The false premises of BDS will end in failure

When reading the articles on the website of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions South Africa (BDSSA), the reader would be under the impression that the BDS campaign is highly successful. That is rather a very skewed picture to say the least.

The international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel is heading for a dismal failure. The anti-BDS campaign gain momentum in recent months and I am of the opinion that it will won even more support in future.

In the latest development, the American Anthropological Association voted against a proposal seeking to establish an academic boycott against Israeli universities. Although with a narrow margin, the sober minds prevailed.

Four Spanish municipalities dropped their former policy of support for boycotts against Israel after legal action by supporters of Israel. This is a significant development as for many years Spain has been a hub of anti-Israeli lobbying in Europe.

French courts view BDS as an illicit act targeting Israelis because of their nationality. As a result, PayPal has cut off payments to BDS France at the end of May 2016. Also in May, French bank Credit Mutuel shut down the account of La Campagne BDS France for supporting financial transactions that target Israel for boycotts.

Across America and Europe government institutions, civil organizations and businesses started to promulgate legislation or came out strongly against BDS.

These developments seem to irritate the BDS campaigners so much that they started campaigns in an effort to stop proposed legislation against BDS. An example is Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), who wrote on FOSNA’s website: “Anti-BDS Legislation continues to be introduced in state legislature across the country attempting to punish and suppress activism for Palestinian rights. FOSNA is responding at the national and local level.”

FOSNA claims to be a voice for Palestinian Christians and has its roots in the very biased Palestine Kairos document. FOSNA branded Israel as an Apartheid state and was on the forefront of the SodaStream and G4S boycott campaigns.

There are many other groups with similar views, but that is a subject for another time. Suffice to say, these Christian groups who based their views on the skewed notion of consciousness fascinate me. It seems that half-truths, falsehoods and honesty bypass their conscience.

The other side of the coin is more uplifting. Many Christian denominations and organizations the world over started to follow their moral conscience and stood up for the truth and started to be more vocal against BDS. It is these actions that moved governments to formulate legislations against BDS. But, these efforts need to multiply to crush these ideologically inspired agenda which most of the ordinary Palestinians not even support. For them it is about supporting their families and boycotts and sanctions against Israel will have a detrimental effect on work security to Palestinians.

Israel is not without mistakes, but to use false information to demonize a nation is in itself an act of falsehood, especially when Christian groups whose religion is supposed to be based on love, forgiveness and peace perpetrate it.

It does not make sense preaching from the pulpit that the truth will set you free, but use that very same pulpit to demonize Israel premised on false information.

Unfortunately, it seems that some people who support the commendable precepts of truth, peace, love and forgiveness are easily influenced and persuaded by people with questionable agendas due to a lack of knowledge or naivetés. It is especially relevant in the case of the Israel-Palestinian situation.

The fundamental problem with BDS is the weak foundation upon which it is build, namely that Israel is an Apartheid State. Weak foundations have the tendency to collapse and the cracks in the BDS foundation is already showing.