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Federation Star - November 2019

Monthly newspaper of the Jewish Federation of Greater Naples

Monthly newspaper of the Jewish Federation of Greater Naples

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COMMENTARY<br />

<strong>November</strong> <strong>2019</strong> <strong>Federation</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />

The BDS movement: sinister ramifications for Israel<br />

By Jerrold L. Sobel, ZOA of SWFL President, September 23, <strong>2019</strong><br />

Most people over the past 15 a group of 12 organizations advocating<br />

for “Palestinian refugees internally<br />

years have heard or read<br />

about the BDS movement. displaced in Palestine and in exile.” The<br />

The term itself refers to Boycott, Divestment<br />

and Sanctions movement. BDS National Committee (BNC), which<br />

GPRRC is a member of the Palestinian<br />

Founded by two virulent anti-Semites, coordinates the anti-Israel boycott,<br />

Omar Barghouti and Jamal Juma, it’s divestment and sanctions movement<br />

a propagandist campaign conducted worldwide. The central organization in<br />

against the State of Israel and the Jewish the BNC is the Palestinian National and<br />

people worldwide. However, relatively Islamic Forces (PNIF), which includes<br />

few understand its history and its ramifications<br />

for the Jewish state.<br />

tions: Hamas, the Popular Front for<br />

five U.S.-designated terrorist organiza-<br />

The roots of BDS date back to the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the<br />

the Arab League’s boycott of Israel in Popular Front - General Command, the<br />

1950, two years hence her successful Palestine Liberation Front and Palestinian<br />

Islamic Jihad.<br />

War of Independence. The purpose<br />

was to starve the Jews out of their new It’s important the uninitiated recognize<br />

that BDS does not exist in a vacuum<br />

homeland. Failing this but with varied<br />

success, other incarnations such as the or just on American campuses. It is part<br />

blacklisting of countries, organizations and parcel of an insidious movement<br />

and corporations doing business with of coordinated organizations grouped<br />

Israel were attempted throughout the together with one focused goal, the<br />

ensuing years.<br />

destruction of the State of Israel by any<br />

As an example, in 2001, under means.<br />

the tutelage and sponsorship of Yasser With tentacles spread throughout<br />

Arafat, a Jew named Adam Shapiro the world, often aided by left-wing<br />

and his Palestinian wife, Huwaida Arraf,<br />

created the International Solidarity ated themselves on campuses, in youth<br />

media and academia, they have insinu-<br />

Movement (ISM). Ostensibly created groups, board rooms, labor unions and<br />

as a pro-Palestinian peace movement, even pro-Palestinian Jewish organizations<br />

such as Jewish Voice for Peace and<br />

Shapiro and Arraf called for a combination<br />

of nonviolent and violent resistance Jews for Justice for Palestinians.<br />

to bring down the Jewish state. Arraf Most assuredly, BDS is not an innocuous<br />

movement of a bunch of rowdy<br />

admitted such in a letter to The Washington<br />

Post, stating that the group works college kids acting stupid. In reality it’s<br />

in cooperation with the Popular Front a poison replete with every anti-Semitic<br />

for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian<br />

Islamic Jihad and even Hamas. As ish people for millennia. It’s an attack<br />

trope and libel that has haunted the Jew-<br />

one of a myriad of precursors to BDS, not upon Israeli policy vis a vis the Palestinians,<br />

or settlements or statehood.<br />

Arraf and Shapiro managed to create a<br />

worldwide network to delegitimize the It’s an assailment against Israel as a<br />

Jewish national homeland throughout Jewish state and an anti-Semitic movement<br />

against Jews throughout the world.<br />

the U.S. and Canadian college systems<br />

and in Europe.<br />

What’s the answer? How do Israel<br />

Another is Al-Awda, a founding and Jews in general counter accusations<br />

member of the Global Palestinian by the UN, the E.U. and all the faux<br />

Right of Return Coalition (GPRRC), liberals in and out of government that<br />

buy into BDS propaganda? It’s a daunting<br />

task which may defy an answer. As<br />

a truly anti-Semitic movement, there<br />

is no way of convincing people of that<br />

predilection otherwise.<br />

To explain the land of Israel with<br />

Jerusalem as its capital is the ancestral<br />

homeland of the Jewish people falls<br />

upon deaf ears, as do the numerous attempts<br />

of sharing the land in peace with<br />

the Palestinians predating 1948. Would<br />

clarifying that the wall and checkpoints<br />

separating both people were put in<br />

place not to create apartheid but to stem<br />

school attacks, bus bombings and mass<br />

murdering of Jews in restaurants and<br />

25A<br />

theaters change anything? Could Israel<br />

bring about modification within BDS<br />

by explaining Gaza was abandoned in<br />

2005, leaving all infrastructure in place<br />

as a gesture of peace? The answers to<br />

these questions are quite obvious.<br />

What Israel and all those who support<br />

the Jewish state can do is remain<br />

strong and united against the onslaught<br />

of this sinister movement. They must<br />

continue building an economically<br />

strong nation of innovation and science,<br />

be open to peace but not acquiescence,<br />

and have faith in the Creator who<br />

led them back to their ancestral homeland.<br />

Jewish senior singles sponsored by Jewish <strong>Federation</strong> of Greater Naples<br />

Let’s dance!<br />

Swing dancing class & party<br />

Wednesdays, December 4 and January 29<br />

6:30 - 9:00 p.m.<br />

Who: All Jewish senior singles are invited<br />

Where: Allstar Dance Studio<br />

4910 Tamiami Trail North, Suite 118<br />

in the same plaza as Outback Steakhouse<br />

Cost: $10 per person to be paid upon arrival at Allstar Dance Studio<br />

What to wear: Casual dress, shoes – avoid flip-flop, sandal or high heel<br />

with no strap on the back<br />

RSVP: Renee’ at rbialek@jewishnaples.org<br />

No dancing experience necessary!<br />

Come to one or both classes.<br />

Founded in 1897<br />

ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA<br />

Southwest Florida Chapter<br />

<strong>2019</strong>/2020 ZOA Lecture Program<br />

Wednesday, <strong>November</strong> 20, <strong>2019</strong><br />

“Hate Speech on Campus”<br />

Wednesday, December 18, <strong>2019</strong><br />

“Instructing Congress on Israel’s<br />

Claim to Judea and Samaria”<br />

Wednesday, January 22, 2020<br />

“Israel in the Age of Terrorism”<br />

Wednesday, February 26, 2020<br />

“Radical Liberal Groups<br />

Here and in Israel”<br />

Dr. Richard Cravatts, PhD<br />

Author, Lecturer, National ZOA Board Member<br />

Dan Pollak<br />

ZOA National Director of Government Relations<br />

Elliot Resnick<br />

Chief Editor, New York Jewish Press<br />

Yechezkel Moskowitz<br />

President, Chovevei Tzion – National Council<br />

of Young Israel<br />

7:30PM start time for all events<br />

Chabad Jewish Center of Naples, 1789 Mandarin Road, Naples, FL 34103<br />

Admission for each event:<br />

$20.00 prepaid by mail<br />

$22.00 at the door<br />

$7.00 Students with valid ID<br />

To ensure faster seating,<br />

prepayment is suggested<br />

jerrysobel@aol.com • 914-329-1024<br />

Free soft refreshments served at all programs<br />

Make checks payable to:<br />

ZOA of Southwest Florida<br />

4003 Upolo Lane<br />

Naples, FL 34119

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