“Blood Connection,” a November 2018 article by Amir Shuan published in Yediot Ahronot shockingly revealed extensive relationships between the BDS movement and terrorists. While the BDS movement claims to be for “social justice” there are many links between the movement and mass violence.
The article quotes Dr. Shai Har-Zvi, a former Israeli intelligence officer: “Traditionally, the BDS movement tries to present itself everywhere as a non-violent movement, but we have discovered many connections of various organizations in the movement to terror… one of the main things we discovered is the laundering of the activities via civil society organizations and the downplaying of past activities and involvement in terror. The civil society organizations are essentially providing the perfect cover for the [BDS] activities.”
Some examples:
Abdul-latif Ghaith, the chairperson and co-founder of Addameer, a radical Palestinian organization which is active in BDS, and involved in lawfare against Israel and in accusing Israel of war crimes was a member of the PFLP’s policy bureau. Addameer board member Yaqoub Oudeh is a terrorist convicted of murdering Israelis, and another board member Mahmoud Jaddah was convicted of throwing grenades at Israelis. As NGO Monitor recently warned “more than half of Addameer’s current and former employees, as well as lawyers that work for Addameer, have links to the PFLP.”
Al-Haq is one of the leaders of the BDS campaign. The general director of Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin was a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and maintains ties with activists inthe organization. In 2009 a decision by Israel’s High Court of Justice characterized him as “a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, who spends part of his time heading a human rights organization and at other times is active in a terrorist organization that does not shun murder and attempted murder, which have nothing to do with rights…”
The DCI-P (Defence for Children International – Palestine Section) supports BDS, and is involved in slandering Israel and regularly accuses the IDF of war crimes. Hashem Abu Maria, who directed the community relations for DCI-P, was a PFLP member, and Hassan Abed Aljawad was a PFLP leader in Bethlehem.
Israel’s Minister of Public Security and Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan sharply criticized the existence of covert ties between the BDS organizations and and terror organizations.
As Erdan said, “The terrorist organizations, Iran and the delegitimization and BDS organizations all have the same goal – the elimination of Israel as the state of the Jewish People – and they nurture and strengthen one another. The terror organizations shoot and kill Israeli civilians, and the delegitimization organizations try to harm Israel’s ability to respond to this terror by slandering Israel. This is the same battle, using different weapons, which are no less dangerous in the medium and long term. If in the past we were familiar with one brand of terror – physical bloodshed – today the name of the game is consciousness terror.”
The reality is BDS is simply another form of terror. Standing with BDS is standing with terror.
