GUEST POST WRITTEN BY Abraham Miller
Mr. Miller is professor emeritus of political
science at the University of Cincinnati.
The full article is available online at: http://onforb.es/1lzxovf
The Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel appears to have won a
Pyrrhic victory over SodaStream, resulting in 900 Palestinian workers, who
received Israeli wages and benefits, being thrown out of their jobs.
SodaStream is putting a good face on the “potential” closing, saying it is not
submitting to the terror-aligned BDS campaign. But two hundred Palestinian
workers have already been let go, and to many observers in Israel, the
handwriting is on the wall.
In the front
ranks of the campaign against SodaStream has been the
sanctimonious Oxfam, which proudly reminds us that it
does not support BDS, but it is
for boycotting SodaStream.
Now the left
can celebrate sending 900 Palestinians into poverty, people who made four
times the going rate for wages in the Palestinian Territories—that is if they
could have found jobs in an economy with 40% unemployment. In the
Berkeley hills, the peace and justice crew and the gaggle of assorted leftists are
opening fine bottles of California wine, looking out over their million-dollar
views, and clinking crystal glasses in celebration. Meanwhile some of these
900 former factory workers will find their way into the territories’
sole thriving industry, terrorism.
The leftist
retort is that the settlements are illegal and they impoverish the Palestinians.
Like most things that come from the left, the legality or illegality of the
settlements is far and away more complex than stated, especially in the SodaStream case, which operates in
Area C, an area legally under joint Israeli/Palestinian
administration.
The factory
was a glimmer of hope where hope is a rare commodity. It was a cooperative venture
between Palestinians and Israelis, a reminder of what could and
should be. Economic integration between Arabs and Israelis is the road to both
peace and prosperity, just as it was in medieval Wales, where the market place
brought Welshmen and Englishmen together in a common, vital interaction that
assuaged their differences and over centuries transformed them into one people.
Even Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas has spoken against BDS as
hurting the
Palestinians. But the left knows better. For them, ideological purity is more
valuable than alleviating the socio-economic conditions of the Palestinians.
Oxfam cherishes its work in alleviating hunger, while in the Palestinian
territories, it has just condemned 900 people and their families to the
economic conditions it works to prevent.
Well done,
BDS. You have helped extinguish that ray of hope that might lead to peace.
