) executive director Luciano Del Negro, a three-day BDS conference held at the Université du Québec à Montréal in October 2010 was "a dismal failure".

IAW is often accused of being a lightening rod for antisemitism. For instance, according to Ynetnews, the English-language sister-site to Ynet, Israel's largest and most popular news and content website, in February 2012, Vancouverite Shani Bar-Oz's soap products store was being boycotted for carrying Israeli goods and "venemous protests" were staged outside her store, which included the shouting of anti-semitic slogans. This resulted in "a huge wave of support and generated new business...with new orders pouring in as result of the story."

Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, in a statement made on March 7, 2012, referred to "the rise of anti-Israel activities on campuses across Canada, culminating in the so-called 'Israeli Apartheid Week' (IAW), which is often promoted in a manner that disregards the rights and safety of Jewish students and professors."

In response, Independent Jewish Voices issued a statement that on Minister Jason Kenney's condemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week, that "Free expression on Canadian campuses, including both academic discourse and political analysis, must be protected from these kinds of political interference and all attempts of censorship. Unlike the Conservative government, we encourage and invite open debate and discussion on the full spectrum of views on the Israel/Palestine conflict. As public events on university campuses, IAW talks are open to anyone who wishes to attend and is willing to participate within the standard regulations governing debate and events on university campuses. [. . .] For eight years, Israeli Apartheid Week has provided a model for free and open discussion by providing a week-long series of public lectures by academics and activists on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict."

France

Following the Gaza War in 2008-2009, in February 2009, a call for an academic boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli institutions was published.

In June 2009, several French organisations gathered to organize a French BDS campaign against specific targets like Carrefour, Ahava, Agrexco-Carmel, Veolia Transport and Alstom.

Olivia Zemor, of the group EuroPalestine, was summoned to appear in French court in 2011 for posting a video to the internet of Palestinian and French activists wearing t-shirts that called for a boycott of Israel. Zemor says she was not present but only published the video on the internet. The court has ruled that "The call for the boycott of the products of a State by a citizen is not forbidden under French law" and is part of the freedom of expression.

Israel

On July 11, 2011, the Knesset passed a law making it a civil offence to publicly call for a boycott against the State of Israel, defined as "deliberately avoiding economic, cultural or academic ties with another person or another factor only because of his ties with the State of Israel, one of its institutions or an area under its control, in such a way that may cause economic, cultural or academic damage". According to the law, anyone calling for a boycott can be sued, and forced to pay compensation regardless of actual damages. At the discretion of a government minister, they may also be prevented from bidding in government tenders.

The new law drew a lot of criticism, including a petition by 32 Israeli law professors arguing that the law is unconstitutional and does grievous harm to the freedom of political expression and freedom of protest. Other pro-Israel advocates who are fully opposed to BDS, including Gerald Steinberg from NGO Monitor and Morton Klein from the Zionist Organization of America, have criticized the law by saying that there are many better avenues with which to counter BDS.

A group of Israeli businesmen have started a sales website called "Shop-a-Fada" in order to promote Israeli products. Tal Brody is the honorary chairman of the initiatve, and said the purpose is to "fight back against those who think that they’ll be able to destroy Israel by waging economic warfare."

A Jewish factory manager living in the West Bank expressed concern that a boycott of Israeli products will have the harshest economic effects for Palestinian labor. In his opinion, both Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank have an economic and social interest in stopping the boycott. Another factory manager who employs 40 Palestinians told Ynetnews that his employees expressed concern about what a boycott could mean for their jobs and that they are against a boycott.

Jordan

Jordan's Prince el Hassan al bin Talal attended the 2012 Herliya Conference in Israel, and spoke to the conference saying "these conversations aren't going to lead us anywhere unless we find the will to progress together," as did Saeb Erakat, Palestinian Authority negotiator. Erakat and Prince bin Talal's participation was criticized by several BDS supporters, including Omar Barghouti who said it was "an act of complicity in the promotion of Israeli occupation and apartheid," and "the participation of any Arab speaker...[is] a move that undermines our struggle for freedom and our right to return and self-determinism."

South Africa

In 2011 the University of Johannesburg decided to suspend ties with Israeli Ben-Gurion University, while still allowing "individual faculty" to continue cooperating with the Israeli University on a water purification project, citing the University's support for the Israeli military. The decision was seen to affect projects in biotechnology and water purification. However, two days later, Ihron Rensburg, vice chancellor and principal of the university issued a statement saying that "UJ is not part of an academic boycott of Israel...It has never been UJ's intention to sever all ties with BGU, although it may have been the intention of some UJ staff members."

United Kingdom

Main article: Academic boycotts of Israel

On April 22, 2005, the Association of University Teachers (AUT) Council voted to boycott two Israeli universities: University of Haifa and Bar-Ilan University. The motions to AUT Council were prompted by the call for a boycott from Palestinian academics and others. The AUT Council voted to boycott Bar-Ilan because it runs courses at colleges in the occupied West Bank (in Ariel College) and "is thus directly involved with the occupation of Palestinian territories contrary to United Nations resolutions". It boycotted Haifa because it was alleged that the university had wrongly disciplined a lecturer. The action against the lecturer was supposedly for supporting a student who wrote about attacks on Palestinians during the founding of the state of Israel (he withdrew the claims when sued for libel and the University denied having disciplined the lecturer). 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,".

The AUT's decision was immediately condemned by certain groups, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and members of the AUT. Critics of the boycott within and outside the AUT noted that at the council at which the boycott motion was passed the leadership had cut short debate citing a lack of time. The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Union of Jewish Students accused the AUT of purposely holding the vote during Passover, when many Jewish members could not be present. Israel's embassy in London issued a statement criticizing the AUT's vote as a "distorted decision that ignores the British public's opinion", and condemning the resolutions for being "as perverse in their content as in the way they were debated and adopted." Zvi Ravner, Israel's deputy ambassador in London, said that "[t]he last time that Jews were boycotted in universities was in 1930s Germany." Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement condemning the "misguided and ill-timed decision to boycott academics from the only country in the Middle East where universities enjoy political independence".

The AUT said that members had voted for the boycott in response to a plea for action by a group of Palestinian academics. It was condemned by the Israeli embassy in London, the British ambassador to Israel, by Jewish human rights groups, by al-Quds University in Jerusalem, by the National Postgraduate Committee of the UK, 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. The meeting was held on May 26, 2005, at Friends Meeting House in London. At the meeting the AUT decided to cancel the boycott of both Israeli universities. 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.

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 which failed to distance themselves from "apartheid policies". Although the motion was passed it ceased to be official policy just two days later when the union merged with the Association of University Teachers.

Prior to the NATFHE debate the Federation of Unions of Palestinian University Professors and Employees and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel described the campaign in a letter to the Times Higher Education Supplement as "the only non-violent forms of action available to people of conscience the world over" adding, "We salute those who recognise that, since justice for Palestinians cannot be expected from the international centres of world power, they must organise to further the cause of justice and genuine peace." In contrast, Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg argued that "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. We never dreamt of boycotting them."

At the 2009 UCU annual congress, the union passed a resolution to boycott Israeli academics and academic institutions by a large majority. Delegates stated that Israeli academics were complicit in their government's acts against Palestinians. 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.

United States

University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann said in January 2012 that the university "has clearly stated on numerous occasions that it does not support sanctions or boycotts against Israel." She said that the school was not a sponsor of a BDS conference taking place on campus in February 2012.

The Forward published, in January 2012, an article about Jewish presidents of universities, saying that "many college presidents" see BDS as a "red line" and that "presidents who were previously disinclined to speak out against anti-Israel activity on campus in the name of preserving open dialogue found themselves publicly opposing the movement."

On March 27, 2012, the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, New York, voted against holding a referendum on whether to implement a BDS-oriented boycott of Israel.

At the 2012 Tampa Conference, the United Methodist Church voted to reject the divestment initiative regarding businesses that deal with Israel, including "Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard." This follows an earlier 2005 decision to support a divestiture campaign.

Other

In 2010, Noam Chomsky, the 2011 Sydney Peace Prize recipient and a prominent pro-Palestinian activist was interviewed regarding the BDS movement and stated that its "hypocrisy rises to the high heavens". He said that its goal was "the destruction of Israel". He said that it's "not a call from the Palestinian people". He said that anything that targets Israel alone can be attacked as antisemitism and "unfortunately this is with justice". He stated that BDS campaign harms the "whole movement". It harms the Palestinians and it is a gift to the Israeli hardliners and their American supporters, because the BDS's "hypocrisy is so transparent... why not boycott the United States?.. Israeli crimes [are] a fragment of US crimes, which are much worse". He also argued that the Palestinian people don't support boycotting Israel and that the BDS movement is run by people who falsely claim to represent the Palestinian people.

In 2012, Norman Finkelstein, a harsh critic of Israel, "launched a blistering attack" of the BDS movement, saying it was a "hypocritical, dishonest cult" that tries to cleverly pose as human rights activists while in reality their goal is to destroy Israel. In addition, he said: "I'm getting a little bit exasperated with what I think is a whole lot of nonsense. I'm not going to tolerate silliness, childishness and a lot of leftist posturing. I loathe the disingenuousness. We will never hear the solidarity movement [back a] two-state solution." Furthermore, Finkelstein stated that the BDS movement has had very few successes, and that just like a cult, the leaders pretend that they are hugely successful when in reality the general public rejects their extreme views.

In October 2011, Izzat Abdulhadi, head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia said that he is against the "full-scale" BDS campaign, and in particular expressed his anger over the occasionally violent protests at the Max Brenner stores in Australia, saying, "BDS is a non-violent process and I don't think it's the right of anybody to use BDS as a violent action or to prevent people from buying from any place."

Criticism

A number of analysts, journalists, and policy groups have argued that the BDS movement promotes the delegitimization of Israel. In The Jerusalem Post, Gil Troy argues that the BDS movement does not target Israel's polices, but rather targets Israel's legitimacy. Similarly, The Reut Institute argued that by what they perceive as singling out Israel and applying double standards, the BDS movement delegitimizes Israel. These groups and individuals argue that regardless of whether or not the participants in boycotts seek to threaten Israel's legitimacy, the movement itself and the organizers behind it have the same goal: isolate Israel like South Africa. Although BDS has tried to finesse the question of whether the movement is seeking a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many of its leaders have gone on the record as seeking the anathema-to-Israelis "secular binational Palestine", including Omar Barghouti.

Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz asserted that the BDS movement abets terrorism. "People who advocate boycotts and divestiture will literally have blood on their hands," he said. "They encourage terrorism and discourage the laying down of arms."

Martin Raffel, who oversees the Israel Action Network, argued in March 2011 that Israel's supporters can respectfully debate artists who choose to boycott the West Bank town of Ariel, but that "not recognizing Israel as a Jewish democratic state is a completely different story."

The Economist contends that the boycott is "flimsy" and ineffective, that "blaming Israel alone for the impasse in the occupied territories will continue to strike many outsiders as unfair," and points out that the Palestinian leadership does not support the boycott.

The director of communications for the New Israel Fund wrote in March 2012 that the BDS movement "has accomplished very little" and that it should be relegated "to the trash-heap of failed strategies, where it belongs."

Criticism by artists and public figures

In an op-ed published in The Jerusalem Post in November 2010, Gerald Steinberg and Jason Edelstein contend that while "the need to refute their [BDS organizations] allegations is clear, students and community groups must also adopt a proactive strategy to undermine the credibility and influence of these groups. This strategy will marginalize many of the BDS movement's central actors, and expose the lie that BDS is a grassroots protest against Israeli policy. Exposing their abuses and funding sources, and forcing their campaign leaders and participants to respond to us will change the dynamic in this battle." In an effort to combat BDS, in March 2011, NGO Monitor produced "the 'BDS Sewer System', intended to provide detailed information about boycott campaigns against Israel.

After the post-punk group PiL went to Tel Aviv to headline the Heineken Music Conference 2010 Festival in August 2010, British musician John Lydon responded to criticism by saying: "If Elvis-fucking-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he's suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him. But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated."

In October 2010, the Cape Town Opera (CTO) declined an appeal by Desmond Tutu to cancel a tour of Israel. The CTO stated that the company was "reluctant to adopt the essentially political position of disengagement from cultural ties with Israel or with Palestine" and that they had been in negotiations for four years and would respect the contract.

Gene Simmons, lead singer of Kiss, said that artists who avoid Israel - such as Elvis Costello, the Pixies and Roger Waters - would be better served directing their anger at Arab dictators. "The countries they should be boycotting are the same countries that the populations are rebelling," he said.

Other artists who have voiced opposition to the campaign include writers Umberto Eco and film makers Joel and Ethan Coen. Many musicians such as Elton John, Leonard Cohen, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Metallica, 50 Cent, Madonna, Paul McCartney, and Ziggy Marley have chosen to perform in Israel in recent years. Novelist Ian McEwan, upon being awarded the Jerusalem Prize, was urged to turn it down, but said that "If I only went to countries that I approve of, I probably would never get out of bed...It's not great if everyone stops talking."

The Irish Dance production Riverdance performed in Israel in September 2011, and despite requests that it boycott Israel, Riverdance posted this statement on their website: "Riverdance supports the policy of the Irish Government and indeed the policy of every other EU state that cultural interaction is preferable to isolation".

Reverend Jim Barr, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, while supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, criticized protesters who prevented shoppers from entering the Israeli-owned Max Brenner chocolate stores in Australia and the subsequent clash between protesters and police, which he said "discredits the whole movement."

In October 2011, Izzat Abdulhadi, head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia said that he is against the "full-scale" BDS campaign, and in particular expressed his anger over the occasionally violent protests at the Max Brenner stores in Australia, saying, "BDS is a non-violent process and I don't think it's the right of anybody to use BDS as a violent action or to prevent people from buying from any place."

Creative Community for Peace, founded in late 2011, is an anti-BDS organization made up of music executives and music representatives including Aerosmith, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Justin Timberlake.

Hollywood celebrities Zach Roerig, Paget Brewster, Holt McCallany, Omar Epps, Holly Robinson Peete, Mekhi Phifer, AnnaLynne McCord,Paul Johansson, Dominic Purcell all visited an Israeli Air Force Base as part of a special celebrity mission in May 2012.

In May 2012, Madonna performed in Israel, and said that the concert in Tel Aviv was a "peace concert." She offered about 600 tickets to the show to various Israeli and Palestinian groups, but this offer was rejected by Anarchists Against the Wall and the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity group. One activist said "no one is talking about dismantling the privileged regime or of ending the occupation. They talk of peace as a philosophical thing, without connecting to things happening on the ground and that concert is going in that direction." The offer was accepted by the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum.

Christmas campaigns

In 2010, Friends of Sabeel-North America circulated a list of ten companies to boycott titled "All I want for Christmas is an End to Apartheid", stating, "While there are many Israeli and multinational companies that benefit from apartheid, we put together this list to highlight ten specific companies to target."

1. Ahava
2. Delta Galil Industries
3. Motorola
4. L'Oreal / The Body Shop
5. Dorot Garlic and Herbs
6. Estee Lauder
7. Intel
8. Sabra
9. Sara Lee
10. Victoria's Secret

Adalah-NY held a demonstration in front of Lev Leviev's store in New York. Adalah-NY has been holding this demonstration annually since 2007. Activists doctored traditional carols and stories such as "The 12 Days of Boycott" and "The Grinch who Tried to Steal Palestine", claiming that Leviev's "dark task" and "true crime" are to "steal Palestine". The song also blames Leviev for alleged human rights violations in Africa.

In 2010, War on Want's campaign "Help win justice for the Palestinian people this Christmas" accuses Israel of "illegal Occupation," "daily human rights abuses," and "the siege on Gaza and the Apartheid Wall." As in previous years, this NGO calls for holiday donations in the form of "alternative gifts," in order to "launch a sustained campaign against UK companies that are profiting from the Occupation" and to "secure compensation for those who have lost land due to construction of the Apartheid Wall."

In December 2011, NGO Monitor accused NGOs Sabeel, War on Want (UK), Amos Trust, and Adalah-NY of "exploiting the holiday to advance immoral anti-Israel campaigns and, in some cases, crude antisemitism" and wrote, "Kairos Palestine, Adalah-NY, and Code Pink repeat the incendiary accusation of 'ethnic cleansing' in their campaigns."

Also in December 2011, Philadelphia BDS had people stand outside a grocery store singing Christmas carols with lyrics re-written supporting BDS, and asking people not to buy Tribe and Sabra brands of hummus "claiming that the corporate parents of those brands support the Israeli Defense Forces and therefore subsidize Israeli human rights abuses." In response, about 40 University of Pennsylvania students held a counter-protest by buying hummus in the store.

See also

• Economic and political boycotts of Israel
• Academic boycotts of Israel
• Arab League boycott of Israel
• Disinvestment from Israel

References

• Barghouti, Omar (2011). Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1-60846-114-1.
• Boycott Divestment Sanctions Manual. By Sonja Karkar. Published by Australians for Palestine, October 2010.

External links

Supportive of BDS

• Global BDS Campaign
• BRICUP (the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine) the body that promotes the academic boycott in the UK
• PACBI (Palestinian campaign for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel)
• Palestinian United Call for BDS against Israel by the Boycott National Committee
• Jello Biafra: "Caught in the crossfire: Should musicians boycott Israel?" on Al Jazeera website (critically supportive)
• Australians for Palestine (Australian organisation supporting BDS)

Critical of BDS

• BDSISRAEL Canadian Anti-BDS Association - Countering BDS Movement
• Jiulio Meotti, Is BDS campaign working?, Ynetnews, August 31, 2011
• NGO Monitor, Israeli anti-BDS organisation

Debates on BDS and Mixed Support

• Debate between Omar Barghouti and Rabbi Arthur Waskow on Democracy Now!