BDS's Jewish roots: A lesson for Hillel
http://972mag.com/bdss-jewish-roots-a-lesson-for-hillel/89209/
In all other contexts, the Jewish people have demonstrated that we understand boycotts, divestments, and sanctions to be effective, non-violent tools for political change. So why do we deem them violent and illegitimate when it comes to Israel?
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Given my pathway into Judaism – the call of Deuteronomy to pursue justice – I find myself at a loss when I listen to the Jewish communal rhetoric surrounding the BDS movement. I understand the fears. Having spent years studying the Holocaust, the rise of Zionism, and generational trauma, the temptation to hear “boycott Israel” as “boycott Jews” is not lost on me.
It is important for us to distinguish these two terms, though. This is not a Nazi call to boycott Jewish businesses in Germany. This is a call of a people who are living under a violent occupation, a people who are stateless and living in displacement. Their call is to boycott the government that is violently perpetuating statelessness upon them. If any people can empathize with the pathos of statelessness, it is the Jews.
In all other contexts, the Jewish people have demonstrated that we understand boycotts, divestments, and sanctions to be effective, non-violent tools for political change. Yet in the face of the BDS movement, we call it ineffective, illegitimate, and even violent.
