From its very inception, Israel has been faced with conventional and asymmetrical military and political threats from its neighbors, coupled with organized economic and diplomatic boycotts spearheaded by the Arab League and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation. The Arab-Israeli conflict is unique, however, in that in conjunction with this state action targeting the country, an army of political activists is provided tens of millions of euros, dollars and francs by the European Union, European governments, the United Nations, churches and private foundations to produce rank propaganda, harass and seek arrest warrants of traveling Israeli officials and advance economic warfare against the State of Israel.
These campaigns go far beyond a critique of specific Israeli policies but are aimed at the country’s very existence.
In several cases, the organizations involved in these campaigns advise their members to game Israel’s border controls and lie about their purpose for coming to the country. Many of these political warriors also come to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to riot, destroy property and engage the police and military in violent confrontations and directly participate in hostilities. Networking with NGOs and other organizations affiliated with terrorist groups like Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a regular staple of these visits. The International Solidarity Movement is perhaps the best known of the groups engaged in this activity.
For years, the Israeli government expressed extreme frustration in response to these campaigns, registering countless complaints with their European counterparts and other funders. (...)
We also think it is more effective in fighting BDS for Israeli politicians to educate and, where necessary, confront European counterparts about absurd NGO funding policies. Education has proven highly successful in exposing BDS and has led to positive legislation and court rulings in Switzerland, Spain, Germany and France. In the U.S., a majority of states have passed laws countering BDS, with many more bills pending at both the state and federal level.
On the other hand, the breast-beating and condemnations regarding the legislation, particularly from Europe, are also overwrought and hypocritical. It is hard to think of any other country, including every democracy, that would countenance such active campaigning to deliberately harm the state. Nor would any country — again every democracy included — tolerate a mass influx of foreign protesters to engage its military and police forces in an active conflict zone.
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