The BDS movement is censorious and intolerant – but that’s no reason to clamp down on it.
Proposed legislation in Congress would make it a crime for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel and its settlements. Criminal penalties under the proposed Israel Anti-Boycott Act could include fines of up to $1million, while earlier versions of the Act mooted the possibility of jail time. The bill is an attempt to counter the influential Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks an all-out boycott of Israel ...
… It can be hard to sympathise with those who defend the BDS campaign, especially when their complaint is a lack of free expression. For BDS, at its heart, is a campaign of censorship. BDS supporters advocate a complete economic, academic and cultural boycott of Israel ...
… Then, there are the double standards BDS places on Israel. Campaigners who demand businesses and artists reject any kind of collaboration with Israel do not ask the same when it comes to businesses and artists based in places like China and Russia.
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Totally agree. BDS reeks to its core of antisemitism (of the contemporary far left and Islamist varieties) but criminalising companies and local authorities for taking part in BDS is wrong and counter-productive. Exposing the prejudices, hypocrisy and double standards of BDS and promoting peace, dialogue and empathy between Israelis and Palestinian are the ways forward not the imposition of criminal codes. I am fully supportive of boycotts of settlement goods.
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