The BDS (Divest, Boycott and Sanction of Israel) movement has hit Japan. The Japan-based chapter of this organization has kicked off a campaign aimed at punishing Israel – the only democratic nation in the Middle East – serving as a marked contrast to the unifying message Tokyo needs as it prepares to open its arms to the world for the 2020 Olympiad.
Japan BDS’ campaign of targeting a single country for discrimination is fundamentally at odds with the Olympic spirit and runs directly counter to Japan’s values in the postwar era as a democratic, liberal society that upholds human rights and equality. Japanese government leaders in Tokyo must wake up to the ugly reality of Japan BDS and take a firm stance against this prejudiced and slanderous movement.
At its core, BDS seeks to delegitimize Israel’s existence as a nation-state of the Jewish people. It accuses Israel of being an apartheid state where the human rights of Palestinian people are violated.
The Japan-based chapter of this organization also aims to do damage to the Jewish state by pressuring Japanese companies to avoid doing business with Israel. This will inevitably result in Japan’s business community encountering BDS protests and other disruptive activities more frequently as Japan’s commercial and tourism relationship with Israel grows. The Japanese business community will need guidance on how to handle this divisive issue.
We at the Simon Wiesenthal Center fervently hope that Japanese government leaders will take a firm stance against Japan BDS and advise the Japanese business community accordingly.
Sadly, BDS’ actions are directly at odds with the remarkable growth of investment from Japan to Israel in recent years. BDS will often coordinate demonstrations, riots and other disruptive events to bully any person or business into withdrawing from activities related to Israel. While BDS has focused largely in the economic sphere, its activities have also spread to the political, cultural, religious and legal arenas.
Let’s get real – BDS is not about helping the Palestinian people. It is about punishing Israel. There are accounts of the movement using mob tactics and intimidation to shut down Israel-affiliated businesses, even those that employ Palestinians, the very people the movement purports to help.
To date, Japan BDS’ known activities have included the following:
- Pressuring Honda Israel to cancel a 2018 racing event that it sponsored in Israel;
- Demanding that Daimaru Department Store in Tokyo withdraw Israeli wines from a 2018 Mediterranean food festival it hosted;
- Pressuring Hitachi to withdraw its bid for Jerusalem’s light-rail project;
- Persuading SoftBank to withdraw its sponsorship of a 2018 security expo in Kawasaki that was organized by Israeli and international corporations; and
- Pressuring Japanese artists not to perform in Israel.
It bears saying that some members of BDS Japan may be decent and proactive citizens who believe they are engaged in the noble and just cause of helping the Palestinian people. Yet many seem to misunderstand the odious and deceptive nature of the movement.
Some of those who demonstrated against this year’s expo in Kawasaki were anti-2020 Olympics activists, while others were campaigning against Japan becoming further involved in the arms industry. Yet the international BDS movement used the activities of the Japan-based groups for its own propaganda purposes, asserting that those activities were a clear sign of Japanese society’s support for boycotting and sanctioning Israel.
While Japanese citizens are free to criticize Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians, they should have a clear idea of what participating in the international BDS movement really means
While Japanese citizens are free to criticize Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians, they should have a clear idea of what participating in the international BDS movement really means.
Unfortunately, these unsuspecting people are victims of years of biased reporting by the Japanese media that frequently paints Israel as an oppressor of the Palestinian people. They may be misinformed about the true anti-Semitic nature of the BDS movement as the Japanese media fail to report that many Western countries, including the US, the UK, Germany, France and Canada, condemn the BDS movement.
They may also be unaware that BDS is being supported by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist organization that has engaged repeatedly in terrorist acts over the decades.
This is the same PFLP that masterminded the Japanese Red Army’s 1972 massacre of 26 people at Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion Airport) in Tel Aviv. Kozo Okamoto, one of the attackers, still lives in Beirut under the protection of the PFLP.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center urges Japanese political leaders and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take a stance against Japan BDS. We also call for the Japanese government to take the lead in educating and advising Japanese businesses of the true nature of the BDS movement.
Beyond this, the center is deeply troubled that certain Japanese activists have taken up BDS’ anti-Israel boycott, a cause we believe to be discriminatory and anti-Semitic. Japan cannot have it both ways, first seeking to increase its business footprint in Israel while not opposing BDS’ mission to delegitimize Israel.
Japan BDS’ narrative and its destructive activities must be countered by Japanese leaders. Now is the time to raise awareness in Japan of the evils of BDS before it takes hold as a larger movement. Much is at stake, including the positive image resulting from Tokyo’s earnest support of the Palestinians over decades and the goodwill generated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s laudable efforts to bring the Japanese and Jewish peoples closer together in recent years.
This article was co-written with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Kinue Tokudome, an adviser to the center. Ted Gover is also an adviser to the center.
The Palestinian population in West Bank and Gaza grows at around 2.4% each year and their birth rate is 33% higher than Israel’s birth rate. If that’s ethnic cleansing, Jews are tremendously bad at it.
BDS is also not non-violent; they have made credible threats against Lionel Messi and other players when Argentina was supposed to play against Israel in a friendly soccer match.
If you wish to support Palestinian people, support Palestinian rights in Arabic nations. While Israel is no saint, the Arab Israelis/pre-1948 Palestinians are treated better in Israel than Palestinians in Arab nations.
David Comedi: I’m sorry to see a fellow Jew who is so ignorant about the real history and status of Israel under international law.
I am well aware that that waste of space and money known as the United Nations has issued numerous decress about how "evil" Israel is – and every one of them is based on false premises. The UN is dominated by the Islamic bloc, and by petty dictatorships who routinely abuse their own citizens, and threaten their neighbors. All of these bad actors abuse the UN to direct attention away from their own atrocities, by singling out the Jew among the nations, Israel, as a scapegoat.
But tell me, what "international law" has Israel actually broken? I challenge you to cite the law, when and how it became law, and show how the exact definition of that law applies to Israel. I won’t hold my breath, because you can’t do it – there is no such law.
And before you try shifting the burden of proof onto me, to defend Israel, remember that the person MAKING the accusation has the responsibility to prove their claim, while the accused is presumed to be INNOCENT until and unless they are PROVEN guilty.
So while I could write a dissertation showing why Israel is NOT guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity, and their opponents are, I will not waste my time proving a negative, when you have offered nothing but libelous false accusations.
BDS is an attempt to achieve through “nonviolence” what arabs have been trying to achieve through violence since 1920. It will fail.
ROFLMAO!
This article shines a light on the dark stain that is Antisemitism trying to masquerade as a human rights movement.
BDS is evil, pure and simple. It is based on the vile premise that Arqabs deserve to have an ethno-national state on lands that their ancestors conquered and colonized long ago, but that the indigenous people of those lands (Jews) do not deserve to have an ethno-state on their ancestral lands, that happens to be a liberal democracy. It assumes that the indigenous people should either be wiped out (genocide), kicked out (ethnic cleansing), or should go back to living as Dhimmi, second-class citizens with few or no rights, under Arab colonial rule.
Anyone who supports BDS is either woefully lacking in knowledge and understanding of the real history of the Middle East, or else they are grossly Antisemitic.
“Crimes against humanity?” Another genius. Show me one credible organization that lists Israel as committing genocide and or crimes against humanity in a systematic, planned and manner of policy initiative? One…
John, You can’t end something that has never existed. There is no "apartheid" in Israel, though there is in the areas controled by hamas and the Palestinian Authority (where Jews are forbidden to set foot, let alone own property, vote, attend schools, etc.).
In Israel, Muslims and Christians, Druze and Baha’i, are all free to buy property, vote, run for office, attend the same universities, ride on the same light rail trains, and work for the same companies as Jews.
As with Shaun, I will start out by assuming that you have simply been misled, and that you are not simply an Antisemite hiding behind Anti-Zionism. So I invite you to visit Israel, either on your own, or with a neutral tour group, that will let you see the reality, and not just carefully staged events. [If you have been there with an Anti-Israel group, then all you have seen is staged and choreographed drama, performed for you like a play.]
“Ethnic cleansing?” Really? Prove it? Show the proof and statistics proving “ethnic cleansing?”
Shaun, I will assume, until proven otherwise, that you mean well, and simply have been badly misinformed about the reality in Israel, and in the rest of the Middle East, and you are simply repeating the propaganda you have heard.
Israel’s enemies have done a remarkable job of disseminating massive numbers of false claims about Israel, through numerous outlets (print media, TV, radia, online, and even in the halls of academia). So I am quite sure that you have heard these claims repeated many times, by many people.
I invite you to actually visit Israel, and see the situation for yourself. Come with an open mind, tour on your own, or with a group that does not have an Anti-Israel agenda (as they will show you only what they want you to see).
Israel is not perfect, but neither is any other country on this planet. Israel is a modern, liberal democracy. All citizens get an equal vote, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Roughly 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs, and they are represented in all sectors, government and private industry.
Truly, there is religious discrimination in Israel – against Jews! Muslims are free to pray at their mosques, but Jews are restricted, and cannot pray on our Temple Mount, because Muslims built their mosque on top of the remains of our Temple, and they have been granted control over our holiest site.
Several other Jewish holy sites are under PA control, and sadly, that has led to much looting, and destruction of irreplaceable artifacts.
I hope that you are truly just miseducated, and that you are open to learning the truth. Because right now, your actions are causing harm to people who don’t deserve your scorn and derision.
Bill Poser Wrong again. No matter how much effort one makes to disguise it, Resolutions condemning Israel’s occupation in violation of International Law are very clear. Just to mention one of the latests, go and read Security Council’s Resolution 2334 (2016) about ilegal settlements and other practices against International Law. And Israel by no means "terminated the occupation of Gaza in 2005". This is a common fraud. Israel removed settlements just as a way to modify its occupation strategy in 2005. As stated by the UN Comissions and International Law experts several times, Israel controls by sea, air and land the Gaza strip through a blockade, keeps shooting at Palestinian fishermen from the sea, at Palestinian farmers from land, and at Palestinian civilians from the air, and controls the Gaza economy which is now virtually inexistant due to the Israeli occupation, controls foreign exports and imports, who leaves and who doesn’t, and controls how much money gets in; including the currency in Gaza, this is clearly a deadly occupation. So Gaza is included within the OPT concept (Occupied Palestinian Territory) printed in every UN document about International Law violations by Israel.
David Comedi Israel has not engaged in ethnic cleansing. Not only have historians demonstrated that the flight of Arabs in 1948 was not due to ethnic cleansing, but numerous Arab leaders have admitted that it was the fault of the Arabs that so many Arabs fled. Israel did not expel the Arabs who stayed but made them citizens. In contrast, the Arabs killed or expelled every single Jew from East Jerusalem, Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. Even today, the PLO has repeatedly stated that it will not allow any Jews to live in a future state of Palestine, and Jordanian nationality law precludes Jews from becoming Jordanian citizens.
David Comedi Most UN resolutions are merely political statements and do not have the force of international law. I have read them, and unlike most critics of Israel, I have also read the Geneva Conventions and various books and papers on international law. As far occupation is concerned, Israel’s occupancy of its core territory was, as you should know, explicity licensed by the United Nations, and before that by the League of Nations and the San Remo conference. As I already stated, occupation of Judea and Samaria is lawful as a response to a war of aggression. The relevant UN resolution is 242, which calls for withdrawal from an unspecified part of the occupied territory, conditioned on the agreement of the belligerents to live in peace. Since the Arabs have refused to make and live in peace, this condition has not been met and Israel has no obligations under 242. Nonetheless, Israel terminated the occupation of Gaza in 2005 and granted a high degree of autonomy to most Arab residents of Judea and Samaria.
In contrast, the Palestinian Arabs are guilty of the most egregious violations of international law, including almost 20,000 counts of terrorism, taking hostages, using human shields, using child soldiers, engaging in wars of aggression, and abusing prisoners.
Bill Poser What you are saying is simply incorrect. Go and read the UN documents and the about 80+ UN Resolutions condening Israeli violations of the International Law. Go and read the reports by any respected Human Rights organization, including the Israeli-based B’TSelem. Israeli crimes are very well documented and are part of an ongoing ethnic cleansing process acknowledged by Israel historian and previous Israeli governments themselves. Israel has incarcerated pr assassinated most of Palestinian natural and independent leaders in a typical collonialist policy of supressing the development of a collonized people and that is why the occupied people of Palestine cannot carry out free elections. Israel occupies and controls every inch of the Palestinian territories and this is not defense, it is called settler collonialism.
This is true only in fantasy-land. Israel discriminates less on the basis of religion than any of its neighbors. Indeed, there is no discrimination in Israeli law. Muslims are free to practice their religion (there are over 300 mosques in Israel), as are Christians, Druze, and others. The international headquarters of the Baha’is is in Israel. Isreal is indeed a liberal democracy: all citizens (20% of them Arabs) have the vote and can run for and hold public office. Everyone can practice any profession and live and work where he or she pleases. There is freedom of speech and of the press.
There is no illegal occupation of anyone else’s land. The "occupation" of Judea and Samaria is legal since it is the result of defense against a war of aggression. It is also not a true occupation since the land has no recognized sovereign, and also since Israel has granted a virtually unprecedented degree of autonomy to the Palestinian Authority, which administers the land on which 96% of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria live. Gaza of course has not been occupied since 2005.
Since Jews are the indigenous people of Israel, they can hardly be considered colonists. The true colonists are the Arabs, who originate from the Arabian penninsula and, more recently, other parts of the Ottoman Empire. Far from representing the last European colony, Israel is one of several examples of decolonization of part of the Islamic Empire, along with Spain and Portugal and the Balkan states. The iberation of Israel is particularly galling to Arab/Islamic hegemonists because it is closer to the core of their shrinking empire and because it is the state of the Jews, who have been particularly despised by Muslims since the earliest days of Islam because they rejected Mohammad and his new religion.
David Comedi, I concur.
This is utter claptrap Israel has committed no war crimes and has not violated the Geneva Conventions. The occupation of Judea and Samaria is 100% legal since it resulted from defensive action against a war of aggression. That it continues is entirely the fault of the Arabs who have repeatedly refused generous offers of peace and a state of their own. Anyone concerned with international law should take action against the PLO and its allies who have waged a decades long war of aggression against Israel, with goal of genocide and recolonization, almost entirely by criminal means (terrorism, use of human shields, use of child soldiers, hostage-taking, abuse of prisoners). They also abuse their own people by suppressing freedom of expression, persecuting religions other than Islam, discriminating against women, and not allowing free elections. (Mahmoud Abbas, for example, is now in the 13th year of his four year term.)
There are no racist apartheid policies in Israel so there is no need to press for their elimination. In Israel Arabs have the right to vote and hold public office, to use the same public facilities as everyone else,to say and publish whatever they wish to, to adhere to any religion, to practice any profession, and to live and travel wherever they wish to. This is nothing like apartheid-era South Africa. Furthermore, the BDS movement is not nearly so benign. In practice, it does not aim to change certain Israeli policies – it actually aims to bring an end to Israel.
As a Jewish person, I must denounce this organization – Wiesenthal center – for using the Jewish suffering in Europe, including the Holocaust, to make political profit for Netanyahu’s criminal government, whitewashing the very fact that the State of Israel comits war crimes and crimes against humanity, in violation of International law and Geneva conventions, on a daily basis on occupied Palestinian lands. What they do is despicable banalization of our ancester’s suffering and even of Simon Wiesenthal’s name as a nazi hunter during the 20th century. Their work together with Netanyahu’s government to smear human rights activists and the BDS non-violent movement for Palestinian’s rights is pure bigotry that must be condemned by any respectable citizen of the world.
It is disappointing to see an article full of such slander and misinformation about the human rights movement of BDS, but it is unsurprising given that the authors are associated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center which works so tirelessly in support of the Israeli government to discredit BDS.
More importantly though, it is very exciting to learn of the growth of BDS in Asia. People around the world of all religions and now are sick of the Israeli government ongoing violations of international law and Palestinians human rights. Citizens have realized politicians are not dealing with Israel’s crimes and are turning to the same strategy that worked so effectively to end apartheid in South Africa.
Keep up the great work, BDS supporters of Japan… know that you’re getting the war criminals and their supporters angry so you must be doing something right!
BDS is a peaceful non-violent movement whose objective is to pressure Israel to cease and desist from its racist apartheid policies. To end Israeli apartheid. To stop Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and to stop illegal Israeli settlements. This op-ed is utter nonsense and a disingenuous apologetic fror brutal and unehical Israeli pratices and policies.
This is nonsense. Israel is not a liberal democracy; it is an ethnonationalist-religious state that privileges one religious group above others within Israel. In that it is no different than any other Middle Eastern state, where discrimination against different peoples on the basis of religion is rife. Even more, however, Israel is one of the only states in the world that continues to occupy and illegally settle another people’s land. If Israel is having a problem with BDS, it is a problem entirely of its own making. Finally, all of the author’s comments and excuses could and were marshaled in defense of apartheid South Africa, decades ago (a country that was one of Israel’s best friends in the world, BTW). Israel is being singled out because it is the only remaining European colonial state. That may not be entirely fair – after all, non-European people colonizing each other does happen – but the historical sensitivity of European colonialism to the non-European world is a political reality. In the end, there is no argument for Israel that does not amount to anything more than excuses for the inexcusable. I hope the day comes when the Simon Wiesenthal Center starts to actually care about human rights – including the rights of Palestinians -and stops discrediting itself by being nothing more than a willing apologist for Israel. Indeed, given the history of the center and its founder, this willingness to run interference for one people’s brutal oppression of another is nothing short of tragic.