What is the "BDS" Movement? Should we "Support" it?

What About the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction Movement (BDS)?
Rev. John Kleinheksel, Kairos West Michigan (KWM) blogger

Perhaps you too, have had mixed feelings about the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). What is it? Is it dangerous to the State of Israel? Is it a legitimate nonviolent tactic by civil society to bring human rights to Palestinians in Israel/Palestine? Has it ever “worked” over time and in different places, globally? Should we oppose it? Endorse it?

What I want to do in this article is to 1) hear what Palestinian civil society is saying in their call for BDS; 2) understand what the Israeli lobby has done to twist its meaning here in the US; and 3) be completely conversant with the critique of an informed Jewish commentator, (namely, Brant Rosen).

I WHAT IS THE BDS MOVEMENT?
Here is relevant material from the Palestinian (civil society) organizers of the BDS movement (July 9, 2005):
One year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found Israel's Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal. . . .(and) Fifty-seven years after the state of Israel was built mainly on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners, a majority of Palestinians are refugees, most of whom are stateless. Moreover, Israel's entrenched system of racial discrimination against its own Arab-Palestinian citizens remains intact. . . . In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions; and Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression;
We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands 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.
Even if the BDS movement took root in the US, how effective would it be in bringing the Israeli State to negotiate for Palestinian self-determination with their own State, alongside the Israeli State, adjudicating the “right of return”?

II WHAT IS HOUSE RESOLUTION 246 (HR 246)?
This matter is especially relevant now because recently, the US House passed HR 246, strongly opposing the BDS movement. The vote was 398 – 17.

Boycotts have a long and storied history in the US. The Presbyterians conducted a boycott of a Florida-based tomato processing plant some years ago, bringing that company to the negotiating table resulting in higher pay for the workers. When businesses boycotted the State of South Africa, it had an effect on the Apartheid government there, bringing an end to the institution of Apartheid. (Of course, there is still racial reconciliation work to be done there as well as here in the US).

The voices of traditional Israeli State sympathizers convinced the US Congress that the BDS movement was devised by Israel’s “enemies” to delegitimatize the Israeli State (eliminating Israel’s right to self-determination). [Here is the full text of HR 246]
As the newspaper Haaretz makes clear, House Democrats have been eager to show the US its total support for Israel to counter GOP accusation that “The Squad” (Muslim freshwomen Representatives) defines the Democrat’s luke-warm support for Israel. Not so, the vast majority of the House has declared in passing this Bill! [Read the Haaretz report here, but you may need to subscribe to get the full article!]

III AN ANTI-ZIONIST CRITIQUE OF HR 246
Friend, what we really need is a Pro-Israel, anti-Zionist Jew to educate us about the real meaning of the House vote.
Fortunately, we have such a person. His name is Rabbi Brant Rosen, the Midwest Regional Director for the American Friends Service committee (AFSC), formerly the rabbi of Tzedek synagogue in Chicago (a Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation).

He rightly points out that the real goal of the BDS movement is NOT to exclude the Israeli State “from the economic, cultural an academic life of the rest of the world” (HR 246). Rather, the BDS movement has three goals: 1) to end the occupation; 2) to insist on equal rights for Palestinians; and 3) to recognize the legitimacy of the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees.

So, you who read this report, make up your own mind about the way forward. KWM is committed to providing time and space for the underlying issues in our region to be openly discussed, with a view to bringing adjudication of grievances experienced by both Israelis and Palestinians. KWM is laser-focused on dealing honorably with the growing calls for “justice” for the downtrodden and disrespected.

IV THE CRY FOR HELP FROM OUR PALESTINIAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS
Here is the cry for help from our Palestinians brothers and sisters and the way they couch their call for BDS:

4.2.6 Palestinian civil organizations, as well as international organizations, NGOs and certain religious institutions call on individuals, companies and states to engage in divestment and in an economic and commercial boycott of everything produced by the occupation. We understand this to integrate the logic of peaceful resistance. These advocacy campaigns must be carried out with courage, openly, sincerely proclaiming that their object is not revenge but rather to put an end to the existing evil, liberating both the perpetrators and the victims of injustice. The aim is to free both peoples from extremist positions of the different Israeli governments, bringing both to justice and reconciliation. In this spirit and with this dedication we will eventually reach the longed-for resolution to our problems, as indeed happened in South Africa and with many other liberation movements in the world.

With countless others, Kairos West Michigan will continue to pursue an honest, just and peaceful resolution to the conflict in Israel/Palestine.