Yup, BDS isn’t all that. So reports Bloomberg, looking at actual economic data.
Physicist Stephen Hawking shunned a Jerusalem conference hosted by Israel’s president, singer Lauryn Hill canceled a Tel Aviv concert and a giant Dutch pension fund blacklisted five Israeli banks. All are signs that an international movement to isolate Israel is gaining ground.
Yet an examination of foreign capital flow into the country shows the opposite trend — a steep increase. Foreign investments in Israeli assets hit a record high last year of $285.12 billion, a near-tripling from 2005 when the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was started by a group of Palestinians.
The boycott movement is comprised of those who reject the Jewish state’s existence as well as those who want it to change its policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But even the more limited focus on the occupation and the companies that benefit from it has had little discernible impact. The stake of non-Israeli shareholders in nine such publicly-traded companies and banks has risen steadily over the past three years.
“We don’t have a problem with foreign investment in Israel — on the contrary,” Yoel Naveh, chief economist at Israel’s finance ministry, said in an interview.
Money managers, economists and government officials say Israeli assets are an attractive alternative to weak performers elsewhere. The country’s economy is slowing but growing faster than those of the U.S. and Europe and its interest rate is higher. Plus, many reject the notions driving the boycott — that investing in Israeli innovation and natural gas violates Palestinian rights, and that Israel’s misdeeds are so exceptional that they justify singling it out for censure.
Read the whole thing.
So why the need for anti-BDS conferences like here in Israel in March and this week in New York? Does this not grant BDS legitimacy, or somehow play up their impact, so the argument goes.
I understand the argument, but I mostly agree with Sheldeon Adelson, quoted in the Bloomberg report.
Sheldon Adelson, a Jewish-American billionaire who has helped raise millions to fight BDS, says he is not worried about possible economic damage for Israel. Adelson said he is encouraged by the efforts in more than 20 state legislatures to pass laws banning contracts with entities that boycott based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
“This is a PR battle and its biggest threat is demonization of Israel,” Adelson said in an interview.
It is the demonization – not just of Israel but of Jews – that provides the main reason why BDS must be fought.
