Published: 3 May 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
PHILIP MENDES: The BDS movement is informed by ultra-nationalist values rather than emancipatory aspirations
IN RECENT WEEKS, some commentators - mostly associated with far Left and/or ultra-nationalist Palestinian perspectives - have opined that the international community should extend their sanctions against Russia to the State of Israel. According to this simplistic argument, the continuing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza is the equivalent of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine - and deserves the same global punishment.
The obvious riposte here is that no two conflicts are the same in terms of origins or responsibility. But more specifically, I have long argued that the BDS movement is a case study of ethnic stereotyping whereby the entire population of Israel (or at least the majority Jewish segment) is demonised as an evil oppressor group.
That judgment of BDS as an overtly malevolent phenomenon both in terms of intent and actions is not changed one iota by the recent horrific but unrelated events in Eastern Europe.
Nobody is calling for the dismemberment of Russia as a national state or demanding that the Ukrainians become the dominant ethno-national group within Russia’s recognised borders.
Even if there were some relevant commonalities or lessons from events in Europe that might help inform conflict resolution in the Middle East, there is little if any similarity between the respective boycott approaches.
Unless I have missed something, nobody in the United Nations is calling for the dismemberment of Russia as a national state or demanding that the Ukrainians or any other people become the newly dominant ethno-national group within Russia’s internationally recognised borders.
