Letter: A Response to BDS

LettersLauren Luz and Jonathan Mamane — Published March 14, 2016

In Oct. 2014, the Soda Stream factory relocated to the Negev desert in southern Israel. Five hundred Palestinians lost their jobs due to pressure put on Soda Stream by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement.

The same week that The Link published an opinion piece titled “Calling for the Implementation of BDS” another 74 Palestinians lost their jobs because of pressure put on an Israeli company by a movement which advocates for Palestinians. These men and women lost equal paying jobs and health benefits.

Even after succumbing to pressure, the CEO of Soda Stream promised all employees who had lost their jobs that he would ensure they found other work in the West Bank.

With this in mind, we ask the author of the article why should the Canadian government support a movement that has proven that it harms the people that it is claiming to help? BDS takes a highly controversial narrative and lowers the rhetoric to extremely simplistic terms. It frames Israel as the reason for all evil and claims that this approach is the only practical step towards achieving peace.

The Canadian government held a parliamentary session where MPs vocally condemned the BDS movement, which promotes “demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel.” The close unanimity of debates between MPs and leaders of different Canadian political parties on the divisiveness of the BDS movement, demonstrates the ineffectiveness as it ends up hurting the Palestinians they are trying to “help.”

— Lauren Luz and Jonathan Mamane