{"id":190726,"date":"2021-08-02T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=190726"},"modified":"2021-08-01T05:44:33","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T04:44:33","slug":"how-ben-jerrys-has-exposed-israels-anti-bds-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/08\/how-ben-jerrys-has-exposed-israels-anti-bds-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ben & Jerry\u2019s Has Exposed Israel\u2019s Anti-BDS Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By calling an ice cream company \u2018terrorist\u2019 for simply adhering to international law, Israeli President Isaac Herzog revealed the absurdity of the official Israeli strategy to counter the BDS movement.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Ben & Jerry\u2019s ice cream shop on Washington Street in New Jersey.
(Photo: Luigi Novi, Wikimedia Commons)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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28 Jul 2021 – <\/em>Ben & Jerry\u2019s decision<\/a>\u00a0to suspend its operations in the occupied Palestinian West Bank is an event that is proving critical to Palestinian efforts, which ultimately aim at holding Israel accountable for its military occupation, apartheid and war crimes.<\/p>\n

By responding to the Palestinian\u00a0call for boycotting<\/a> apartheid Israel, the ice cream giant has delivered a blow to Israel\u2019s attempts at criminalizing and, ultimately, ending the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS<\/a>) campaign.<\/p>\n

What differentiates Ben & Jerry\u2019s decision to abandon the ever-growing market of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank from previous decisions by other international corporations is the fact that the ice cream company has made it clear that its move was morally motivated. Indeed, Ben & Jerry\u2019s did not attempt to mask or delude their decision in any way. \u201cWe believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry\u2019s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,\u201d a statement by the Vermont, US-based company\u00a0read<\/a>\u00a0on 19 July.<\/p>\n

Expectedly, the Israeli government was\u00a0infuriated<\/a> by the decision, especially as it comes after years of a well-funded, state-sponsored, global campaign to discredit, demonize and altogether outlaw the BDS movement and any similar initiatives that aimed at boycotting Israel.<\/p>\n

For years, the Israeli government has viewed the boycott movement as a real, tangible threat. Some Israeli officials went as far as perceiving the \u2018delegitimization\u2019 resulting from the boycott campaign as the primary threat faced by Israel at the present time. Well attended conferences were held in Las Vegas<\/a>,\u00a0Brussels<\/a>,\u00a0Jerusalem<\/a> and elsewhere, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, fiery speeches delivered, while politicians and \u2018philanthropists\u2019 lined up at many occasions, vowing their undying allegiance to Israel and accusing anyone who dare criticize the \u2018Jewish State\u2019 of \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, Israel\u2019s biggest challenge was, and remains, its near-complete reliance on the support of self-serving politicians. True, those \u2018friends of Israel\u2019 can be quite helpful in formulating laws<\/a> that, for example, falsely equate between criticizing Israel and anti-Semitism, or render the act of boycott illegal, and so on. In fact, many\u00a0US states<\/a>\u00a0and European parliaments have\u00a0bowed<\/a> down to Israeli pressure to criminalize the BDS movement and its supporters, whether in the realm of business or even at the level of civil society and individuals. All of this is amounting to very little.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Israel doubled down on its attempts to control the narrative in mainstream media, in academia and wherever the anti-Israeli occupation debate proved to be consequential. Through a Kafkaesque, and often bizarre logic, Israel and its supporters deliberately\u00a0misinterpreted<\/a>\u00a0the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, applying it at every platform where criticism of Israel or its Zionist ideology is found. The reckless Israeli dialectics was, sadly \u2013 albeit predictably \u2013 embraced by many of Israel\u2019s Western benefactors, including the US, Canada and Italy, among others.<\/p>\n

Yet, none of this has ended or even slowed down the\u00a0momentum<\/a> of the Palestinian boycott movement. This fact should hardly come as a surprise, for boycott movements are fundamentally designed to circumvent governmental control and to place pressure on politicians, state and corporate apparatuses, so that they may heed the calls of civil society. Thus, the more Israel attempts to use its allies to illegalize, delegitimize and suppress dissent, the more it actually fuels it.<\/p>\n

The above is the secret of the BDS success and Israel\u2019s very Achilles\u2019 heel. By ignoring the boycott campaign, the movement grows exponentially; and by fighting it, using traditional means and predictable language, it grows even faster.<\/p>\n

In order to appreciate Tel Aviv\u2019s unsolvable quandary, just marvel at this odd response, which was offered by top Israeli officials in response to Ben & Jerry\u2019s decision. Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett,\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0the British company that acquired Ben & Jerry\u2019s in 2000, of \u201csevere consequences\u201d, threatening that Israel will take \u201cstrong action\u201d, most likely referring to legal action.<\/p>\n

But what was truly strange was the language used by Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, who\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0Ben & Jerry\u2019s of participating in \u201ca new form of terrorism\u201d, namely, \u201ceconomic terrorism\u201d. On 21 July, Herzog vowed to fight \u201cthis boycott and terrorism in any form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note how the Israeli response to the continued success of the Palestinian boycott movement remains confined in terms of options and language. Yet on the legal front, most attempts at indicting BDS activists have repeatedly failed, as the recent court rulings in Washington\u00a0demonstrate<\/a>. On the other hand, the act of accusing an ice cream company of \u2018terrorism\u2019 deserves some serious examination.<\/p>\n

Historically, Israel has situated its anti-Palestinian propaganda war within a handful of redundant terminology, predicated on the claim that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, the security and very existence of which is constantly being threatened by terrorists and undermined by anti-Semites.<\/p>\n

The above mantra may have succeeded in shielding Israel from criticism and tarnishing Israel\u2019s victims, the Palestinians. However, it is no longer a guarantor of international sympathy and solidarity. Not only is the Palestinian struggle for freedom gaining global traction, but the pro-Israeli discourse is finally discovering its limitations.<\/p>\n

By calling an ice cream company \u2018terrorist\u2019 for simply adhering to international law, Herzog has revealed the growing lack of credibility and absurdity of the official Israeli language.<\/p>\n

But this is not the end of Israel\u2019s problems. Regardless of whether they are branded successful or unsuccessful, all BDS campaigns are equally beneficial in the sense that each campaign kickstarts a conversation that often goes global, as we have seen repeatedly in the past.\u00a0Airbnb<\/a>,\u00a0G4S<\/a>, and\u00a0SodaStream<\/a>, are but a few of many such examples. Any global debate on Israel\u2019s military occupation and apartheid is a BDS success story.<\/p>\n

That said, there is one strategy that will surely end the BDS campaign, and that is ending the Israeli occupation, dismantling the racial system of apartheid and giving Palestinians their freedom as enshrined and protected by international law. Alas, this is the only strategy that Israeli officials are yet to consider.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/em>Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of <\/em>The Palestine Chronicle. His last book is <\/em>The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London) and his forthcoming book is <\/em>These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is <\/em>www.ramzybaroud.net<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ramzybaroud.net<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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