The BDS Movement, Apartheid and The Real Racism

Students everywhere have been propagandized by anti-Israel and anti-Zionist groups to partake in the BDS (Boycott-Divestment-Sanction) movement.  Taking advantage of the typical impressionable passion and altruism of college students (of which I remember all too well!), the movement, which is supported by liberal faculty world-wide has gained some traction over the past few years.  Utilizing mostly disingenuous vitriol and founded upon one-sided and illusory theories, this movement has converted many young men and women who have fallen for it hook, line and sinker as they hear so-called intellectuals and thinkers preach their brand of hatred.


To acknowledge that many departments within our most well-known Universities and other institutions of higher learning are funded by anti-Israel organizations and governments should not be a surprise to most.  To contend that there is a connection between the shift in dialogue to extreme anit-Israelism amongst these same institutions and the funding of those institutions would be attacked as libelous by some.  One can do the research themselves quite easily through a relatively brief internet search of major funders if Institutions that are the loudest to voice anti-Zionist appeals.  Although, as scientists, we are taught to never assume that an association determines causality, these facts do give one pause to reflect.


Fortunately, there are many "voices in the wilderness" arising out of the ashes of this anti-Semitic fire.  One group, of which I am a member, the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, attempts to carry on a balanced dialogue within the community of educators and help to bring some semblance of sanity to the fragile world of secondary and tertiary education.  Their mission is as follows:


"Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, [SPME), is a grass-roots community of scholars who have united to promote honest fact based, and civil discourse, especially in regard to Middle East issues. We believe that ethnic, national, and religious hatreds, including anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, have no place in our institutions, disciplines and communities. We employ academic means to address these issues.
We welcome scholars from all disciplines, faiths, and nationalities who share our desire for peace and our commitment to academic freedom, intellectual integrity, and honest debate."


The world in which education lays, which is supposed to be founded upon integrity, balanced and thorough research, and passionate but respectful debate, has been nothing of the sort in recent times, at least with respect to Middle East politics.  Although SPME is filled with scholars from various backgrounds and many disparate opinions - of which I am not always enamored - it is a breath of fresh air amidst this sometimes loathsome world that impacts our youngest and most brilliant minds and prospective leaders.


Apartheid as a concept has been at the core of the anti-Israel BDS movement on campuses throughout the world.  Accusing Israel of being an apartheid state vis-a-vis the so-called Palestinians, is intentional.  Its goal is to create inflammatory rhetoric and engender visions of hatred and the ethnic suppression of black South Africans of the late twentieth century.


There may be much to criticize about any nation's policies, with Israel not excluded, and every one of us should participate in the world dialogue to better all of human relations and interactions.   But, to attack one of the freest nations on Earth and one which is clearly THE SINGLE MOST inclusive amongst an entire Middle East region filled with religious and ethnic exclusivity as an apartheid state is more than disingenuous...it is more than extremism...it is at best without any merit whatsoever and at worst itself wholly racist.


A simple question that one might ask as a litmus test for the apartheid accusation is this:  would one rather be a "minority" Arab citizen in Israel - with full and equal rights and citizenship along with the Jewish majority - or a "minority" ANYTHING in Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc.?  Yet, none of these countries whose leadership continuously turns a blind eye to and very often itself sanctions regular and continuous suppression and even murder of minorities based on ethnic or religious grounds, have been met by any similar calls for BDS.  One might also ask the question: why are there no more Jews in these countries, many of which have had large and flourishing Jewish populations throughout their histories?  Could it be due to persecution, suppression, and even murder along ethnic and religious lines?  History gives us the answer to that question and it is a resounding YES!


Apartheid is defined variously and loosely as:  A policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race, creed, color, religion or ethnicity.  The term is much more broadly defined in Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as a crime against humanity:

For the purpose of this Statute, 'crime against humanity' means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

1. Murder;
2. Extermination;
3. Enslavement;
4. Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
5. Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
6. Torture;
7. Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
8. Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
9. Enforced disappearance of persons;
10. The crime of apartheid;
11. Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health

Later in Article 7, the crime of apartheid is defined as:

The 'crime of apartheid' means inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.

It seems to me that many of the regimes that actually fund the BDS projects can easily fit the very definition of apartheid that they are accusing Israel of.  Might that attempt at fire-branding and vilification be a magician's sleight of hand to distract from the realities of the true forces of apartheid that these regimes support?  I'll leave that question for you to answer yourselves.


Denis M. MacEoin is a novelist and a former lecturer in Islamic Studies.  His academic specializations are Shi'ism, Shaykism, Babism, and the Bahai Faith, on all of which he has written extensively.  His novels are written under the pen names Daniel Easterman and Jonathan Aycliffe.  While I do not hold to all of Dr. MacEoin's perspectives on religion, spirituality and life in general, I respect him as a fellow member of the SPME and one who has a balanced and objective view of Islam and the people of the Middle East.  Dr. MacEoin recently published a letter to the Edinburgh University Student Association after their decision to participate in a BDS project by voting to boycott Israel as an "apartheid" state.  The letter follows:

The Committee
Edinburgh University Student Association

May I be permitted to say a few words to members of the EUSA? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who studied Persian, Arabic and Islamic History in Buccleuch Place under William Montgomery Watt and Laurence Elwell Sutton, two of Britain’s great Middle East experts in their day. I later went on to do a PhD at Cambridge and to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University. Naturally, I am the author of several books and hundreds of articles in this field.

I say all that to show that I am well informed in Middle Eastern affairs and that, for that reason, I am shocked and disheartened by the EUSA motion and vote. I am shocked for a simple reason: there is not and has never been a system of apartheid in Israel. That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be tested against reality by any Edinburgh student, should he or she choose to visit Israel to see for themselves.

Let me spell this out, since I have the impression that those members of EUSA who voted for this motion are absolutely clueless in matters concerning Israel, and that they are, in all likelihood, the victims of extremely biased propaganda coming from the anti-Israel lobby. Being anti-Israel is not in itself objectionable. But I’m not talking about ordinary criticism of Israel. I’m speaking of a hatred that permits itself no boundaries in the lies and myths it pours out. Thus, Israel is repeatedly referred to as a ‘Nazi’ state. In what sense is this true, even as a metaphor? Where are the Israeli concentration camps? The einzatsgruppen? The SS? The Nüremberg Laws? The Final Solution? None of these things nor anything remotely resembling them exists in Israel, precisely because the Jews, more than anyone on earth, understand what Nazism stood for. It is claimed that there has been an Israeli Holocaust in Gaza (or elsewhere). Where? When? No honest historian would treat that claim with anything but the contempt it deserves. But calling Jews Nazis and saying they have committed a Holocaust is as basic a way to subvert historical fact as anything I can think of.

Likewise apartheid. For apartheid to exist, there would have to be a situation that closely resembled things in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Unfortunately for those who believe this, a weekend in any part of Israel would be enough to show how ridiculous the claim is. That a body of university students actually fell for this and voted on it is a sad comment on the state of modern education. The most obvious focus for apartheid would be the country’s 20% Arab population. Under Israeli law, Arab Israelis have exactly the same rights as Jews or anyone else; Muslims have the same rights as Jews or Christians; Baha’is, severely persecuted in Iran, flourish in Israel, where they have their world centre; Ahmadi Muslims, severely persecuted in Pakistan and elsewhere, are kept safe by Israel; the holy places of all religions are protected under a specific Israeli law. Arabs form 20% of the university population (an exact echo of their percentage in the general population). In Iran, the Baha’is (the largest religious minority) are forbidden to study in any university or to run their own universities: why aren’t your members boycotting Iran? 

Arabs in Israel can go anywhere they want, unlike blacks in apartheid South Africa. They use public transport, they eat in restaurants, they go to swimming pools, they use libraries, they go to cinemas alongside Jews - something no blacks could do in South Africa. Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews and Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank. On the same wards, in the same operating theatres. 

In Israel, women have the same rights as men: there is no gender apartheid. Gay men and women face no restrictions, and Palestinian gays often escape into Israel, knowing they may be killed at home. It seems bizarre to me that LGBT groups call for a boycott of Israel and say nothing about countries like Iran, where gay men are hanged or stoned to death. That illustrates a mindset that beggars belief. Intelligent students thinking it’s better to be silent about regimes that kill gay people, but good to condemn the only country in the Middle East that rescues and protects gay people. Is that supposed to be a sick joke?

University is supposed to be about learning to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view against one or more others. If the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any of these things, then the future is bleak. I do not object to well documented criticism of Israel. I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations. We are going through the biggest upheaval in the Middle East since the 7th and 8th centuries, and it’s clear that Arabs and Iranians are rebelling against terrifying regimes that fight back by killing their own citizens. Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and call for no boycotts against Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world’s freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the Middle East that protects the Baha’is.... Need I go on? The imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this boycott. 

I ask you to show some common sense. Get information from the Israeli embassy. Ask for some speakers. Listen to more than one side. Do not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties. You have a duty to your students, and that is to protect them from one-sided argument. They are not at university to be propagandized. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish state in the 1930s (which, sadly, there was not), don’t you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it? Of course he would, and he would not have stopped there. Your generation has a duty to ensure that the perennial racism of anti-Semitism never sets down roots among you. Today, however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more. You have a chance to avert a very great evil, simply by using reason and a sense of fair play. Please tell me that this makes sense to you. I have given you some of the evidence. It’s up to you to find out more.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. Denis MacEoin


I do thank G-d above for men and women with a voice of reason who maintain a balanced but integrity filled understanding of world-wide affairs.  Unfortunately, their voices have indeed been more a part of "the wilderness" rather than the mainstream.  It is time for us to direct our prayers that sanity would somehow return to the world of secondary and tertiary education...something that has been missing from the mainstream for decades as liberalism and left-wing agendas have become an established majority on campuses.  That is not to say that liberalism and left-of-centeredness is necessarily a pejorative description.  After all, freedom of thought is the foundation for higher education - freedom to express all opinions.  None-the-less, balance and integrity are keys to freedom's success, no matter what part of life we are talking about.