Bernard-Henri Lévy on the BDS movement

Bernard-Henri Lévy on the BDS movement

In a scathing op-ed marking the 10th anniversary of the founding of the BDS (Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment) movement that targets Israel, the celebrated French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy reminds his readers that “the idea of boycotting Israel is not as new as it appears.” Lévy points out that the Arab League decided already in December 1945 to impose a boycott on the Jewish community in what was then British Mandate Palestine, and he notes sarcastically that “the promoters of this brilliant idea [included] Nazi war criminals who had settled in Syria and Egypt, where they gave their new masters lessons in marking Jewish shops and businesses.” Rejecting efforts to present the modern boycott campaigns against Israel as a fight for the rights of Palestinians, Lévy forcefully makes the case that “the BDS movement is nothing more than a sinister caricature of the anti-totalitarian and anti-apartheid struggles. It is a campaign whose instigators have no aim other than to discriminate against, delegitimize, and vilify an Israel that in their mind never stopped wearing its yellow star.”

 

Read the article at Project Syndicate