By
Evelyn Gordon 15-09-2015
Full
article in Commentary: http://tinyurl.com/o3x7znu
The one saving grace about
anti-Semites is that, contrary to Barack Obama’s famous claim, they generally are irrational and,
therefore, they often overreach. The anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and
sanctions movement has been doing exactly that recently. In the past month
alone, it has suffered three resounding and damaging failures.
The first, of course, was
its “success” in pressuring a Spanish reggae festival to disinvite American
Jewish singer Matisyahu unless he issued a statement backing a Palestinian
state. Matisyahu, to his credit, didn’t merely refuse; he also made sure the
world knew why he wouldn’t be appearing as scheduled. The subsequent public
outcry not only made the festival hurriedly backtrack and reinstate Matisyahu in his original slot, but also
exposed the truth of the BDS movement’s anti-Semitism, which it has long tried
to hide. After all, Matisyahu isn’t Israeli; he was asked to issue that statement,
alone of all the artists at the festival, simply because he was Jewish.
Next came last week’s
decision to boycott Israel by the mighty municipality of Reykjavik (population
about 120,000). Having naively expected applause for this display of moral
indignation, the municipality was stunned to be met instead by an outpouring of
condemnation, including from Iceland’s own prime minister, and quickly reversed
course. But the damage, as Haaretz
journalist Asher Schechter lamented, was already done: Reykjavik had provided
further proof that the BDS movement, contrary to the widespread belief that it
merely targets “the occupation,” is simply anti-Israel.
Then there’s my personal
favorite, which occurred this week: the BDS protest against a Pharrell Williams
concert in South Africa. When I first read about the planned protest, I
couldn’t believe BDS was serious. A black American singer goes to South Africa
to perform for black South Africans, and BDS wants to ruin the audience’s fun?
Just because Williams’ corporate sponsor is a Jewish-owned retailer
(Woolworths) that already
boycotts produce from “the occupied territories”? But BDS evidently couldn’t
see how bad this looked. It rashly promised some 40,000 demonstrators, “the largest
protest event in South African history against any musician or artist.” And it
wound up with a measly 500, as many South Africans suddenly discovered
that BDS might not be their best guide to international morality.
Finally, as icing on the
cake, the lawfare crowd also suffered an embarrassing defeat this month: After
it painstakingly gathered the 100,000 signatures needed to force a debate in
the British parliament on a motion to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, parliament unceremoniously refused to debate it anyway on the grounds that the
motion itself flagrantly violated both British and international law with
regard to diplomatic immunity.
But all of the above are
merely the tip of the iceberg of what could be done against BDS. As Gerald
Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, has repeatedly stressed, one of the most
important steps is pressuring Europe to stop funding anti-Israel hate groups by
showing decision makers what their money is really being used for. This may
seem like mission impossible, but as Steinberg wrote last week, the past year actually brought some
significant progress:
Under the “Partnership for
Peace Program”, the European Union did not renew grants for NGOs that promote
BDS and lawfare, including for violent activities, marking the most significant
change in over 15 years. A number of European embassies in Israel also reduced
or ended grants for anti-peace NGOs. While there are still tens of millions of
Euros and Pounds and Krona going to BDS, the trend is down, for the first time.
Legal action is another
promising and underutilized tool. As I wrote last year, BDS has already suffered major
setbacks in European courts. But the real legal game-changer, as professors
Eugene Kontorovich and Avi Bell of the Kohelet Policy Forum argued recently, could be an Israeli challenge in the
World Trade Organization against EU sanctions on settlement products. The EU
plans to finalize a directive on labeling Israeli settlement produce next
month, the latest in a series of directives targeting such produce. But as
Kontorovich and Bell noted, the EU hasn’t imposed similar measures on other
territories it deems occupied, such as Western Sahara or Kashmir, and WTO rules
explicitly prohibit discriminatory trading policies.
The movement to Besmirch,
Demonize and Slander the Jewish state is so hydra-headed and so venomous that
it can often seem overwhelming. But in reality, it is big and strong enough to
win only if nobody else is in the ring: As the past month’s events amply
demonstrate, pushback works. Now it’s time to accelerate the pushback and put
BDS where it belongs – on the defensive.
