However, upon discovering more calls for musicians and artists against playing in cities such as Tel Aviv as well as university professors calling for universities in the Diaspora to boycott academics from Israel, I have turned against the BDS movement.
As a left-wing Jew growing up in Hashomer Hatzair, I was taught of the powers of dialogue. The power of dialogue can sit people down at a table and make them listen to each other. Peace is achieved through the act of dialogue. No wound has ever been healed by more fighting, one cannot cover the pain by causing more damage. One can make someone feel worse then you, one can make oneself temporarily feel better about ones own situation but it will never be a permanent solution. Only through talking will we heal wounds, only through compassion and empathy can we move forward towards a better future. Only through dialogue will lasting peace be achieved.
However, the BDS campaign asks us to do the opposite. It asks us to ignore our problems, to pressure them to go away without compromise. The BDS campaign asks us not to send letters of complaint, to force the issue to be talked over . It takes an issue and places the pressure directly to the jugular and tries to kill it off without discussions. Many supporters of BDS would have cried out against the security fence. The wall that was said to be divisive, intrusive and most importantly it was a sign that Israelis had given up on talking. They said while in the short term, the barrier would be effective, it was the long term isolation that would escalate the conflict. They were proved correct. In the short term, the number of suicide bombings have fallen to 0 in the last three years. However, the long term effects of the wall are starting to show. Less Palestinians have met their Israeli counter-points outside of situations with soldiers. Less Palestinians can distinguish Israelis from the actions they see at the checkpoints and the apparent necessity to hold up traffic while they try to make their way to Israel to work. It is this inability to talk and see the other that makes young Palestinians more hostile towards an increasingly apathetic Israeli government.
And now the left is suggesting the same tactic. The BDS campaign uses the same foolish, short-sighted vision as the security fence. It blocks dialogue. The BDS campaign will stop people from talking. It stops people from going to Israel and seeing the culture, seeing that there is so much more to the country then just the occupation. The boycott campaigns are not calling for an end to an unjust system, as it was in the era of South African Apartheid; it is calling for an end to the right of Self determination, a right that is afforded to several peoples around the world, and a right that the Palestinians themselves are fighting for.
