BDS: The Bane in Spain

Angel Mas is president of ACOM, an organization fighting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in Spain. The views expressed here are his own.

Intersectionality is the unnatural alliance of seemingly incompatible groups that defend contradictory positions. They unite in their common hatred against western democracies and universal values associated with market capitalism, independent courts, parliamentary representation, rule of law, freedom of speech, worship and press and equal rights for all. One of the favorite “soft targets” of intersectionality is Israel, the right of a Jewish State to exist in freedom and security.

To this delegitimizing end, neo-Nazis will operate hand in hand with Communists and anarchists, so-called feminists will demonstrate with Salafists, and utterly confused gay rights activists chant jihadi slogans. They say they target Zionists, but we all know they mean Jews.

The compulsive obsession that targets one state, the only Jewish state, follows an ignoble tradition of harassment of one easily identifiable minority. Centuries ago, that bias used religion as justification (the people that murdered Christ). Later, nationalism was the excuse (the fifth columnists such as Alfred Dreyfus who betrayed the country, or hidden conspiracies for world domination by the Elders of Zion). The Nazis appealed to pseudo-science (the inferior, perverted race). Now the ancient sickly obsession uses Israel, the hatred against the Jewish State, as a catalyst.

Nothing new either in the four Ds that summarise the means of the bigots: Demonize,  Delegitimize,  Dehumanize and apply Double standards to the national self determination of the Jewish people.

That is what epitomizes the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions movement against Israel.

The BDS is a global phenomena that is born from the modern antisemites’ acceptance of the improbability of defeating Israel through military confrontation or terrorist attacks. The objective is the same: the annihilation of the Jewish homeland, “from the river to the sea.” But now, BDS tries to push the international community to condemn Israel as a pariah state and ostracize all those that support her: Zionists. Jews.

BDS in Spain

The delegitimizers, as old-time bigots, mask their thuggery, presenting themselves as victims and hiding their true intentions . They appeal to public feelings against oppression or abuse and the sympathy for underdogs and suffering minorities.

In this global context, what makes the case of BDS in Spain unique? That all that antisemitic bias against a minority in the country is actually exercised from government institutions, by powers of the state.

The BDS movement in Spain acquired its current virulence with the emergence of Podemos, a “Chavist” far left party financed by Venezuela and Iran. Podemos won 25 percent of the votes in Spain’s 2015 local elections. Before those elections, BDS was a marginal confederation of small groups focusing on academic and cultural boycotts of Israel. The core group that formed Podemos had been active in the BDS initiatives for years, and hostility against Israel was a top priority in their political agenda.

As Podemos gained control of the municipal governments in the main Spanish cities, including Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and Cadiz, the anti-Israel movement had access to multiple economic, human and organizational resources. When those far left groups occupied public institutions, they didn’t distinguish between their own sectarian agenda and the government’s agenda.

Local administrations (provincial and municipal) formally joined the BDS movement and declared their territories “free of Israeli apartheid”. In effect, Judenfrei. Stickers were distributed to be exhibited in shops and offices, public companies were instructed not to work with Israeli firms or individuals and Spanish citizens suspected of being associated or sympathetic to the Jewish state were demanded to repudiate it publicly in order not to be excluded from social, political, economic and civic life.

Click here for resources on fighting BDS.

Combating the BDS Tide

Podemos has driven over 90 such declarations in Spain in jurisdictions covering a population of over eight million people. Its plan was to create an oil spill of hatred reaching the majority of Spain in 18 months. This was an existential threat, and we had to act.

But, frankly, not everybody, in Spain, inside the Jewish communities, in the political system, or even in Israel, saw the need for a decisive and urgent response. We, however, thought that underestimating the commitment and determination of our enemies was a mistake and that ignoring the phenomenon would not make it go away. We prioritized the fight against this menace and  mobilized resources. We knew we needed a response combining political, media and lawfare initiatives. And we enjoyed the essential support of Jewish organisations in the country for that.

ACOM centralized the effort of the response. More by default than by design: we were a public diplomacy group, but had to transform ourselves quickly into a lawfare organisation too.

We are not litigious. We prefer to avoid any discrimination over a judicial victory against the boycotters. Political education and a media presence combined with the threat of potential legal initiatives prevented tens of additional boycotts.

In that preventive effort, we have activists screening the activities of BDS gangs, their web pages, Twitter and Facebook accounts, distribution lists and chats. Early warning is critical. Many of their resolutions are formulated in secret and pushed forward in expedited votes.

We have spent countless hours reaching to decision makers and community leaders who might have been fooled or misinformed. It is important to invest on exposing the true nature and objectives of BDS, and the legal implications of supporting their declarations.

But sometimes, all that failed, and antisemitic resolutions are passed. In such a cases our last resort is litigation.

It is sad for a minority to feel targeted and victimized by the state that is supposed to protect it. It is discouraging that it falls upon private citizens and organizations — and not the state attorney — to lead the defense against the abuses of public representatives and local institutions. And we learned that, in order to gain attention from our political system and social media, the cases had to be exposed first in the foreign press. The interest demonstrated by reputed international Jewish organisations also focused the attention on the discriminatory resolutions in Spain.

No local boycott is too small to go unchallenged. BDS groups carefully manipulate the information reaching political decision makers, spend massive resources on media campaigns and are masters at social media intoxication. In general, pro-Israel groups are lagging behind in the application of analysis and action in those fields.

When it comes to the public opinion, we decided to challenge the anti-Israeli narrative and terminology, even if at first it comes as a shock to the audience: generally accepted terms as occupied territories, refugees, or wall puts us immediately at a disadvantage in any debate. We also knew that the anti-Israel gangs hide behind the rhetoric of human rights, appealing to humanitarian ideals, manipulated international law and UN resolutions. We endeavor to present fact and correct the lies.

We invest our efforts in exposing the BDS movement’s true ends: not a two-state solution, but the exclusion of one of the parties. Not a peaceful initiative, but one that glorifies violence. It is crucial to insist on the association of BDS with antisemitism and exposing its links to terrorist organizations.

Emphasizing those links remain essential, as most BDS funding is public, in deeply rooted schemes with a network of associations and groups. They master the process of accessing state funding at all levels to feed an industry that employs hundreds people and would dwarf any privately sponsored response we put up. Cutting off that funding is key.

We have so far obtained over 25 court resolutions against institutional (municipal or provincial) anti-Israel boycotts. The courts agree that local governments have no competence over these matters. More importantly, they also ruled that the boycotts are discriminatory, breaching constitutional principles and fundamental rights.

Furthermore, we have moved from defense to offense, increasing deterrence. To end the impunity associated with illegal BDS behavior, there must be consequences:

– We will keep on fighting boycott resolutions, but we will look to cut the BDS groups funding
– We are exposing their leaders to the criminal responsibilities associated with promoting hatred and antisemitism in Spain.

Some people raise concerns about free speech in our combat to protect our civil rights. We are very clear: everybody, politicians in particular, are entitled to expressing their own opinions — opinions we might not like, or even those we might feel offensive. But institutions are not entitled to incite or discriminate. The state cannot favor or penalize citizens for who they are or what they think. We are not ashamed to demand court protection for that.

BDS Fights Back

After the initial surprise our vigorous actions created among the delegitimizers (up until then they had been used to social media monologues and boycotting immunity) we assumed they would attempt an aggressive campaign of slander, targeting pro-Israel activists and spreading libels against pro Israel organizations.

A few weeks ago, a BDS group presented a criminal claim against ACOM and me. We are accused of illegal association and promotion of hatred. For over 70 pages, the BDS lawyer — formerly convicted on terror charges of cooperation with the ETA — delegitimizes Israel, demonizes its representatives and criminalizes anybody supporting the Jewish state. They paint our request for court protection as intimidation against the discriminators. The mob accuses the victims of mobbing. BDS bullies are  offended by the Jewish refusal to accept helplessness. And, finally, BDS argues that our denunciation of the glorification of terrorism and promotion of violence is actually incitement of hatred against all Palestinians.

BDS extremists do not tolerate debate and dissent very well. Their totalitarian instinct demands to silence, exclude and ostracize whoever does not submit to BDS imposition. They will bully and intimidate anyone daring to confront them. Those who despise our constitutional freedoms will try to twist those rights to silence a minority and curtail peaceful coexistence.

Fighting BDS requires time, effort and resources. But hiding is not an option for us. This is the place where the diaspora contributes to defend the Jewish State, and by doing that, we also defend our rights as citizens of Spain. We were expelled 500 years ago, but that will not happen again. Not under our watch.

Images: BDS sign CC BY-SA Takver; flag CC BY-NC-ND Chris;

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