Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Regarding the citation by Netanyahu of my characterization of the aims of BDS

Regarding this statement by Netanyahu: "Netanyahu cited what he called "one of the leaders" of BDS as stating that its real aim was "to bring down the State of Israel"."  A reader remembered that I first said it in response to a question at the University of Edinburgh and that I was making it clear it was about how BDS should define its goals. But I found this this passage that I had written for Al-Akhbar (more recent): "4) Finkelstein rightly asks whether the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel. Here, I agree with him that it is. That should be stated as an unambiguous goal. There should not be any equivocation on the subject. Justice and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the state of Israel." But even here I am making it clear that it is about how BDS should be and not about how it is now. I meant that FOR ME, BDS is about ending the Zionist occupation of Palestine completely.   This means that Netanyahu reads Al-Akhbar.