BDS is a dismal failure

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In a guest editorial in the Toronto Sun, Stephen Ellis claimed that the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement was an “anti-racist” campaign that would “gain momentum.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

As a self-proclaimed BDS officer in Toronto, Ellis surely knows that the movement has entered a critical downward spiral in Canada, although he is understandably reluctant to admit it.

During the past two years, BDS has been forcefully rejected by students at the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, McGill University and the University of British Columbia.

In a guest editorial in the Toronto Sun, Stephen Ellis claimed that the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement was an “anti-racist” campaign that would “gain momentum.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

As a self-proclaimed BDS officer in Toronto, Ellis surely knows that the movement has entered a critical downward spiral in Canada, although he is understandably reluctant to admit it.

During the past two years, BDS has been forcefully rejected by students at the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, McGill University and the University of British Columbia.

Students at Canada’s top institutions can see right through the absurd claims being made by Ellis and his comrades. Far from being anti-racist, BDS is the definition of racism.

To boycott an entire nationality of people, including athletes, artists and professors — because of political disagreements with their government — is clearly bigoted and counter-productive.

In fact, the failures of the BDS movement are so apparent that, even the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, has repeatedly refused to adopt it. If Palestinians are ignoring a campaign supposedly waged on their behalf, why do its western acolytes persist?

The hard reality is that the BDS movement is not motivated by a sincere desire to make things better for Palestinians, but rather a perverse drive to make things worse for Israelis and Jews around the world.

This hateful attitude is on perfect display in the saga surrounding Ontario teacher Nadia Shoufani. Ellis tells us that she simply “spoke in favour of Palestinian rights.” In fact, Shoufani publicly hailed Samir Kuntar, a terrorist who smashed the skull of a 4-year-old Israeli girl against a rock, along with Ghassan Kanafani, who helped to plan a 1972 massacre at an Israeli airport in which 26 innocent people were murdered.

Apparently, for BDS advocates, “Palestinian rights” includes the right to murder Jews at will. For Canadian journalists to highlight this nonsense isn’t “shameful” — it’s just good journalism, and Sun columnist Sue-Ann Levy should be commended for it, not condemned.

At B’nai Brith Canada, we won’t allow support for terrorism to go unchallenged. We will continue to expose the hypocrisy of former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, who is angered by Jewish boycotts of his own concerts even as he urges the boycott of Israeli musicians. And we will continue to expose the vicious and anti-Semitic agenda behind the BDS movement, no matter the cost.

Students at Canada’s top institutions can see right through the absurd claims being made by Ellis and his comrades. Far from being anti-racist, BDS is the definition of racism.
To boycott an entire nationality of people, including athletes, artists and professors — because of political disagreements with their government — is clearly bigoted and counter-productive.

In fact, the failures of the BDS movement are so apparent that, even the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, has repeatedly refused to adopt it. If Palestinians are ignoring a campaign supposedly waged on their behalf, why do its western acolytes persist?

The hard reality is that the BDS movement is not motivated by a sincere desire to make things better for Palestinians, but rather a perverse drive to make things worse for Israelis and Jews around the world.

This hateful attitude is on perfect display in the saga surrounding Ontario teacher Nadia Shoufani. Ellis tells us that she simply “spoke in favour of Palestinian rights.” In fact, Shoufani publicly hailed Samir Kuntar, a terrorist who smashed the skull of a 4-year-old Israeli girl against a rock, along with Ghassan Kanafani, who helped to plan a 1972 massacre at an Israeli airport in which 26 innocent people were murdered.

Apparently, for BDS advocates, “Palestinian rights” includes the right to murder Jews at will. For Canadian journalists to highlight this nonsense isn’t “shameful” — it’s just good journalism, and Sun columnist Sue-Ann Levy should be commended for it, not condemned.

At B’nai Brith Canada, we won’t allow support for terrorism to go unchallenged. We will continue to expose the hypocrisy of former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, who is angered by Jewish boycotts of his own concerts even as he urges the boycott of Israeli musicians. And we will continue to expose the vicious and anti-Semitic agenda behind the BDS movement, no matter the cost.

BDS is a dismal failure

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