This opinion piece by Alex Margolin, HR’s Social Media Editor, is republished from The Times of Israel.
When the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement launched its latest campaign against SodaStream, it never could have imagined the level of defeat it would suffer in the process.
Instead of drawing attention to Israeli abuses of Palestinians, the BDS campaign generated discussions about just the opposite – that Palestinians actually benefit from the economic cooperation generated by companies like SodaStream.
In the process, the BDS managed to bring into question one of the sacred cows of the movement – that settlements are the “obstacle to peace” in the region. A reasonable person following the news might conclude that the real obstacle is the sort of blanket boycotting advocated by the BDS.
The SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum told reporters he was keeping the factory in Ma’ale Adumim open out of loyalty to the hundreds of Palestinians who work there. If he moved inside the Green Line, as the BDS demands, the workers would lose their jobs.
For more on BDS, see our BDS resource page and “Like” our Fighting BDS Facebook page.
