Israel beefs up embassies with dedicated boycott fighters

Israel is ramping up its efforts to fight the growing campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

Anshel Pfeffer reveals in Haaretz this weekend:

Today’s battle is BDS – the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign being waged against Israel. Significant efforts are being invested by the government and pro-Israel organizations to fend off BDS. This week I discovered that in the Israeli embassy in London alone, there are two people (one diplomat and a local employee) whose full-time brief is to monitor and counter BDS attempts. Apparently the Foreign Ministry with its diplomatic corps is not enough and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has added fighting BDS to the responsibilities of Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz.

This revelation follows a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year to hand responsibility for fighting BDS to the ministry of strategic affairs.

Netanyahu said the ministry would coordinate “efforts with NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] in Israel and all over the world,” a role which would include “the establishment of a professional special staff for countering delegitimization.”

Could this be the first indication of these increased efforts?

Monitoring, sabotaging BDS efforts

Haaretz’s Pfeffer does not reveal the names or specific duties of the anti-boycott embassy staff, but in 2010, Israel’s Reut Institute identified London as one of the major “hubs” in a so-called “delegitimization network.”

The Reut report, which was embraced by the Israeli government and Israel lobby groups around the world, called on Israel to “sabotage” and “attack” members of the Palestinian solidarity movement.

Early this year, Haaretz revealed that after Israel’s attack on the Gaza flotilla and the Mavi Marmara in May 2010, “Israeli intelligence began to concentrate on monitoring the social networks of Islamic organizations and foreign left-wing activists.”

Is BDS working?

Pfeffer himself downplays the importance of the Palestinian campaign, asserting with bravado that “BDS has failed to create any form of pressure on Israel to change its policies” and has done nothing to dent Israel’s economy.

But he acknowledges that BDS has had a deep psychological impact on Israelis from “generals and politicians who feel an unease landing in some countries” where they could face arrest, to “academics looking for a university for their post-doctorate year and business people trying to drum up interest in professional conferences.”

Pfeffer claims that as a result of these pressures “Israelis have made themselves prisoners in their own minds” and urged them to “break the siege.”

This is an ironic phrase since it is, in part, Israel’s brutal and ongoing siege of Gaza, that Palestinian solidarity campaigns aim to draw attention to and help end.

Pfeffer misses the point that it is precisely this kind of pressure Israelis are feeling that successful boycotts generate.

Many Israelis are starting to understand that there is a price to be paid for imposing an intolerable injustice on millions of Palestinians.

It is indeed this kind of pressure and growing isolation – especially the sporting and cultural boycott – that helped convince white supporters and beneficiaries of apartheid in South Africa that they had to radically change direction.

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Comments

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I wonder if that explains Brent council's refusal to give any information on correspondence regarding Veolia's bid for the multimillion Public Realm contract. Brent Labour Council Executive voted to award contract to Veolia on Monday claiming that residents were more concerned about having their bins emptied than human rights despite more than 2000 residents signing petition for Veolia's exclusion from procurement because of its operations supporting illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

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Israel leaders claim citizens of Israel are becoming prisoners of their on mind by backing BDS movement.What about citizens of US who believe the maga tv preachers that are sponsored by Israel I think the are the ones that are prisoners of their own mind.

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If a boy is caught so be it, but...who cares? Wot bout girlcott?

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You are right it is terrible - people can be so ugly - so inhumane

But also now show the good side because Israel like all other countries are made up of all different opinions

And yes whilst you showed a terrible side unfortunately there is a serious problem here that needs to be resolved - obviously in the most respectful and humane way possible.

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I always have the feeling that the Israeli government underestimates the intelligence of the Human-Rights campaigners. If they want to take up the fight for the world opinion about the illegality of the Israeli policy, they certainly will loose at the end.

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Q. What is delegitimising Israel?
A. Israeli government colonial expansionist policy and the lies used to justify this.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.