By Michael Regenstreif
Late last month, a coalition of anti-Israel groups held what they promoted as a global BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) conference on the campus of the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Although some of the groups involved in the BDS movement pretend to be about peace, justice and human rights, those admirable ideals are not really on their agenda.
Their agenda is all about promoting the delegitimization of the State of Israel with the long-term goal of what many of them call “Free Palestine,” a Palestine that isn’t just about the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – it’s also about West Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.
The BDS activists are the same people who talk about “Israeli apartheid.” Their game has nothing to do with promoting the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. They reject the peace process.
I happened to hear an interview with some of the BDS activists on a Montreal campus radio station a few weeks ago and they described the peace talks as being about nothing other than who collects the trash on the West Bank.
The BDS activists reject the peace process because they reject peace. It serves their anti-Israel propaganda interests to eternally maintain the Palestinians as an oppressed people, as victims.
So, the BDS movement would seek to isolate Israel through boycott, divestment and sanctions.
They would have consumers boycott Israeli products and stop collaborations between universities in North America and Europe with universities in Israel. They’ve even called for boycotts of businesses – like Chapters bookstores – whose owners are known to be supporters of Israel.
A cultural boycott of Israel is one of the hallmarks of the BDS movement. They’ve applied great amounts of public pressure on prominent musical artists booked to perform in Israel in the past couple of years to cancel their concerts.
Sometimes they’ve been successful, sometimes not.
Elvis Costello and Carlos Santana are the two most prominent artists who caved to the BDS pressure.
Among those who didn’t are Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Diana Krall (who is married to Costello).
This past summer, it was announced that Pete Seeger would participate in an Israeli-organized global peace rally over the Internet on November 14.
Immediately, the BDS movement went into high gear trying to persuade the 91-year-old folksinger to cancel his participation.
I’ve known Pete Seeger for many years and I know him to be one of the most sincere and most committed peace activists I’ve ever met.
I know he believes peace between Israelis and Palestinians to be a righteous goal. I was not at all surprised to see him recognize the BDS movement for what it is, to reject the cultural boycott and the demands that he withdraw from the online peace rally, and to carry on his support for the search for peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
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