At the upcoming AMS meeting, UBC’s Solidarity For Palestinian Human Rights group plans to put forward a motion to boycott and divest from Israeli companies as part of the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Not only is this an inherently discriminatory motion from an intellectually bankrupt and morally obtuse movement, but it is also exceedingly dishonest. BDS poses as a human rights organization and a pro-Palestine movement, but for a pro-Palestine movement they seem to be quite uninterested in aiding the Palestinian people in any meaningful way. If aiding the Palestinians is their true goal, then BDS is a complete and utter failure.
They could help the Palestinians improve their lives, develop their economies, democratic institutions, universities, facilitate state building, or promote peaceful relations with their neighbours. Truly, there is no shortage of productive things that those who promote BDS while claiming to uphold Palestinian rights could actually be doing. They do none of these things and one must wonder why.
Instead, the BDS movement is obsessively devoted to the demonization of Israel. Boycotting Israeli products does not help the Palestinians’ quality of life or achieve a state of their own. Instead, it increases division between Israelis and Palestinians and exacerbates the conflict. Peace is necessary in order for a Palestinian state to be achieved -- one cannot exist without the other. It is clear that if you are truly interested in helping the Palestinians and promoting peace then this is the least effective means to do so.
BDS succeeds in accomplishing exactly two things: shutting down dialogue and fostering a culture of marginalization. Universities should encourage vibrant dialogue, including and especially over views on which we disagree. A boycott is antithetical to dialogue and those who support it seek to censor speech that is unfavourable to them, the last bastion of the bully when logical argument evades them. But, conflict can only be ended through dialogue and by promoting a culture of inclusivity, not by demonizing one group.
No one in the UBC community should be made to feel unwelcome due to race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sex, gender or sexual orientation. The sole purpose of a boycott is to marginalize one people and country -- Israel. A boycott sends a clear message to Israeli and Jewish students that they are unwelcome on their own campus, and truly to all those who favour open dialogue.
It is very tempting to reduce this deeply complex and emotionally triggering conflict to a victim-aggressor binary. While a blanket condemnation of one group may be easy and emotionally satisfying to some, it is dishonest, intellectually lazy and unworthy of the principles of this institution. More than anything it does a great disservice to all those who are actually affected by this conflict.
To those who support peace, coexistence and the rights of humans in equal measure, I assert that a BDS motion has no place at UBC. We must fervently oppose efforts to boycott any people, country or perspective and not permit purely divisive forces to hijack our campus.