Signs calling to boycott Israeli products are backfiring hilariously | David Menzies

David Menzies of The Rebel.Media reports: Are BDS campaigns run by social justice warriors in the West having exactly the opposite effect both in economically penalizing Palestinians while at the same time, promoting made-in-Israel products?

ELDER OF ZIYON: 60 members of EU parliament call to stop funding Israel boycotters

From Europe-Israel Public Affairs:

A cross party group of 60 Members of the European Parliament have urged the EU’s Foreign Affairs Chief, Federica Mogherini to marginalize, both financially and politically, organizations such as BDS (Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment) that are increasingly becoming a virulent source in the spread of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism under the pretense of exercising freedom of speech and association.

The unprecedented initiative, spearheaded by representatives of the four major political groups, MEP Cristian DAN PREDA, MEP Ioan Mircea Pascu (S&D, Romania) and a Vice-President of the  European Parliament, MEP Petras Austrevicius (ALDE, Lithuania), MEP Arne Gericke (ECR, Germany) “calls upon ensuring that no public funds go to organizations calling for a boycott of the State of Israel, and to instruct agencies not to engage with companies, organizations or other entities involved with the BDS movement”.

MEP Cristian DAN PREDA, foreign affairs coordinator for the largest political group, the European People’s Party, and co-initiator of the letter underlined  his party’s  opposition to calls for the suspension of the bilateral agreements with Israel  as some of his extreme left wing colleagues echo directly from the BDS playbook.   “It’s in the interest of this House, and of our citizens, to see an upgrade in the partnership agreement with Israel. We should not allow the current stalemate in the peace process to dictate the terms of our relationship with Israel.”

Swedish MEP and President of EIPA’S political Board Lars Adaktusson – a co- signatory – underlined that “the Union, and the Parliament, is in danger of being deemed irrelevant as a peace broker if it fails to address the incitement on its own soil against Israel.”

Vice President of the European Parliament, Ioan Mircea Pascu concluded that  “boycotting strategic ties with Israel,  a leader in the intelligence and defence international community, may prove counterproductive to the common security interests  of both EU and Israel”.

The 60 signatories, among which are Chair of Security and Defence, MEP Anna Fotyga (ECR, Poland), Vice-Preident Pavel Telicka (ALDE, Czech Republic), Dietmar Koster (S&D, Germany), Vice-Chair of Human Rights Beatriz Becerra (ALDE, Spain) urged their Foreign Affairs chief to “address the incitement to hatred and violence and discriminatory practice of calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the State of Israel.”

There are 751 members of EU's parliament, so this is not exactly a majority, but it definitely puts the Israel-haters on the defensive in a field that they have been pretending to dominate.

(h/t Yoel)

The Dirty Secret Behind the Anti-Israel BDS Movement. by Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation

BDS is a form of jihad that predates not only the 1967 Six Day War, but also the establishment of the State of Israel.

BDS leader Omar Barghouti, leader of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has made it clear that his movement would oppose the existence of a Jewish state, regardless of any agreement for a two-state solution .

Already in 1929, the Palestinian national and Islamic leader said the Arabs would “remove the last remaining Jews” with an economic boycott. He spent WWII aiding the Nazis and planning to expand the Holocaust and the Final Solution to the Middle East.

Coerced by Arab demands, the British Mandate of Palestine agreed to boycott Jewish immigrants.

An Israeli Soldier to American Jews: Wake up!

As a young Israeli who had just completed five years of service in the IDF, I looked forward to my new job educating people in the Pacific Northwest about Israel. I was shocked, however, by the anti-Israel bigotry and hostility I encountered, especially in the greater Seattle area, Oregon, and Berkeley. I had been very liberal, a member of the leftist Zionist party, Meretz, but the anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel that I have seen in the U.S. has changed my outlook personally and politically.

This year, from January through May, I went to college campuses, high schools, and churches to tell people about the history of modern Israel, about my experience growing up in the Jewish state, and about my family. I also always spoke about my military service as an officer in an IDF COGAT unit that attends to the needs of Palestinian civilians who are not involved in the conflict and promotes Palestinian civil society. Each time I would speak and take questions for an hour or more. I have shared my personal story with over 16,000 people at many, many college campuses and high schools, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, the University of Washington, Seattle University and many others. Many of those to whom I spoke were supportive, friendly, and open to hearing about my Israel. But, sadly, far too many were not.

I was further shocked by how unaware the organized Jewish community is and how little they are actually doing to counter this rising anti-Semitism, which motivated me to write this article.When I served as a soldier in the West Bank, I got used to having ugly things said to me, but nothing prepared me for the misinformation, demonization of Israel, and the gut-wrenching, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hostility expressed by many students, professors, church members, and even some high school students right here in the Pacific Northwest.

This new form of bigotry against Israel has been called the “new anti-Semitism,” with “Israel” replacing “Jew” in traditional anti-Semitic imagery and canards, singling out and discriminating against the Jewish state, and denying the Jewish people alone the right to self-determination. The new anti-Semitism is packaged in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS), which claims to champion Palestinian rights though its real goal is to erode American support for Israel, discredit Jews who support Israel, and pave the way for eliminating the Jewish state. One of BDS’ central demands is the “complete right of return” for all the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees, subtle language that means the end of Israel as the Jewish homeland because it would turn Israel into a Palestinian-Arab majority state.

It is surprising that an extremist group like BDS is ever taken seriously, but BDS advocates have found receptive audiences in some circles. Their campaigns are well organized and in many cases, well financed. They have lobbied universities, corporations, food co-ops, churches, performing artists, labor unions, and other organizations to boycott Israel and companies that do business with Israel. But even if these groups don’t agree to treat Israel as a pariah state, the BDS activists manage to spread their anti-Israel misinformation, lies and prejudice simply by forcing a debate based on their false claims about Israel.

To give you a taste of the viciousness of the BDS attacks, let me cite just a few of the many shocking experiences I have had. At a BDS event in Portland, a professor from a Seattle university told the assembled crowd that the Jews of Israel have no national rights and should be forced out of the country. When I asked, “Where do you want them to go?” she calmly answered, “I don’t care. I don’t care if they don’t have any place else to go. They should not be there.” When I responded that she was calling for ethnic cleansing, both she and her supporters denied it. And during a presentation in Seattle, I spoke about my longing for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. When I was done, a woman in her 60’s stood up and yelled at me, “You are worse than the Nazis. You are just like the Nazi youth!” A number of times I was repeatedly accused of being a killer, though I have never hurt anyone in my life. On other occasions, anti-Israel activists called me a rapist. The claims go beyond being absurd – in one case, a professor asked me if I knew how many Palestinians have been raped by IDF forces. I answered that as far as I knew, none. She triumphantly responded that I was right, because, she said, “You IDF soldiers don’t rape Palestinians because Israelis are so racist and disgusted by them that you won’t touch them.”

Such irrational accusations are symptomatic of dangerous anti-Semitism. Yet, alarmingly, most mainstream American Jews are completely oblivious to this ugly movement and the threat it poses. They seem to be asleep, unaware that this anti-Jewish bigotry is peddled on campuses, by speakers in high schools, churches, and communities, and is often deceptively camouflaged in the rhetoric of human rights.

The American Jewish community and its leaders are not providing a united front to combat this latest threat. Unfortunately, this repeats a pattern of Jewish communal groups failing to unite in a timely way to counter threats against us individually and as a community.

Shockingly, a small but very vocal number of Jews actively support BDS. They often belong to organizations that prominently include “Jewish” in their names, like Jewish Voice for Peace, to give cover to BDS and the anti-Semitism that animates it. A question that we, as a Jewish community must ask ourselves, is whether it is ever appropriate to include and accept Jews who support BDS and directly or indirectly advocate the ultimate elimination of the Jewish State of Israel.

I think it is not.

My experiences in America have changed me. I never expected to encounter such hatred and lies. I never believed that such anti-Semitism still existed, especially in the U.S. I never knew that the battlefield was not just Gaza, the West Bank, and hostile Middle Eastern countries wanting to destroy Israel and kill our citizens and soldiers. It is also here in America, where a battle must be waged against prejudice and lies.

I implore American Jews: do more.

Israel cannot fight this big battle alone. If you are affiliated with a Jewish organization, let it know you want it to actively, openly and unequivocally oppose the BDS campaign and those who support it. Inform yourself, your friends and families, by visiting websites of organizations like StandWithUs, Jewish Virtual Library, AIPAC, AJC and others that will update you and provide information about BDS and anti-Semitism.

I urge the organized Jewish community and its members to wake up and stand up for the Jewish state of Israel, and for all it represents, and for all it works to achieve.

ISRAEL MATZAV: If Omar doesn't practice BDS, why should you?

Islamic Cleric In Gaza Rejects Israel’s Existence

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  Associated Press/Adel Hana - Influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, left, talks as Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh listens, during their meeting in Gaza City, Thursday, May 9, 2013. al-Qaradawi …more 

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A prominent Islamic scholar making a landmark visit to the Gaza Strip declared Thursday that Israel has no right to exist and voiced his support for rocket fire on Israel, giving a boost of legitimacy to the militant Islamist Hamas rulers of the Palestinian territory.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the latest of a few high profile figures visit Gaza, boosting the Hamas effort to break its international isolation. The U.S., EU and Israel brand Hamas a terror group, while the rivalFatah, which rules in the West Bank, enjoys Western backing.

Al-Qaradawi issued the strongest anti-Israel declarations of any of the visitors to date.

"This land has never once been a Jewish land. Palestine is for the Arab Islamic nation," said al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based cleric made famous by his popular TV show and widely respected in the Muslim world.

"The rockets made in Gaza are more powerful than the (Israeli) occupation's rockets," he added.

Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 following several days of fighting against the rival Palestinian faction Fatah. Since then, Hamas militants have launched thousands of rockets into Israeli towns. Israel carried out two punishing military offensives, one in the winter of 2008-2009 and another late last year which killed the chief of the Hamas military wing.

Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but imposes a maritime blockade and controls the flow of goods coming from Israel into the territory. Gaza's Hamas rulers and their backers still refer to Israel as "the occupation," referring to Israel's control of the West Bank and reflecting a belief that the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East is an illegitimate occupation.

The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, condemned al-Qaradawi's visit, saying his presence is cementing the rift between the two Palestinian factions.

Fatah and Hamas have tried to reconcile their differences in recent years but failed. Western leaders have demanded that a unified Fatah-Hamas government must recognize Israel and agree to enter peace negotiations. Hamas has refused.

The emir of Gulf state of Qatar also visited last year, and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he'll visit by the end of the month, despite a U.S. plea that he delay the trip in order not to harm efforts to broker a reconciliation between Turkey and Israel.

Al-Qaradawi arrived in Gaza late Wednesday to an enthusiastic welcome by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his Cabinet ministers. They hosted the cleric Thursday in a tent set up on the site of the prime minister's office, which Israeli warplanes demolished in 2009.

Australian Prime Minister Gillard Denounces BDS Movement

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has denounced the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement ahead of anti-Israeli protest action at the University of NSW on Tuesday. BDS action at UNSW has turned ugly, with anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying material appearing on a Facebook page opposing the opening of a Max Brenner chocolate shop on campus.
    Gillard said Monday through a spokeswoman that "this campaign does not serve the cause of peace and diplomacy for agreement on a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine....I welcome the strong ties our universities have with Israeli researchers and academic institutions, and I hope those ties will deepen in the years ahead."  (The Australian)

Columbia Professors Against Israel - 100 teachers at Columbia University demand pension funds not be invested with companies that trade with IDF.

Roughly 100 professors and lecturers at Columbia University in New York are demanding that their pension funds not be invested with companies that also do business with the IDF or with civilian security providers in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria (Shomron) or eastern Jerusalem.

Professor Katherine Franke of Columbia’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law explained the group’s stance. Franke is also affiliated with the Center for Palestine Studies.

The faculty members calling for divestment are seeking to end pension fund involvement with the following companies:
Elbit Systems, which sells UAVs to Israel that the boycotters argue are used for “extrajudicial assassinations.”
Motorola, which has an Israeli daughter company that develops sensors which are used by Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria to prevent terrorist infiltrations.
Veolia transportation, which is involved in building the Jerusalem Light Rail train “which connects the western part of the city to the illegal settlement in eastern Jerusalem,” according to the pro-divestmetn staff.
Hewlett-Packard, which operates a system used by the IDF “to limit Palestinian freedom of movement.”
Northrop Grumman, which sells airplane and helicopter parts to the IDF. The pro-divestment staff said the parts were used in planes “that Israel used in the Cast Lead operation, which took the lives of more than 1,000 Palestinian civilians.” They are apparently using Hamas’ initial claims regarding the operation’s civilian death toll; the group has since admitted that most of those killed were Hamas fighters.
Supporters of the boycott campaign say they are continuing “a rich tradition of protest at Columbia University against racial segregation in the United States and against the apartheid regime in South Africa.”
The Columbia University divestment call follows similar actions at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Oxford University.
Italian journalist and Arutz Sheva contributor Giulio Meotti wrote last year about the growing wave of anti-Israel boycotts at Western universities.

Priorities: As their economies collapse, Europe worries about labeling 'settlement products'

With their economies collapsing around them, the Europeans are busy finding ways to ensure that their citizenry does not buy any 'settlement products.'

The work now underway in Brussels to create guidelines for the sale of West Bank settlement products follows a December 2012 conclusion by an EU meeting of foreign ministers that all agreements with Israel “must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, namely the Golan Heights; the West Bank, including east Jerusalem; and the Gaza Strip.”

Postal codes placed on these products already alert European custom officials that the products are produced over the pre-1967 line and are thus not part of the EU’s free trade understanding with Israel.

But the label still reads “made in Israel” and the consumer cannot distinguish on which side of the pre-1967 line the product was produced.

Last week 13 European foreign ministers sent a letter to the EU’s Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton in which they applauded this work.

...

Among the countries that signed it were: the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia.

Here in Israel, we should hand out candies and other sweets made in Judea and Samaria on the day when the final collapse of Europe is confirmed. That day is coming soon. They deserve to rot.

Gee... wearing an anti-Israel shirt in the middle of an AIPAC convention could cost you a tip

The note above was left on a table at a Washington restaurant calledBusboys and Poets. The waitress in question wore a t-shirt that said "occupation isn't pretty." The shirt was sold by the radicals at Code Pink. As one of the commenters at that link said, "Not exactly a "pro-peace" shirt. I'd probably can an employee who wore something like that in front of customers." I wouldn't leave a tip either. (The diners in question apparently left a smaller tip than they would have otherwise).  Here are front and back shots of the shirt (Hat Tip: My Right Word).

BDSers now targeting Jewish-owned toy store

From The Star (South Africa):

Members of the Stop the JNF (Jewish National Fund) campaign gathered outside Reggies toy stores at the weekend in protest at the toy chain’s financial support of the JNF.

In a statement sent out by Cosatu on behalf of the Stop the JNF, the campaign’s members said: “We feel that it is unconscionable that while hundreds of Palestinian children are held in Israeli prisons, a toy shop that purportedly celebrates children is knowingly supporting an Israeli parastatal complicit in gross human rights violations.”

The Stop the JNF campaign members staged protests at three Reggies stores, in Joburg, Durban and Cape Town, yesterday.

The campaign’s national spokesman, Alan Horwitz, said 60 protesters showed up in Joburg, 100 people protested in Durban and 30 in Cape Town. No one was at the stores to accept the protesters’ memorandums.

The South African media helpfully publicized the protests ahead of time on behalf of "Stop the JNF." I have never seen a newspaper give publicity to protests of under a hundred people beforehand.
Apparently, the owner of the store supports the Jewish National Fund, which must be an awful crime that merits the closure of his store and the dozens of employees losing jobs.

Note that the organizers of this self-hate festival are Jewish. In fact, one of them was wearing a yarmulke, to establish his Jew bona-fides.

The protests were on Shabbat, which means it is highly unlikely that this gentleman wears a kipah anytime except when he is protesting proud Jews.

Here's another protester:

Nothing says "human rights" like a Che Guevara T-shirt!

The anti-Israel drones are clearly not interested in a few facts I threw their way on their Facebook page that throws cold water on their insistence that JNF is racist:

• The leading Palestinian Arab environmentalist works closely with the JNF on a number of initiatives.
• The JNF has given land to help Arab towns grow.
• The JNF donated 3000 trees to Arab town of Rawabi on the West Bank - but the Arabs uprooted them all!

They are mindless, anti-Israel bigots, and no amount of kipot will detract from that. If it wasn't the JNF they would be protesting something else.

If you are so inclined, you might want to order something from Reggie's. 

The Rami Levy BDS protest proves BDS failure

Today there was a violent protest outside the Rami Levy supermarket in Sha'ar Binyamin. Ma'an reports:

Around 150 protestors demonstrated on Wednesday in front of an Israeli chain store east of Ramallah, the Popular Struggle Committee said.

Four activists were detained and several injured as Israeli police and soldiers broke up the demonstration, a statement said.

Palestinian, international and Israeli protesters gathered outside of a branch of the Rami Levi store, chanting slogans and carrying banners calling for a boycott of Israeli products.

Actually, they broke into the store.
But what Ma'an doesn't report is the real reason for the protest. YNet adds:

[Activist Abir Kopty said] "This time we chose the Rami Levy store because we want to send a message to boycott the occupation and its products. As long as the Palestinians get no justice, settlers and Israelis will not lead normal lives."

She added that the protest was also meant to send a message to the Palestinian people not to shop in Rami Levy. It should be noted that the retail chain has two branches in the West Bank that also serve Palestinians.

She repeated that on Twitter.

And from the signs they carries, one could see that the intended audience for the boycott call is Arabs, obviously not the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria!

Here is what is really going on:

Rami Levy markets are islands of of co-existence in the territories. Arabs and Jews shop there peacefully together. Arabs and Jews work side by side as employees. I once made a poster based on a photo taken inside a Rami Levy market:

Arab bigots cannot stand the success of Rami Levy.

A couple of years ago, the PA mounted a concerted campaign to get Arabs to boycott Rami Levy. They intimidated Arabs by saying that they were keeping track of license plates on cars at the markets. They told their people that the supermarket's entire purpose was to humiliate Arabs. They even claimed that the meat being sold there was poisoned - although how it only poisoned Arab and not Jewish customers remains a mystery. They prohibited Palestinian Arabs from working at the supermarket.

Even with all of that, Palestinian Arabs continued to shop and work there. The boycott calls were acomplete failure.

Since trying to convince Palestinian Arabs to avoid Jewish stores failed so badly, the BDSers are trying tophysically intimidate the Arab customers.  They are hoping to create a gauntlet at the store that makes Arabs decide not to bother shopping there, even though they want to.

Get it? They want to force Palestinian Arabs to act in the ways they deem acceptable - in the name of freedom!

Rami Levy symbolizes everything they hate - Jews and Arabs actually living, working and shopping together. They want to create an apartheid state where only Arabs live and where Jewish products are banned. And they are willing to use force to create this situation!

Doesn't sound very liberal, does it?


The "Popular Struggle Committee" is dedicated to pushing boycott of Israeli products and stores worldwide. But they cannot even get Arabs who live in the territories to boycott a Jewish-owned store!

Rami Levy, by continuing to attract ordinary Arabs, symbolizes the failure of BDS more effectively than anything else.

BDS = BULLY, DISRUPT, SHOVE? BDS Attacks JNF Concert Goers in Berlin (Video)

Ten members of BDS interrupted a JNF fundraiser in Berlin. The protesters helped up signs, yelled “Free Palestine”, shoved old women, and knocked people down.

Qatar cancels "Music and Dialogue Festival": too "Zionist"

If you want to find an Israeli who is "pro-Palestinian", you won't be able to do better than Daniel Barenboim.

The Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has been granted Palestinian citizenship for his work in promoting cultural exchange between young people in Israel and the Arab world.

The Argentine-born musician is believed to be the first person in the world to possess both Israeli and Palestinian passports after receiving his new documentation at the end of a piano recital in Ramallah in the West Bank at the weekend.

"Under the most difficult circumstances he has shown solidarity with the Palestinian people," Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian MP and presidential candidate, said at the recital held to raise money for medical aid for children in the Gaza Strip.

Barenboim even managed to enter Hamas-controlled Gaza last year to perform with his mixed Arab-Jewish orchestra. 

And for the past few years, that same orchestra - the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded with Edward Said - has performed in a festival in Qatar.

But not this year.

The event was supposed to include three concerts featuring the orchestra under Barenboim's lead as well as a debate at a local university on the subject of "music as a contribution to peace."

Said died nine years ago, his widow was among those invited to the debate. Everything was ready, thousands of tickets were sold, but just a few days ago Barenboim was surprised to hear that the Qatari authorities announced that the festival was cancelled.

The reason? "Sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world." The official announcement further stated: "We are aware of Maestro Barenboim's special talents, but the festival under his lead is cancelled."

Apparently this is only a diplomatic pretext and the reality may be that the Qatari authorities surrendered to the pressure that was put on them by the Palestinian organization for boycott on Israel.

The Arab media insisting that the reason for the cancellation is the fact that "Barenboim represents the occupation."

Editorials in newspapers throughout the Arab world stated: "This isn't the time or place to entertain Israelis and a Zionist conductor. Qatari authorities are giving the Zionist maestro an opportunity to present a seemingly positive aspect of Israel."

Omar Barghouti, the hypocrite leader of the Israel boycott movement who has no problem getting his doctorate from an Israeli university, explains why Barenboim is such a horrible Zionist:

Although he rejects the 1967 occupation, he also rejects the return of refugees to the homes they were thrown out of during the nakba [in 1948].

Barenboim attempts to cleverly clean up Israel’s image by accepting some Palestinian rights, but at the same time he repudiates the most significant of Palestinian rights.

Meaning the right to destroy the Jewish state.

Barghouti has an entire op-ed in Al Akhbar about this, decryinghow Arab countries are "normalizing" relations with Israel in academia, the arts and even sports. He loves to self-righteously force his agenda to boycott Israel on everyone but himself.

Barenboim might be spending his entire life trying to achieve peace and dialogue between Israel and the Arab world, but he still accepts that Israel has a right to exist. That is an unpardonable crime.

And Qatar cannot appear to be "Zionist" by hosting a pro-peace artist who was honored by the Palestinian Authority. That is too controversial.

This episode also neatly proves that the BDS movement is not merely against "occupation" but against the very existence of Israel itself.