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.
Hmm… " it is an ethnonationalist-religious state that privileges one religious group above others within XXX"
Replace XXX with any moslem country and you dont have a problem with it. Thats why youre an antisemite.
"Even more, however, Israel is one of the only states in the world that continues to occupy and illegally settle another people’s land. "
No. How dumb are you?
Heard of China and Tibet?
Heard of Marocco and Western Sahara?
Heard of Turkey and Cyprus?
How come anti-Jews are the most retarded, ignorant people in the universe?
"Israel is being singled out because it is the only remaining European colonial state."
What does "european" have to do with this?
Oh wait, thats right… "all jews are european converts who chose to convert to the worlds most hated religion just for the fun of it during the middle-ages…."
Yeah thats right, i tend to forget your imagination is running your brain.
I would have credited the Japanese with more class than that, more maturity and wisdom about such matters.
David Comedi: You keep throwing out baseless claims, like slinging mud – hoping some of it will stick.
There is no apartheid in Israel. Apartheid is a system under which certain citizens were discriminated against on the basis of race or ethnicity (it could also apply based on religion).
It has nothing to do with the millions of Arab squatters living in the disputed territories, who were illegally transported there by Jordan and Egypt, in 1948-49. They are not Israeli citizens, and have no legitimate claim to Israeli citizenship. They are living on lands that by rights belong to Israel, but Israel has chosen not to claim them, precisely because of the illegal squatters living there.
Israel chooses NOT to perform ethnic cleansing, even though that is precisely what Jordan and Egypt did to the Jews who lived in those lands, when they illegally occupied them in 1948. And Israel chooses not to formally reclaim the lands, with the Arabs still living there, because that would lead to either demographic destruction of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, or to true apartheid.
Instead, Israel has offered repeatedly to give those lands away, in return for some minimal guarantees of peace and recognition.
The Arabs have refused every offer.
But the notion that treating hostile non-citizens differently than citizens is "apartheid" is a gross insult to the people who suffered under REAL apartheid.
If Israel discriminates why do Baha’i make such regular pilgrimages there when other nearby countries restrict them from even going to school?
Why are druze proud Israeli citizens who are represented at all levels of society?
Why are there Christians and LGBT arabs trying to claim asylum in Israel?
Why do even Muslim citizens feel connected to the state that is Israel?
Israel needs to cease and desist? Israel hasn’t started a single war against the Palestinians, only responded when attacked.
Even many of the Arabs who are not citizens are given work permits and jobs completely reliant on Israel and its economy, with no discrimination despite being non-citizens. Israel also allows family reunification for those who are citizens which has allowed for many to migrate to Israel and even have a pathway to citizenship.
How many neighbouring countries give Israelis a pathway to citizenship even if they hold Jewish ancestry?
Bds is an antisemitic hate group that supports Hamas, the world’s thrird largest terrorist organization. Their stated goal is the same as Hamas’s, the destruction of the Democratic country of Israel, and the Jewish people. They don’t even try and hide it. They spread blatant lies and propaganda against Jews specifically. They don’t care about human rights. If they did, they’d u defstand that the Jewish people need a safe haven from the countless genocides they suffered. Instead they care about Arab colonialism. Jews are not European colonialist, they are the indigenous people of Israel. They have been there since before Judaism was even a religion. They have been there since the Canaanite tribes. They were expelled and murdered by Romans, ottomans, and Arabs. Palestinians was the name given to the colonialist of the area by the Romans after they kicked all the indigenous Jews out and took them back to Rome as slaves. Bds just refuses to acknowledge any factual history at all. They also make false claims of a Palestinian genocide. This is complete nonsense. The Palestinian population has tripled since 1964. Populations don’t triple in genocide. I could keep going on forever on why the anti Israel and bds movements are complete antisemitic garbage. I could write you a book on it.
David Comedi When I see a report from these people on the state of human rights of jews in Arab countries before and during the creation of the modern state of Israel I will take them seriously. Then again they always magically fail to mention that more than a millions Jews were ethnically cleansed after the creation of Israel in 1948. Israel has suffered Arab/Muslim war and terrorism since its modern renaissance and LONG before 1967 so all your pseudo-academic crap amounts to NOTHING.
John Stich You are a follower. Let the leaders deal with adult issues.
David Comedi You mean the resolutions of the same United Nations that put Saudi Arabia as head of the Human Rights Council and Qtar as head of the Unesco. Really? You seriously want to go there? Are you that stupid and/or disingenous?
As a goy I must denounce you as a stupid, grovelling collaborator. You are taking the side of Islamic Arab ethno-fascist that have been trying to kill all jew men and enslave all Jew women of Israel since they got their land back. Your worthless, self-righteous and narcissistic propaganda will kick you in the teeth one day.
It is disappointing to see yet another antisemitic poser try to indoctrinate intelligent people with this drivel. You are wasting your time, go to Gaza and enjoy your stay.
Isreal is the only Liberal Democracy in the Middle East guaranteeing religious freedom to all. It is an example the rest of the Middle East will hopefully follow.
Tell us again how many Jews live and thrive in Arab/Muslim countries.
Go to Gaza and try to live there as a gay Jew with an atheist ex-Muslim husband and you will see what real discrimination looks like…..before they throw you off the roof of a 9 story building.
Bravo. BDS is a deeply antisemitic movement, and it’s founder (Omar Barghouti) admits its goal is to destroy and replace the only Jewish state with a 23rd Arab state. To anyone suggesting that Israel is not a liberal democracy, I’d add that 20% of Israel’s population is comprised of non-Jews who are full citizens, who serve in the Knesset and as Judges, in the army, as teachers, doctors, etc. There are no Jews in any Arab majority country, as they’ve all been murdered or exiled. Consider that, folks.
Evan Parke Despite many efforts by the Israeli propaganda system to disguise it, there is plenty of evidence that Israel commits the crime of apartheid. Apartheid is a crime against humanity and is a result of the systematic denial by the Israeli legal system of equal rights to Palestinians, especially in the OPT but also in Israel proper. Just to mention few prominent experts that compared the Israeli system with the South African apartheid, you may read statements by Nobel Peace awardee Desmond Tutu, or read the detailed reports by Richard Falk, professor emeritus of International Law, Princeton University who, from 2008 to 2014, also served as UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, and Virginia Tilley, professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University and author of Beyond Occupation: Apartheid Colonialism and International Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Even the US former President Jimmy Carter wrote a book on the Israeli apartheid, and explained the facts in countless interviews and articles. And there are many more reports. The recent Israeli "nation-state law", which bans Palestinians from their self-determination right enshrined by the Universal Charter of Human Rights in its own land has, according to many (including Israeli) experts, has changed the system from a de facto apartheid into a de jure apartheid.
I expect the Japanese public will see right through the anti-Semitic nonsense the BDS folks are trying to sell.
what about the Balfour Declaration? What about the UN partition that the arabs rejected (not Palestinians becuase that identity didn’t exist until the 1960s)? I hope you are not actually Jewish, and if you are, just know that this is nothing new. No matter how much you declare that you are not [insert whatever the modern propaganda claims Jews to be], no matter how much you try to assimilate…they don’t care. They’ll applaude you for your public humiliation and degradation of an ethnic minorty that you claim to be part of, but they will never accept you and view you as equal. Israel is a miracle and all we’re asking for is to be seen as equal. I hope this mirarcle will enable other ethnic minorites the same – the kurds, berbers, assyrians, yazidis and all other indigenous populations. We have experienced anti-Semitism and persecution for thousands of years, specifically from the Islamic/Arab and European colonalism/imperialism. Today is no different. It’s the same continuation. I don’t understand how you don’t see that. The wars in the middle east are the same as in Africa, the result of colonization and conquests. European and Islamic supremacists are pitting us against each other.
I assume the Japanese media, much like the Western media, is feeding its population a false, contorted narrative of Jews "colonizing" the "indigenous" Palestinians. In reality, it’s the other way around. Jews are a long-dispossessed indigenous people who were repatriated to their native territories via the Zionist movement, and thereupon regained control of a portion of their lands after surviving a concerted, genocidal attack by 6 Arab countries (all of them stolen from indigenous peoples, save for Saudi Arabia). The Palestinians, by contrast, are an Arab people (read: not indigenous to Israel), remnants of the long Arab colonial occupation and the frontline in the Arab empire’s war on Israel.
That the Arab world was able to dupe so many people into believing the opposite is a testament to how powerful and pervasive antisemitism is, even today.
Palestinian population has been increasingly since 1948
http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_Rainbow/Documents/Eng%20time%20series%20p.htm