Israeli government convenes working group to battle BDS

This week, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is sponsoring a conference aimed at "combating antisemitism" in Jerusalem. It’s interesting to see a conference apparently about tackling racism being co-chaired by Avigdor Lieberman. The other co-chair is a Likud MK who lives in a settlement in the Occupied West Bank.

One of the conference’s working groups is aimed at BDS (you can view the group’s members here). This is from the group’s description:

"The BDS campaign must be taken seriously, for it seeks to escalate, but we should not be defensive in combating it. As Israeli Prime Minister reportedly said when responding to the U.N. Human Rights Council’s vote to send the Goldstone Report to the Security Council, “We are now setting out to delegitimize those who try to delegitimize us.”

The GFCA recognizes the urgent need to combat this campaign as earnestly and vehemently as possible. As a result we have convened this working group to try and come up with imaginative, effective and successful solutions to counter this evil. We will be focusing on how to analyze the problem in North America, Europe, and the rest of the world, as well as how to play both “defense” and “offense” in forging overall strategies."

About Ben White

Ben White is author of 'Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide' and 'Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, discrimination and democracy'. Follow him on twitter at @benabyad and on his website www.benwhite.org.uk.
Posted in BDS, Israel/Palestine

{ 13 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. ihsan says:

    This is just too funny.

    Will the conference be covering Israeli racism also, or just racism against semites? The most decisive victory against the BDS campaign would come from ending the occupation. Will the BDS group be discussing that?

    Any chance of Mondoweiss sending along a mole to infiltrate the conference and report back to us?

  2. Chaos4700 says:

    Oh yes, Avigdor Lieberman is the perfect co-chair for a campaign to assemble persuasive propaganda to distribute among the rest of the world.

    This should be a laugh riot.

  3. potsherd says:

    Time to revive “Zionism is racism”

  4. MRW says:

    Self-fulfilling prophecy.
    ================

  5. I could not help but notice Abe Foxman’s name on the “Working Group – Participants list”. That means promotion of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bigotry is also high on the agenda.

  6. Ben White says:

    From MK Edelstein’s address:

    “We must repeat again and again these basic facts – TO BE “anti-Israel” IS TO BE ANTI-SEMITIC. TO BOYCOTT ISRAEL, ISRAELI PROFESSORS and ISRAELI businesses, these are not political acts, these are acts of hate, acts of anti-Semitism!

    Anti-Israel hysteria is anti-Semitic hysteria. They are one and the same.

    Look at the reality Israelis face when traveling to international athletic, business, and academic events. More and more, when they arrive in Sweden, Turkey, England, and even the United States, they must lecture and perform before hostile or even violent crowds, requiring police protection…

    I am glad to inform you that a special ministry was formed half a year ago, which hopefully will allow us to double our efforts to combat anti-Semitism. The Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs will work very hard to widen the field of people dealing with this issue, and will do everything in our power to build the ICCA, the inter parliamentary coalition to combat anti-Semitism.”
    link to mfa.gov.il

    And from Lieberman’s address:

    “He said that global anti-Semitism had “crossed the line,” and that those behind the effort were “seeking to destroy the Jewish state piece by piece… using academic boycotts and economic sanctions.” He also noted “human rights groups’ effort to deny Israel legitimacy by pushing the United Nations Security Council to adopt the Goldstone Report,” which accused Israel of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip….”
    link to jpost.com

    • Chaos4700 says:

      You this means that, sooner or later, Israel is going to have to declare war on the UN itself.

    • ihsan says:

      ‘Why Zionists believe there is nothing wrong with the occupation and those that criticise it are Jew-haters.’ I would attend that conference any day. I would fly abroad to attend that conference.

      I cannot, for the life of me, understand why Jews would allow Israel to continue on its current path. There are probably more Jews that have never visited or lived in Israel than actually have. If that is true, then zionism really is racism and a perversion of Judaism. Something tells me it won’t last much longer. Another 15 to 20 years and Israel will have defeated itself and zionism’s use by date will have expired because the generation that is growing up in multi-racial societies with unprecedented and instant access to information from both sides of the conflict will be running the show.

  7. aparisian says:

    Thats really good, it means BDS is causing a panic to the Zionists! Edelstein is using the same vocabulary as Witty, and Yonira strange…

  8. Pingback: WHITE: Israeli government convenes working group to battle BDS 16Dec09

  9. patm says:

    Another excellent essay by Professor Lawrence Davidson: “The Jews go to war (with themselves)”.

    link to thecanadiancharger.com

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