Vote with your soda
Vote with your soda
Why BDS is not antisemitic and practical action
Summary
There has been some questions over whether the grassroots BDS movement - a consumer group to organise boycott of targeted businesses supporting the Israeli regime - is antisemitic. It is not. In this article I’ll outline:
Review of BDS objectives and constitution
Australian lobby group definition of antisemitism includes BDS
Practical action: Aussie alternatives to SodaStream!
Contents
Introduction
There has been some questions over whether the grassroots BDS movement - a consumer group to organise boycott of targeted businesses supporting the Israeli regime - is antisemitic.
This article discusses and also give a few practical local action examples.
The focus is on the “Boycott” part at a consumer level - which is simply choosing to seek alternative products to those produced from a small number of larger companies complicit in Israel’s documented violation of international law - a valid approach as it would be for any cause.
It is not antisemitic - providing boycotts are not blindly targeted at a Jewish people as a collective as per the 2016 International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.1
The organisational group for targeted boycotts was founded in 2005 - the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) Movement which has a local branch in Australia BDS Australia. It has been portrayed as antisemitic which cannot be the case.
The group directly answer the claim and many more on their FAQ page.
BDS Policy Review
There have been various writings on this but a good factcheck reference is an ABC article from 2018 written jointly by two Jewish writers “Is it fair to Slur BDS Supporters as antisemites?”2 which analyses the original BDS Policy statement from 20053 expressed as an Open Letter.
The overall conclusion is both the objectives in the document itself and BDS action are not antisemitic, acknowledging an initial concern with who may support the movement:
“..Clearly there are individuals and organisations who support BDS that are anti-Semitic and that have engaged in violence against Israel. Yet, overwhelmingly, BDS is supported by those who typically support social justice and human rights including Rabbi Wise, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Social justice and human rights activists are ordinarily committed to challenging racism and bigotry, not fomenting it…”
The BDS Website itself in FAQ covers a number of responses to common arguments against BDS, worth a read.
Voting with your feet as consumers is about peaceful action to influence change in Israeli Government policy on human rights through a choice to make changes in investment through consumer, government and institutional behaviour to pressure change.
That has nothing to do with discriminating against Jewish people more broadly as per the IHRA definition. In fact in the IHRA definition of antisemitism boycotts are not even mentioned.
Australian Definition of Antisemitism v IHRA
Unfortunately in Australia the IHRA definition of antisemitism has been augmented and seems to state that the local definition includes boycotts.
The peak body for Jewish Affairs, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) - and therefore in the associated lobbying platform - in their public policy platform document the IHRA definition has been augmented to include another bullet point.
Section 32.6 of the document outlines the ECAJ definition of antisemitism4 and summarises the key points of the IHRA definition in its bullets (others are dealt with elsewhere).
A final bullet has been added that is not in the original IHRA definition that has been adopted (as stated in 48.6 of the document5). The addition is:
32.6 “DEPLORES and CONDEMNS unreservedly as antisemitic all attempts to demonise or delegitimise Israel as the State of the Jewish people by … calling for discriminatory boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel”
BDS is not “demonising Israel as the State of the Jewish people” - it’s about influencing change in Israeli Government policy on human rights against the Palestinians through changes in consumer, government and institutional behaviour. That has nothing to do with discriminating against Jewish people more broadly, as is one of the valid examples in the original IHRA definition.
It is on this position that BDS action in Australia is under additional scrutiny.6
In a free society, people should have the right to take considered consumer action against a State’s policies on humanitarian grounds, in particular if Government’s won’t.
Practical Action: SodaStream and Australian Alternatives
BDS fine in theory - but what can you actually do to in aggregate make a change?
For me, some years ago I identified a simple change in consumer behaviour, noting BDS review on what companies to boycott and why.
Sodastream was the big repeat purchase for me, through design of the product ecosystem itself, so I sought alternative local suppliers and found:
SodaKing Australia - list of where to find suppliers
Gas Guyz AUS - can actually do delivery/swap
Easy enough to check the websites, FB page and make alternative choices.
Local campaigns in BDS Australia include:
HP
Puma
Elbit
SuperFund investments (I will write more on this)
Have a look and make a choice.
In Conclusion
Find out what - and vote with your feet! Besides, mouthfeel of drinks produced with the alternative supplier gas is somewhat superior (ahem!).
Related Articles
Guardian article Omar Bargouti, founder of BDS “Why I believe the BDS Movement has never been more important that now” 17 Oct 2023 - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/16/why-i-believe-the-bds-movement-has-never-been-more-important-than-now
Original Sleekit Scotsman Facebook Post on BDS 23 Nov: https://www.facebook.com/sleekit.scotsman2/posts/pfbid0Ggf54niooBvnwknykWqaVZhAAtdHDHp1SfUgCyVhzBqhWU6i7JzDd8rizYvNWiocl
Antisemitism v Free Speech Statement: My Statement on my antisemitism and a review of definitions and terminology used:
Internațional Holocaust Remembrance Website: 2016 Definition of Antisemitism: https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/antisemitism
ABC Religion & Ethics article 18 June 2018 by Dr. Na’ma Carlin and Josh Bornstein: “Is it fair to slur BDS Supporters as antisemites?” - https://www.abc.net.au/religion/is-it-fair-to-slur-bds-supporters-as-anti-semites/10094630
BDS Website - Policy Statement - Open letter from the Palestinian Civil Society call for BDS July 9 2005 - https://bdsmovement.net/call
Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) website - policy platform page, section 32.6 (antisemitism definition): https://www.ecaj.org.au/policies/#32
Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) website - policy platform page, section 48.6 (adopting IHRA definition of antisemitism): https://www.ecaj.org.au/policies/#48
BDS Australia Website - article: “Criticising Israel is not antisemitic” - https://bdsaustralia.net.au/about/not-antisemitic/