Double Standard or No Standard At All?

We have all heard about the double-standards inherent in the vitriol of many anti-Israel institutions and activists that unjustly slam Israel while ignoring more extreme situations in other countries.

A good example of this is the United Nations, where:

• Condemnation and demonization of Israel is completely out of proportion: In the UN General Assembly of 2019-2020, Israel was singled out MUCH more than all other countries combined: https://unwatch.org/2019-un-general-assembly-resolutions-singling-out-israel-texts-votes-analysis/.
• Israel’s “disputed territories” are treated differently than any of the other disputed territories throughout the world (Wikipedia lists more than 100: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_territorial_disputes), including:
  • The UN blacklist targets companies that are operating in the disputed territories of Israel, but not any other of the disputed territories throughout the world.
  • The UN requires labeling of products originating in the Israeli disputed territories, but not from any of the other disputed territories throughout the world.
• The UN blacklist ignores the many companies operating in the Israeli disputed territories that originate from Middle Eastern countries (besides Israel, of course)

Certainly the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) focus on Israel is no different.

The irony here is tremendous when we consider two recent events:

• Omar Barghouti, founder of BDS, recently said: “If Israel finds a cure for cancer, for example, or any other virus, then there is no problem in cooperating with Israel to save millions of lives.”: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/bds-founder-no-need-to-boycott-israeli-developed-coronavirus-drugs-623759.
• In response to Indian military actions in India, progressive journalist David Klion casually said: “One good way to take action against what India is doing in Kashmir would be to boycott Israel”: https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/08/huh-one-good-way-to-take-action-against-what-india-is-doing-in-kashmir-would-be-to-boycott-israel/. That’s right, not to boycott India, not to boycott Russia (which supplies more than half of India’s military equipment), but to boycott Israel (which supplies India with 15% of their military equipment).

From the first example, we see there is even a double-standard of when to boycott Israel – only if it is convenient.

And in the second example we see there are not only double-standards, but absolutely no standards (except antisemitism) in choosing to target a boycott at Israel.