Boycott Research Paper

The Boycott, Divest, Sanction Movement
Introduction
In 1948, the British invaded what was then Palestine. The territory had been recognized as Palestine since the end of World War I. The invasion of the land led to the 1948 Palestine War. As a result of the war, the United Nations proposed a plan to divide the land between the Arabs, the Jewish population, and a shared territory in what is today Jerusalem. While the Jewish Agency for Palestine, an organization interested in Jewish settlement in Palestine, accepted the proposal, Palestinian Arabs refused it. This was the state of affairs for Palestine as it transitioned into becoming what is now the Jewish state of Israel. Part of the agreement was that Palestine would continue to exist within
The first is to boycott Israeli products, companies, and academic institutions. The BDS movement’s website lists five major entities to boycott, including Hewlett Packard, Caterpillar, and Sabra. It also calls for a boycott of all Israeli fruits and vegetables. In a report by The Times of Israel in 2015, it was reported that the call for an international boycott of Israel could cost the Israeli economy up to $40 billion a year (Israel 1). Entities in England, Canada, South Africa, and the U.S. are currently boycotting Israel (Bodoni 1). According to the U.S Department of Treasury, members of the Arab League are carrying out full boycotts of Israel. According to a statement by anti-BDS website, Stop BDS, groups in Latin American countries have started pushing for boycotts of Israel as well. The second method is divestment. Divestment means the literal uninvesting from companies that benefit from the violation of Palestinian rights and to insure that public funds are not used to support such entities (McMahon 15). This method has proved less successful that the boycott method, but has had some success as well. Notable divestment successes include the divestment of an Israeli surveillance firm by Norway’s government, the divestment from Israeli companies by the University of California, Riverside, the withdrawal from rail construction in Israel by French-Israeli company, Veolia, and the loss of contracts with Israeli companies by
Various Pro-Israeli groups have launched campaigns to counter BDS tactics and prevent expansion. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the U.S. has called the movement anti-Semitic, as have other pro-Israeli entities such as the Students Supporting Israel group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The ADL has lobbied for legislation in various states across the United States for the criminalization of the BDS movement, emphasizing the anti-Semitic sentiments they claim are the basis for the BDS movement (Sheskin and Felson 6). Critics of the movement point out a supposed hypocrisy on behalf of the BDS movement in failing to boycott countries with what they claim are worse human rights violations (Culcasi 7). Omar Barghouti pointed out during an interview with online news site, +972’s, Rami Younis, that the movement is primarily by Palestinians for Palestinians. He argues that while there may be individuals that hold anti-Semitic sentiments, those are not the views of the movement as a whole. In an academic essay, Dr. Ira M. Sheskin and Ethan Felson, use very specific instances of perceived anti-Semitism to call the entire movement anti-Semitic (Sheskin and Felson, 2016). The paper fails to acknowledge that there are groups of Jewish folks who support the BDS movement, such as Jews for Justice for Palestinians and the Jewish Voice for Peace groups. Another