Israeli Apartheid Week is now at its peak, but this year, unlike any other year before, it is followed by a wind of change.
As these words are being written, people in over 200 cities worldwide are being exposed to bigotry, deception, and shallowness as part of the 10th annual Israeli Apartheid Week. In these annual international series of events (including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, film screenings and multimedia displays,) small minded people take over campuses and fill the heads of the clueless and innocence with hatred. “>defending her truth (and Israel's as well) and collaborating with SodaStream.
Moreover, during the month of December, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, stated that the Palestinians do not support a boycott of Israel. As reported in The Star, a newspaper in South Africa, Abbas has firmly rejected the recent campaign in South Africa to boycott and divest from Israel. This was a wakeup call for all those who pretended to care for the Palestinians. At that moment, Abbas exposed BDS activists for who they truly are: people who are driven for hate towards Israel, not rescuers of the Palestinians “peace seekers.”
Another major event demonstrating the change in approach towards BDS and claims for apartheid in Israel is the American Studies Association's academic boycott of Israel. Earlier in 2013, the ASA called for an academic boycott of Israel. Such an announcement coming from such a distinguished institute was a major blow to Israel supporters worldwide and the Israeli academy in particular. An academic boycott of Israel is one of serious consequences, for Israel has been collaborating with many universities worldwide, reaching groundbreaking results.
When making the announcement, however, the ASA had not foreseen the consequences: dozens of universities rejected the academic boycott, some even withdrawn from the organization, stating that Israel's academic contribution to the world is a great deal. Rep. Eliot Engel, the senior Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs even sent a letter to the ASA's president, writing: “I believe such actions by the ASA is another example of the unfair double standard Israel is regularly and unfairly subjected to by organizations such as yours.”
All of the realizations above of the complicated reality in Israel and exposer of the BDS's bigotry were published and spread widely online. These are merely a few examples of the rotten foundation of the BDS movement and the “Israeli Apartheid Week”, that are now beginning to crumble and soon will collapse. Sure, haters and narrow-minded people will always exist, but will their voice continue to be louder than the voice of truth? Only time will tell.
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