Israel Steps Up Fight Against Growing Boycott Movement

A movement to boycott Israel for its activities in the West Bank and Gaza is growing in popularity, and Israel's government is vowing to fight back.

The boycott movement, called BDS, which stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, opposes what it says is an Israeli system of discrimination against Palestinians. BDS has activists working in many countries, and the movement has tens of thousands of followers on social media.

Co-founder Omar Barghouti said BDS is growing quickly at least in part because of the formation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government.

To counter the growing influence of the movement, Jewish-American billionaires and political mega-donors Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban bridged their political differences -- Adelson is a Republican, Saban a Democrat -- and pledged to start and fund an anti-boycott movement.

"This isn't over. This is just the beginning," Saban told Channel 2 Israel about the Orange CEO and the boycott movement. "Any company that chooses to boycott business in Israel is going to look at this case, and once we're done, they're going to think twice whether they want to take on Israel or not. Trust me, this is just the beginning."

Netanyahu also promised to go on the offensive against the movement.

"We will gather forces in Israel and around the world to shatter the lies of our enemies, and we will fight for Israel's right to live in peace and security, to live at all," Netanyahu said.

Critics of the movement have accused Barghouti and his followers of racism and anti-Semitism. Barghouti denies the allegations.

"We are targeting a system of injustice. This should never be conflated with an attack on any group of people based on their identity," Barghouti said. "BDS targets institutions, complicit institutions, not individuals."

CNN Reports:


BDS is nothing but Jew hatred. They target the only democracy in the Middle East while ignoring countries committing genocide! Don't believe it? Watch this video!