Israel’s Interior Ministry and the Office of Strategic Affairs, run by Israeli official Gilad Erdan, has compiled a list of close to 20 BDS groups worldwide to be dealt with by a 72 million dollar campaign budget allowing Israel the funds to fight back.
One of the main thrusts of the planned campaig is that people from these groups are to be refused entry to Israel.
"The boycott organizations need to know that the State of Israel will act against them and not allow [them] to enter its territory to harm its citizens. No country would have allowed critics coming to harm the country to enter its borders," Erdan explained.
Interior Minister Arye Deri, whose ministry is responsible for implementing the list, said: "These people are trying to exploit the law and our hospitality to act against Israel and to defame the country. I will act against this by every available means."
While Israel's keeping them out is laudable, they almost always find ways to get in and then Israel is reluctant to create international incidents by deporting them, so it ends up letting them stay and make trouble.
But those on the list are not the only problem.
An informed look at the list shows that right out of the starting gate, the list is going to snatch defeat from the hands of victory by not including some of the biggest and most damaging BDS groups in the United States.
This is in part due to bureaucrats trying to fight a worldwide movement that relies on grassroots organizing and infiltration of public institutions. These include colleges, churches, labor unions and other societal groups to which the majority of the American public belong, making them susceptible to believing the lies and propaganda techniques the groups disseminate.
These troublemakers think they are being altruistic, they do not realize they are helping terrorists or totalitarian Arab regimes.
Israel can spend 72 million dollars explaining the facts and history behind Israel’s existence and international threats, but none of that matters when dealing with a tsunami of BDS lies and distortions claiming genocide, human right abuses, child abuse and other calumnies that BDS promulgates on a massive scale, frequently subsidized by U.S. tax dollars. These troublemakers think they are being altruistic, they do not realize they are helping terrorists or totalitarian Arab regimes.
While groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and the Arab Marxist front group Jewish Voice for Peace are listed, the list ignores many more. For example, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) that brought Rachel Corrie over to Gaza and is a clearing house for such BDS groups worldwide did not make the list. ISM still has an office in Beit Sahour and organizes the weekly stone throwing riots in Judea and Samaria that attack the Security Fence. ISM activists take summer vacations rioting against IDF troops then go home and promote BDS justifying their activities with tales of Israeli “crimes.” ISM’s activities promoting BDS in the US are bolstered by recruiting drives for such activities.
At UC Irvine, the Olive Tree Initiative brings students to Judea and Samaria, gives them a propaganda tour, then brings them home to promote BDS in America.
Palestine Summer Encounter in Texas does the same thing.
IfNotNow, a new “Jewish” BDS group of radicals aligned with the Jewish Center for Nonviolence, brings high school and young college students to Judea and Samaria after training them to physically assault IDF soldiers, even grabbing their guns as they swarm and crowd them. The group also violently promotes BDS back in the USA.
The ISM in particular must not be ignored. It is designed like an octopus with many arms, so shutting down one arm leaves the others able to operate. Israel to date has refused to strike at the heads of the octopus
The BDS blacklist did include the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a national lobbying campaign that illustrates the octopus tactics. But many active BDS groups in the US are conspicuously absent.
Below is a list of very active groups and supoorters not listed in the BDS Blacklist:
14 Friends of Palestine (Marin, California)
Adalah-NY
Black Lives Matter
Boston 2 Palestine
Campus Action Network (part of Al Sharpton’s Action Network)
Christian Peacemaker Teams (Part of American Friends Service Committee)
Friends of Sabeel (FOSNA) with headquarters In Bethlehem, Christian anti-Semites
General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) San Francisco State
Global Exchange-Medea Benjamin’s group
Interfaith Peace Builders-Santa Cruz, California
Middle East Childrens’ Alliance in Berkeley, California
Mondoweiss website
Muste Foundation N.Y.
Norcal ISM, Free Palestine Movement, Free Gaza Movement (all three are Paul Larudee)
National Lawyers Guild
Presbyterian Synod
Rachel Corrie Foundation For Peace and Justice
South Bay Mobilization-San Jose, California
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (pacbi.org)
United Church of Christ Palestine/Israel Network
United Methodist General Board of Church and Society
Vermonters for Just Peace
WESPAC Foundation-N.Y.
Women in Black
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
The above groups are the more active ones, but there are many more. Also excluded from the list:
Al Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition (One leader lives in Beit Sahour)
Olive Tree Initiative is in many California colleges subsidized by taxpayers
In addition, major Muslim groups that promote BDS in the US are:
Arab Action Network-Chicago
CAIR -Council on American Islam ic Relations
If Americans Knew- San Rafael, California
Ifnotnow
Muslim Public Affairs Committee
Muslim Students Association (most colleges)
Still other groups active in promoting BDS:
American Nazi Party www.nsm.org
Columbia BDS a.k.a. Apartheid Divest
Council for the National Interest -Saudi backed anti-Semites
Duke Divest-Duke University
International ANSWER-a Marxist coalition of groups seeking socialist takeover
International Socialist Organization- Marxists who advocate violent overthrow of US government
Jews For Justice For Palestinians- UK based ISM group
La Voz De Azatlan – Chicano group advocates US Southwest be ceded to Mexico
La Raza-Chicano Revolutionary group
Middle East Studies Association
Nation of Islam-Farrakhan
Veterans For Peace-Seattle
Veterans Today-Fake Veterans website
Who Profits - Dalit Baum (In Israel and USA)
People active in promoting BDS:
Huwaida Arraf (ISM co-founder)
Anna Baltzer, ak.k.a. Anna Piller
John Cusack (actor)
Angela Davis radical professor UC Santa Cruz
Julianne Moore (actress)
Viggo Mortensen (actor)
Cynthia Nixon (actress)
Mandy Patinkin (actor)
Mark Ruffalo (actor)
Emma Thompson (actress)
Rogers Water (musician)
Cornel West- Harvard, Princeton Professor Emeritus
The list goes on and on, as there are BDS clubs at many smaller colleges and some are one man shows; sometimes different groups share the same members.
Israel will squander that 72 million dollars instead of using it wisely. Instead of passing out flyers and dolling the money out to pro-Israel non-profits with bloated staff salaries, Israel needs to support organizations of young people working on campuses - StandwithUS, Soldiers on Duty, and others like them. Most important, it must get genuinely tough with BDS activists entering from abroad. If a member of the ISM or similar groups is caught in the Judea and Samaria where they are already breaking the law just by being there, they should get an automatic 90 day jail sentence and immediate deportation. ISM plays a game now; their activists from the US are told to contact the US State Department, knowing it will demand their release so they can be back in two weeks, The same applies to the EU. Israeli must tell the US and Europe that subversives will not be tolerated.
With a 72 million dollar budget, a monetary rewards system should also be created where young people visitng Israel, especially at youth hostels, identify BDS activists from the list. In Arab villages if such an activist is reported and the report is genuine, there should be payment made by the governmen to those reporting.
Israel needs a strict and comprehensive program to fight BDS in and from the USA and within Israel. Over the last 15 years Stop the ISM managed to help Israel deport over 300 such activists. If my NGO can do this, Israel with a huge budget and manpower should be able to make a big dent in BDS.