Amidst Boycott Calls, British And
” He also said that all
Canadian Jews Initiate Buycott Campaigns
BY SAMUEL SOKOL
Ronnie Barkan is a leading activist
with Boycott from Within, an organiza-
tion that agitates for boycotts against
Israel, as well as being a member of
Anarchists against the Wall, which
engages in violent demonstrations
against Israel’s security barrier near the
town of Bil’in.
BDS, which stands for “Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions,” is an increas-
ingly popular tool of the Arab world and
the left. Comparing Israel to apartheid
South Africa, anti-Zionist groups call on
trade unions, academic institutions, and
individual shoppers to refrain from doing
business with, and buying products from,
Israel. The BDS campaign against the South
African apartheid regime is considered one
of the major factors in having hastened the
end of racial inequality against blacks.
28 November 20, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES
There have been increasing calls for
divestment against Israel by Israelis,
including such academics as Neve
Gordon, chair of the department of gov-
ernment at Ben Gurion University of the
Negev. Gordon recently wrote in the Los
Angeles Times that BDS is “the only way
that Israel can be saved from itself.”
The Five Towns Jewish Times spoke
with Barkan and with a representative of
the British Board of Deputies which
organized a counter-boycott program
called a “Buycott.” An identical Buycott
program is also being run in Canada.
Barkan began by explaining that his
organization operates according to the
July 2005 manifesto issued by the
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic &
Cultural Boycott of Israel. The manifesto
called for “a comprehensive economic,
cultural, and academic boycott of Israel”
due to the fact that the “state of Israel was
built mainly on land ethnically cleansed
of its Palestinian owners.”
The Palestine General Federation of
Trade Unions has no official position on
BDS, having never discussed the subject,
according to PGFTU general secretary
Shaher Saeed. The PGFTU has imposed a
boycott on produce from Israeli towns in
Judea and Samaria, but had concerns over
whether such actions would harm the
30,000 PA Arabs employed there.
Unlike Gordon, Barkan does not
explain his actions in terms of saving
Israel. “I’m an anti-Zionist myself,” he
explained. Barkan said that the right of
return for Palestinian refugees is “a basic
right” and that a Jew born in the Diaspora
has “no relation” to Israel “but is regarded
as a Jew according to Israeli racist laws.”
He complained that such a Jew “has, for
some reason or another, the right to
return to a place which most likely is a
Palestinian place.
Israelis and Israeli institutions are “com-
plicit” in “crimes” against the Arabs.
When asked if governments should
cut off diplomatic relations with Israel,
Barkan replied, “I surely do.” He
explained that supporting a boycott of
Israel is not anti-Semitic, but rather the
“humane thing to do.” The BDS cam-
paigner referred to the database of Israeli
He explained that
supporting a boycott
of Israel is not anti-
Semitic, but rather the
“humane thing to do.”
businesses that operate in Judea and
Samaria, compiled by the Who Profits ini-
tiative of the Coalition of Women for
Peace, as being very helpful in running
boycott campaigns against Israel. The
CWP “call[ed] upon the Norwegian peo-
ple to join us in our efforts and to stop
investing in the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian territory” in a letter addressed
to the Norwegian pension fund’s council
on ethics in May.
The Who Profits initiative is run by Dr.
Dalit Baum, the founder of the now
defunct Lesbian anti-Zionist organization
Black Laundry.
In response to increasing calls for boy-
cotts, the organized Jewish communities
in both Canada and Britain have organ-
ized counter-BDS campaigns called “buy-
cotts.” In a buycott, Jews flock to stores
that are being boycotted or that are being
threatened with a boycott, and buy out
all Israeli products.
Ms. Atalia Cadranel, the director of
communications for the British Board of
Deputies, explained the concept. As part
of the larger BDS campaign, the
Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC)
began targeting the Waitrose and
Morrisons supermarket chains as part of
their supermarket boycott campaign.
During this campaign, the Board of
Deputies, representing the Jewish com-
munity of the UK, and its partner, the
Fair Play Campaign Group, rallied 200
supporters of Israel to enter a chosen
supermarket and buy out the Israeli
products sold there. A similar tactic was
employed in Canada, in which Jewish
and Zionist shoppers descended on a
liquor store, buying out its entire supply
of Israeli wines.
According to Cadranel, this tactic is
expected to be employed again in the
future, to the dismay of British Jews,
who wish it were not necessary.
Discussing the calls for BDS being made
by Israeli Jews, Cadranel stated “It’s
completely divisive, because any kind of
boycott hurts both the Israelis and the
Palestinians and the Palestinian trade
unions have come out and overtly said
so.” Any sanctions against Israel would
cause terrible economic hardship for
the Palestinian Authority. Trade
between Israel and the PA stood at $3.9
billion in 2008. ❖