Thursday, June 11, 2015

Is BDS hypocritical? האם בי.די.אס צבועה?

There’s been lots of talk about boycotts lately, particularly BDS. The predictable response to BDS on the right is, “How come they don’t talk about other human rights violations, but only Israel’s?” So I’ve made a convenient table listing the human rights violators usually cited in such discourse (“Top Violators”), and how BDS can be expected to react:

Action >
Violator
Boycott
Divest
Sanction
North Korea
1. Do they have anything we want?
2. Do you know of any Western academics who seek to collaborate with any North Korean academics?
3. Is Roger Waters scheduled to perform there?
Do you know of universities, churches, or other institutions invested in any North Korean companies?
Aren’t we already doing this?
Islamic State
1. Do they have anything we want?
2. Do you know of any Western academics who seek to collaborate with any ISIS academics? Are there ISIS academics?
3. Is Roger Waters scheduled to perform there?
n/a
Have you heard anyone express anything other than condemnation? I mean, who’s not already there?
Putin
1. Does he have anything we want?
2. Do you know of any Western academics who seek to collaborate with any Russian academics?
3. Is Roger Waters scheduled to perform there?
OK. Then you may call for a boycott.
Do you know of universities, churches, or other institutions invested in any Russian companies?
Thought we already were.
Iran
1. Yes, they have oil.
2. Do you know of any Western academics who seek to collaborate with any Iranian academics?
3.Is Roger Waters scheduled to perform there? OK. Then you may call for a boycott.
Do you know of universities, churches, or other institutions invested in any Iranian companies?
TBD

There. That was easy, wasn’t it? But for the sake of transparency, we must discuss one more human rights violator: Saudia. If you look at the table, the big difference between Saudia and the other Top Violators is: Petroleum. Anyone who wants to boycott petroleum had better be energy independent. Ironically, who’s more dependent upon Saudi oil: Israel, or any other Western country? Unless shipments are coming in the back door unmarked, I‘d venture to say that barrel for barrel, Israel is the more energy independent country. Yay, us.


But you know what’s even more important? We should aspire to be a respected member of the family of nations. I should hope that irrespective of BDS, we hold ourselves to a higher standard than do the Top Human Rights Violators. Do we really want to be “Best of the Loser States”?