BDS is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel which began in 2005. Its aim is to pressure Governments Academic Institutions and Businesses to boycott Israel as a means of forcing it to give in to the demands of the Palestinians.
Israel wants Peace with the Palestinians and is prepared to make reasonable concessions to achieve that. It has over the past 20 years or more negotiated with the Palestinian leaders under the auspices of the United States.
It is recognised by most commentators that Israel’s proposals were a comprehensive offer for a lasting Peace but a final agreement could not be reached.
In more recent years the ability to achieve a comprehensive Peace has been severely hampered by the rise to power of Hamas in Gaza (from which Israel withdrew in 2006) and the strife between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
By adopting the same tactics as were used, successfully, against Apartheid South Africa from the 1960’s, the BDS campaign also seeks to promote the idea that Israel is an Apartheid state.It uses that libel as a means of gathering support for its campaign because it knows that the use of the word “Apartheid” resonates with large sections of World Opinion. By conflating two totally different situations, it seeks to undermine the existence of the State of Israel.
There are a number of ironies attached to the BDS movement, two of which stand out. Firstly Israel is actually the only country in the region which has all of the following; an independent judiciary, democratically elected government, a free press, trade unions and freedom and equality for all its citizens of whatever gender or sexual orientation. Everyone can practise their religion without fear of persecution.The second irony is that the founder of the BDS movement is an Arab who graduated from Tel Aviv University, being one of the 20% of Arabs who make up the Israel student population.
Listen to what Lord Sacks has to say on this
