Viewpoint: True colours of the BDS movement

Chris Dyszyński
Just Journalism
12 August '10

‘Rooted in a century of Palestinian civil resistance, and inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle, the campaign crowned earlier, partial boycotts to present a comprehensive approach to realising Palestinian self-determination’

This is how Omar Barghouti characterises the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to isolate Israel in every conceivable way, from banning Israeli-made goods for sale abroad to preventing Israeli-written books or academic papers to be made available to foreign universities. Writing in The Guardian, Barghouti's 'Beseiging Israel's seige' today celebrated the fifth birthday of the BDS campaign he founded and raises a number of questions about both the movement as a whole and Barghouti as an individual.

The most obvious question is this: Why does the BDS movement support Palestinian self-determination but deny the right to Jewish self-determination? There are many who believe that the Palestinians deserve an independent state, and oppose the continued occupation of the West Bank. Reading between the lines of his article, however, one notes that Barghouti is more interested with the eradication of an independent Jewish presence in the Middle East than he is with creating a sovereign Palestinian one.

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