Recently, there have been efforts by the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) Movement to insert itself into a St. Louis City decision whether to select a particular company, Veolia, as a consultant related to city water issues.  There are many factors that city officials will rightfully consider in making this decision. We object, however, to local BDS movement adherents bringing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a decision where it has no place.

The BDS movement is a tactic aimed at delegitimizing Israel. It calls for academic, cultural and consumer boycotts; divestment from Israeli companies and from companies doing business with Israel; and sanctions that would end cooperative agreements between Israel and other countries including trade and military ties. These campaigns, based on false allegations against Israel, fuel misinformation and hatred, all with the goal of  turning Israel into a pariah state.

The clear objective of the BDS movement is the end of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.  Whether they say so explicitly or not, BDS adherents advocate a “one-state solution.”  This goal is most apparent in their demand for the “right of return” of all “Palestinian refugees” – the actual refugees who left around 1948 and all their descendants, about five million people.  That influx into Israel, where the total population today is eight million, would mean the end of Israel as a democratic Jewish State.  It would be the end of the “two-state solution” which envisions the State of Israel and a Palestinian State living side by side in peace.

These efforts flow from an ideology that refuses to accept the existence of a Jewish State. The BDS movement ignores or rejects Israel’s role as a national home for the Jewish people. The message of BDS is a destructive, one-sided view of the conflict that undermines the possibilities of a negotiated two-state solution.

There is a difference between vigorously debating Israel’s policies and promoting messages that demonize Israel. The BDS Movement chooses the latter approach. Instead of a serious debate of the pros and cons of Israel’s policies, its goal is the delegitimization of Israel as a method to achieve the eventual dismantling of the Jewish State. The approach of the BDS movement stands in opposition to the steps that could lead to a genuine and lasting peace for Israel and the Palestinian people.

The road to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians has been long and painful. We believe it vital to support those who seek paths to end the conflict and bring lasting peace to the region.  We believe it is vital to seek reconciliation, and two states living side by side in peace. We reject the approach of those who seek instead to inflame the conflict and act it out here in the United States.  We reject the approach of those who insert the Israel/Palestinian issue into our local politics.  This approach is unjust and ultimately detrimental to peace in the Middle East and to good relations in St. Louis.