With the hunger to conquer the ‘Promised Land,’ since six decades Israel has exercised ethnic cleansing of the land from the Palestinian’s (Pappé). During the course of its expedition to get the Promised Land, Israel has breached all international humanitarian laws with no moral or political deterrent. Since 1948, Israel has slaughtered about 510,000 Palestinians and displaced around 7 million people (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Loescher and Long 153). However, the autocracy of Israel became intolerable when Israel started the construction of the wall in 2002 to isolate the Palestinian’s from their own cities and demolishing their homes to build the thick wall (Farsakh, 2005). In response to this, the International Court of Justice had asked Israel to halt its construction and stated it as “an Illegal construction” (Cordesman and Moravitz 446). Despite this, Israel continued the building of the wall without any consequences. The helplessness of Palestinian people urged them to unite and respond to the intensifying Imperialist strategies by introducing the “Boycott, Divest and Sanction Movement (BDS)”. The movement calls for the boycott of Israeli products, divestment aims to reduce the corporate owned assets in Israeli companies and the need of trade barriers to be placed on Israel. BDS is to be exercised till Israel ends its three main injustices and breach of international laws which are: (i) forceful colonization of Palestinian land and dismantling the land, (ii) recognizing the full rights of Palestinian’s in Israel and, (iii) respecting and protecting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes (Barghouti 82). Although pro-Israel critics of BDS argue it to be an exercise of anti-Semitism policy against Jews and Israel, nevertheless Israel should be held accountable for its war crimes and Boycott, Divest and Sanction Movement is an effective method to do so, because it puts financial strain on its economy, it places the state under political stress by isolating the Israeli leaders and the movement globally unites individuals against Israel’s bigotry.
Firstly, BDS yields the advantage of jolting Israel’s trade dependent economy through the financial pressure it is able to place on it. A small inland state, Israel’s economy heavily relies on trade with the rest of the world. BDS has caused a loss of income from exports by 14% mainly due to gigantic supermarkets of Europe deciding to boycott Israeli produce (World Bulletin). Trade embargos have weakened its economy as reported that last year, boycotts on agricultural products such as grapes and dates grown in the occupied regions caused a $29 million loss (Bryant and Llana). The pressure on Israeli government has stirred an upheaval, as reported earlier in the year, Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid has expressed concern over sanctions that reduce exports and said that “Every Israeli citizen will feel (the consequences) straight in the pocket.” EU being the largest trading partner with Israel has shown its support of the BDS, as Spain has frozen its arms and ammunition trade with Israel (Hatuqa). Considering the obstinacy of Israeli government, the only method of withdrawing and getting justice for Palestine is through dismantling Israeli economy so that it is not able to carry out the ethnic holocaust and submits to the international law (Abunimah). Divestment has also gained multiple support from different countries and companies. The most prominent religious group in US called the “The Presbyterian Church” voted to sell the church stocks in three companies whose products are used in Israel occupied territories, the companies included were Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions (The Guardian). Divestment was also exercised in UK where the largest Dutch pension fund company ABP has divested from two Israeli ammunition companies Aryt Industries and Ashot Ashkelon Industries Ltd (Eisenberg). As financial strain on the small state upsurges, the state will realize the negative impact of its violations on not only the Palestinian people but also their own local Israelis. The movement targets the sources that fund the crimes and holds Israel responsible through a non-violent and an effective method (Lim).
Furthermore, BDS has placed Israel in a political pressure cooker, demanding it to immediately stop the annexation of Palestenian lands (Hallward and Norman). Key aides of the Israeli military such as US and UK are having local riots and political strife in support of Palestine. In Mid-July 2014, 15,000 people marched from Downing Street in London to the Israeli embassy to protest against Israel’s offences against hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza strip, such protests have forced many governments to take a stance against Israel (Webb). As Secretary of US, John Kerry said at a security conference in Munich on Feb 1 2014, “For Israel, there’s an increasing legitimization campaign that has been building up. People are very sensitive to it” (Booth). The rising fame of BDS has altered the views of many ‘friends’ of Israel such as Richard Ottaway, the Conservative chairman. He said that the recent events which took place ‘had angered him like nothing else in politics’ (Wintour). Thus, establishing that the growing unity amongst intellects and locals to support BDS, have pushed Superpowers across the globe to speak out for the Palestinians, which will in turn arbitrarily force Israel to comply with the international laws.
However, many supporters of pro-Israel argue this movement is a practice of anti-Semitism, recalling that that basis of this movement is on the fact that Israel is a Jewish state. As Zionist use the ‘holocaust guilt’ as an attempt to gain sympathy and manipulate the guilt to get undue advantage over their actions in Palestine. However French philosopher Étienne Balibar said “Israel should not be allowed to use the genocide of European Jews to put itself above the law of nations”(Balibar). Nonetheless, this criticism of ‘anti-Semitism’ is just a political intimidation and shows deliberate naivety and forces one to question their own logical judgment. Israel has been practicing colonialist policies, condemning Palestine from their own land and crushing them on racial basis. The movement is an epitome of anti-Jewish dogmas but against the legalized racial discrimination practiced by the state. To weaken their criticism further, BDS has been gaining support from American, European and Israeli Jews as well which is quite contradictory considering the naïve criticism of the movement. In support of BDS in 2010, over 50 Israeli actors, directors and playwrights announced that they will not perform at the new theatre in Ariel, Israel’s fourth largest city. While more than 150 Israeli academia faculty signed a petition for a cultural boycott of the illegal settlements. The petition was supported by numerous prominent Israeli authors, A. B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, and Sami Michael (Skoff and Skoff). The rising unity of Jews against the Israeli lobby indicates that the movement is unbiased and has no dogma to eradicate Israel on the basis of their Jewish ethnicity.
Whereas, BDS offers a platform for individuals to fight with Palestine and force Israel to obey the laws. Several countries have conducted polls to determine their populace’s stance on Israel, and a global poll suggested that negative views of Israel’s influence outweighed the positive ones by more than two to one (The Economist). Whereas in UK, MPs at the House of Common’s voted in favor of recognizing the Palestinian state, winning with 262 votes in early Oct 2014, showing Israel’s losing battle of public opinion in British (Wintour). Another important petition was delivered by Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee sent to the UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon signed by over 60,000 people including Nobel Laureates, artists and public intellectuals. The petition called upon the governments and UN to take immediate steps to implement sanctions and place military embargos on Israel (Jewishvoiceforpeace.org). Global support for Palestine through BDS is a reply by each rational individual to Palestinians call for help, petitions and polls have all revealed public resentment to Israel’s policies. Thus, the movement is effectively collecting the rage worldwide to influence Israel’s dictatorial policies and make it obey the international law.
As far as legal dimensions are concerned, Israel is a fully established state which is accountable of its infringement of the international law. The call by BDS allows Palestinians to cry out for their own rights in a respectable manner, rather than pleading Israel, it encompasses all counter tactics against an array of Israel’s injustices. The drain on Israel’s economy through BDS is a sufficient motive for Israel to stop its tyranny, whereas adding to the pressure, the political unrest within Israel’s ‘friends’ due to the public riots and polls have resulted into an upheavel amongst Israel’s government. As Tzipi Livni, Israel’s Justice Minister, has expressed his worry by saying “an entire country that is disconnected from the international reality….The boycott is moving and advancing uniformly and exponentially. Those who don’t want to see it will end up feeling it” (Salingue). While during 2014, the entire world became a silent bystander of Israel’s ruthlessness, and no international organization has taken action against Israel, which has left the Palestinians stranded alone in the ‘open air prison.’ Thus, Boycott, Divest and Sanction Movement is an effective tool to make Israel bow down and will show a constructive outcome in the nearby future.
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