Even if you oppose BDS, Israeli government blacklist is a bad idea

Published: 11 January 2018

Last updated: 4 March 2024

EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD is allowed to decide who gets to visit. So the government of Israel was within its rights when it announced over the weekend that it would deny entry to senior leaders and high profile activists from 20 organizations that support the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel.

Personally, I don’t favour BDS, which I consider a cynical attempt to unfairly single out Israel and stifle the very exchange of ideas and goods that could help promote an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Plus, many BDS proponents won’t say whether they want to end the occupation, or put an end to Israel as a Jewish state. It’s one thing to mount a targeted boycott. It’s another thing to obliterate a nation.

Nor am I personally a fan of Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the six American-based groups on the list. I find its tactics deplorable and I do not trust its motives.

But I can oppose BDS and dislike JVP and still believe that this blacklist is a really dumb idea. Because it is. The optics are terrible, while it’s not clear what such a blacklist accomplishes.

FULL STORY I oppose BDS but still think this blacklist is a dumb idea (Forward)

AND SEE
Opposition slams 'idiotic' BDS activist ban (Jerusalem Post)

Israel’s BDS blacklist is straight out of apartheid. The UK can’t condone it (Guardian)
Banning groups, such as War on Want, that support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is a desperate attempt to silence human rights defenders

Israel publishes BDS blacklist of 20 groups whose members will be denied entry (Haaretz)
Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry had for months refused to divulge which organizations are on the list

Photo: A pro-Palestinian BDS protest in Paris, France August 13, 2015 (AFP)