I understand opposition to the Israeli government’s activities in the West Bank and Gaza. Obviously that government should be targeted by BDS. Businesses also seem fair game. But what about individuals? For example, if an artist posts periodically online, should they also be subject to boycott?
Typically the BDSM goes until someone says the safe word.
Is this a joke?
Yes
Is this hypothetical artist an Israeli settler in the West Bank? If so, I certainly would not give them my money. Othwrwise, if we’re just talking about some random Israeli then there’s nothing inherently objectionable about that.
I have no idea. That’s a pertinent question that needs an answer.
The goal of a grassroots boycott is to show enough popular support to make a government boycott feasible. You don’t have to hurt individuals to do that, you just have to make it clear there’s popular support for an international boycott. So big companies yes, protests yes, signs yes, petitions yes… You can skip individuals
Agreed in principal. And individuals are not synonymous with their governments. Yet this also seems like a workaround to avoid the issue.
@CaptObvious Corporations are subject to boycot, individuals to dialog. If an individual Israeli takes a pro-war/apartheid stance online then they should be challenged, but if they are for peace and reconciliation then they should be supported.
It originated from some anti-Semitic movements. So you can expect them to stop at nothing.
(doesn’t matter what you think they ‘should’ or ‘should not’)
Let’s not conflate anti-Israeli-government with antisemitism. That’s a tired old tactic that’s run its course.
Yeah, but let’s also not ignore that antisemitism in the past weeks has become wider spread than for a long long time, and often is hidden behind various criticism of Israel. For distinguishing legitimate criticism of Israel from antisemitism there’s the 3-D test.
How does one boycott the Israeli government?
Here’s a criticism of Israel for you:
The rise in anti-semitism is primarily Israel’s fault.Antisemitism was always there. The problem of palestinians is embedded into it, because Antisemites count on the continued suffering of the palestinians. They want dying palestinian children they can blame on Israel, and with the palestinian children dying you can see their eyes brighten up these days. Because now they can go rampant with their undifferentiated hatred against all Israel and all Jews.
But that’s consistent. Palestines are Semites, too, after all. Just don’t try to hide your hatred behind “concern”.
Isn’t Israel quite happy to keep Israel and Judaism undifferentiated, though? They seem happy to conflate anti-zionism with anti-semitism, and even any criticism of the state of Israel, or support of Palestine as anti-semitism. With such broad and frankly ridiculous definitions, I’m not surprised to see a rise in so-called anti-semitism.
I wouldn’t be surprised if hateful people did take delight in the genocide Israel is perpetrating, but I don’t see it. And criticising genocidal actions doesn’t require hatred for the perpetrators in order to be valid. Anti-semites were clear to lambast Israel at any point in the past 100 or so years, even more so now. And so were normal people.
The 3D Test was developed specifically to differentiate between legitimate criticisms of Israel policy and hidden antisemitism.
It’s a rule of thumb, it doesn’t cover each and every case, and there’s always a gray zone, but it’s not a bad one.
If you can’t criticize someone without demonizing or delegitimizing a whole state you maybe should refrain from talking publicly.
Would you prevaricate thusly when speaking about, say, the third Reich? Or would you “delegitimise” that entire state? Maybe you should think twice before publicly “demonising” the Nazis?
Sometimes a “whole state” bears criticism. Israel does, right now, because it is committing war crimes with western support.
The 3D test unfortunately proves nothing. It would be very useful if we could prove criticism of Israel was coming from an anti-semitic place, but you can’t, because you can’t read minds. It’s one of the most insidious features of all racism: it’s very easy to hide. At the moment, though, it is fair to assume that a majority of the criticism of Israel comes from common decency and human compassion, because the IDF are dropping tower blocks on children in their thousands in “self-defense”. Anyone enabling those types of actions is the worst of humanity because of their actions and decisions, not because of which god they pray to.
Without operational definitions, it does nothing of the sort. It is, however, a clever mnemonic and easy to repeat.
