While the Boycott,
Divestment & Sanctions (B.D.S.) movement against Israel has existed for
years, recently it has become much more serious with the Presbyterian Church,
European Union, and worldwide academic institutions, even right here in the
U.S., jumping on the B.D.S. bandwagon. Even the Super Bowl garnered B.D.S.
pressure. The Israeli company SodaStream’s spokeswoman
Scarlett Johansen was dropped by the Oxfam aid organization for her participation
in the SodaStream commercial. While it might seem trivial to some people who
tout Israel’s strong economy and military prowess, it is indeed very
serious and should not be taken lightly. At the core of the B.D.S. movement is
an attack on Israel’s legitimacy as a full-fledged nation
among other nations, casting Israel as a pariah state, and ultimately providing
cover for deep-seated anti-Semitism.
While proponents of the
B.D.S. movement claim their goal is to pressure Israel to make peace with the
Palestinians and to call attention to the hardships that Palestinians face,
what is obvious in its rhetoric is that they feel Israelis are evil oppressors
whose treatment of the Palestinians can be equated with the worst human rights
violations in the world, and that Israel and Jews around the world who support her are willing accomplices and
morally bankrupt. These words are not hyperbolic but truly are at the heart of
the B.D.S. campaign. Any company, university, or government that does business
with Israel falls into this category.
We should not be fooled
into believing that this movement is only about the “government policies” of
Israel, because when Israel is cast as the “other”,
every Jew bears that label as well. This is a classic strategy from the anti-Semite
playbook. In the story of Purim, Haman first targeted Mordechai, and then
sought to move against the whole Jewish people. His strategy was to convince
King Achashverosh that the Jews were a “different” people.
He claimed the Jews would not follow the king’s laws, and that
they were not citizens of the Persian Empire but instead were outsiders,
pariahs, even seditious traitors. It was only when Haman had persuaded King
Achashverosh of this that he asked for a royal decree enabling anti-Semites
throughout the kingdom to kill the Jews.
Sadly the history of anti-Semitism has a way of repeating itself in every age under different guises. Like Haman, the supporters of B.D.S. seek to pigeonhole Israel as the chief violator of the basic laws of the world. Forget that many other nations do not even afford freedom of speech, access to courts, academic freedom, and even the most basic human rights, Israel is the only target of B.D.S. It would be interesting to question those passionate about B.D.S. about why they aren’t outraged by child soldiers in Africa, human rights in China, or the basic civil and political rights of women in most of the Arab world to name just a few. Therefore, it is crystal clear that the goal of B.D.S. is not to pressure Israel towards peace with the Palestinians but instead to make it okay to desensitize, ostracize, and eventually demonize Israel and the Jewish people throughout the world, both on the larger world stage, and right in the midst of our local communities.
As we approach the holiday
of Purim we are reminded by reading the Megillah not to forget how close we
came to tragedy. We celebrate the heroism of Esther who found the courage to
speak out against the lies of Haman, and turn the tide against those who would
have murdered us. And like Esther, hiding or hoping someone else will come and
save us is not the answer. Today, we must again find that courage to speak out,
and not let the dark lessons of our past go unheeded.
