Behind the Boycott | Page 8

Finkelstein , a Jewish professor and a long-time leader of the BDS movement , castigated his fellow anti- Israel activists for their disingenuousness . Finkelstein , too , believes that Israel should be destroyed , but he disagrees with the movement ’ s strategy of hiding behind the fig leaf of Palestinian rights : “ There ’ s no Israel . That ’ s what it ’ s really about .”
Many BDS sympathizers are undoubtedly sincere in their expressions of support for peace , some even support an equitable two-state solution . But these good people are manipulated by the leaders of the BDS campaign , who seek nothing less than the elimination of the Jewish state .
WHAT FORMS DOES THE BOYCOTT TAKE ?
The hateful strategy to boycott Israel rests on a parallel drawn to the situation in Apartheid-era South Africa . Apartheid was a brutal system of racial segregation and colonialist oppression that whites in that country enforced against the native blacks . The international anti-Apartheid campaign triggered widespread boycotts of South Africa , offered solidarity and support to South African blacks , and helped bring the loathsome policy to an end . When Israel ’ s foes make the Apartheid analogy , they cast the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a matter of race , promoting the Palestinian cause as if it were a struggle for human rights against Israeli oppression .
6