Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

Last week , the National Council of Churches Australia (NCCA) issued a statement asking Australians to consider boycotting goods produced by Israeli settlements in the West Bank in solidarity with Palestinian Christians.  The move comes less than one month after the Methodist Church of Britain took similar steps towards joining the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. It is probable that most BDS supporters view this as a demonstration against specific Israeli policies.  However the catalysts of the BDS movement are clear delegitimizers.

This emerging trend within church groups provides a clear—and concerning—example of how successful the BDS movement’s leadership has been at coopting the language of liberal progressive values in order to generate broad public support for its efforts, while cloaking the more radical goals of those at the movement’s core.

It is unlikely that the majority of these church-going Australians and Brits consider themselves delegitimizers.  Those who participate in BDS probably do so because they view it as a form of criticism rooted in their Christian values.

However, as a recent Reut document demonstrates, BDS movement catalysts are clear delegitimizers—in many cases stated outright; in others, demonstrated by consistent efforts to single out Israel, undermine Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, promote the right of return, and/or link Israel to apartheid through the use of demonizing language.

In this way, the BDS Movement has managed to turn itself into a platform that includes both legitimate critics of Israeli policy and delegitimizers—the former too often unaware of the radical values promoted by the latter.