Every one of BDS’ assumptions on Israel is wrong

Rodney Mazinter, Cape Town

Much has been made of the justice of the cause promoted by the BDS campaign that gives the impression that the Israelis are a bunch of bloodthirsty child killers. Its proponents accuse Israel of causing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Reality is turned on its head; facts and falsehoods, victims and victimisers, have their roles inverted; logic is suspended and an entirely false narrative of the conflict is accepted as unchallengeable fact, from which a global web of false conclusions has been spun.

Every one of the assumptions being bandied about by BDS is wrong. This inversion of reality and morality echoes the worldwide reappearance of anti-Semitism disguised an anti-Israelism. Justice and injustice, oppression and freedom, truth and lies are reversed.

Israel’s perceived “oppression” of the Palestinians, its “disproportionate” attacks on them and its supposed violations of international law, are actually the very opposite of the truth. BDS and others like them, make truly ridiculous claims about Israel, such as its perpetration of apartheid or ethnic cleansing – claims which, to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the situation, are demonstrably ridiculous.

One must hope that UCT by its actions will not support this campaign, and will be brought to the realisation that false utopias fail as they always do, because they are built on a flimsy structure held together by untruths. The scapegoat in this sad narrative is Israel, and by extension the historically convenient Jew.

The matter being debated at UCT cries out for firm and strong leadership, which is in short supply. Professor Max Price’s reported comments on page in the SA Jewish Report of September 15, are disingenuous at best. The dangers to UCT as an academic institution of quality are being put in jeopardy. 

 The New York State Senate passed a landmark bill earlier this year stripping public funding for universities that support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. It is common cause that BDS calls for the total boycott and destruction of Israel. The bill is a specific response to the smear campaign against Israel launched by the American Studies Association (ASA), which recently singled out Israel for criticism and voted to boycott the Jewish state.

This boycott move itself was deemed to be a blatant abuse of academic freedom. Not a single university has come out in support and several top universities – including Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Princeton, Boston, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Texas – have already slammed the boycott.

The reasons given by the Senate: “Make no mistake: the ASA’s boycott is targeted discrimination against Israel that betrays the values of academic freedom that we hold dear. No other nation – not even those with far worse records on human rights and academic freedom than Israel is accused of – is subject to a similar boycott…”

This principled stand sends a very powerful message that has relevance in our country, which is that we should never in a democracy, and especially in a university, support intolerance and discrimination of which an academic boycott is a part.