Boycott Israel Movement Stunts The Palestinian Economy

[hack89]

The numbers speak for themselves: Israel (population 8.3 million) has GDP of $291 billion, the Palestinian Territories (population 4.1 million), $11.3 billion. In 2012, Israeli sales to the Palestinian Authority were $4.3 billion, about 5% of Israeli exports (excluding diamonds) less than 2% of Israeli GDP, according to the Bank of Israel. In 2012, Palestinian sales to Israel accounted for about 81% of Palestinian exports and less than a percentage point of Israeli GDP. Palestinian purchases from Israel were two-thirds of total Palestinian imports (or 27% of Palestinian GDP).

Such trade flow asymmetry shows Palestine needs Israel, economically speaking. Yet the BDS crowd would impair economic ties between these areas, despite evidence that trade between peoples lessens outbreak of war. BDS-ers want to obliterate the vast trade surplus Israel extends to Palestine and offer nothing in its place.

It’s easy to cast digital stones from the comfort of a California dorm room or a posh British mansion. It’s difficult to gainfully employ some 110,000 Palestinians as Israel does, or build 16 industrial parks in the West Bank and East Jerusalem hosting 1,000 facilities where Jews and Arabs work shoulder-to-shoulder.

Despite overheated BDS rhetoric about exploitation, last year the Palestinian Authority’s official newspaper hailed working conditions for Palestinians employed by Israelis in West Bank settlements. It also scolded Palestinians hiring other Palestinians for low wages with no benefits.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carriesheffield/2015/02/22/boycott-israel-movement-stunts-the-palestinian-economy/

We know BDS is more about punishing the Jews than it is about helping the Palestinians.

[azurnoir]

1. I seem to remember the being said about the boycott South Africa movement too

in that case it was it'll hurt Blacks first, I guess history repeats itself

[DanTex]

2. The rhetoric is almost identical.

SHOULD the United States and other Western nations pursue a policy of disinvestment in South Africa? The answer depends on who you ask. American liberals, and other well-meaning people, from the safety and comfort of their high-rise apartments, say yes. Their reasoning i s that disinvestment will weaken the South African economy and force the Government to change its position on apartheid. I am sure disinvestors sleep better after taking a moral stance against trade with the devil.

But if you ask South African blacks, the supposed beneficiaries of disinvestment, you get a different answer. Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, leader of the Zulus, says no. The chief has told me, ''Americans have got the whole issue exactly upside down. It is morally imperative that American firms remain active here.'' The chief's sentiments are shared by Lucy Mvubelo, general secretary of South Africa's largest union; David Thebehali, Mayor of Soweto, and many others.

While the majority of black South African leaders are against disinvestment and boycotts, there are tiny factions that support disinvestment-namely terrorist groups such as the African National Congress.

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/15/business/beware-the-well-intentioned.html

Here's another article that basically hits all the talking points. "Why do people care about South Africa, other people do bad stuff too!" And of course, "there weren't really any black people here when the whites came, it was basically just empty land with a few primitive tribes".

WHILE the violation of human rights is the norm rather than the exception in most of Africa's 42 black-ruled states, the spotlight remains on South Africa. The images of racism, white supremacy, Nazism, etc. are a most effective part of a campaign to play on white guilt and to condition hatred for South Africa. While it is true that there are many things wrong in South Africa, the facts are sensationalized and distorted. A cheap political campaign to get black and also well-meaning (though not as well-informed) white liberal votes, is being run by using the white ``racist regime'' in Pretoria as a unifying issue.

Contrary to popular belief, the whites did not take the country from the blacks. When the Dutch settled in the Cape in 1652, they found a barren, largely unpopulated land. Together with French and German settlers, they built a dynamic society.

It was not until 100 years later, as they advanced across these vast unexplored territories that they met with the blacks who were moving south. Contrary to myth, the blacks were never run off their land. They settled in tribal lands of their own choice. When the whites met the blacks, the blacks had no written language, no technological knowledge, no cure for infectious diseases. In the 20th century, economic activity organized by whites gradually drew blacks out of their tribal lands into the cash economy and into the cities.

http://www.csmonitor.com/1989/1012/ekri.html

[King_David]

3. Except with South Africa they were trying to end Apartheid

As hack said , the BDS movement has so many many incidents of Antisemitism and is endorsed by the worst anti Semites such as David Duke and led by the likes of Greta Berlin.

One need look no further than their incidents and followers of the BDS movement to see they not trying to end the occupation as much as they really don't like Jews in general .

[DanTex]

4. Yes, that's another similarity between the two: the fight against apartheid.

[King_David]

5. BDS people do use that claim to advance their agenda .

Same reasons.

[azurnoir]

6. so what according to you is BDS's "agenda"?

[King_David]

7. Endless antisemitic incidents, support from the worst antisemites

Numerous leaders caught with hatred of Jews on their Facebook, calls to expel Jews from universities, targeting Jewish student Dorms in the USA.

Their agenda sure is not the end of the occupation.

[azurnoir]

8. then what is the BDS agenda in your opinion ya know the end game?

and name the "numerous" BDS leaders caught about their Facebook pages

How many calls (multiple meaning more than one) to expel Jews from Universities again (multiple meaning more than one)

and about the Dorm incident who has been arrested for that incident there must be an on going investigation right?

[King_David]

9. You keep asking about arrests

As if that makes a difference?

Rense ever been arrested?

Pfft