Alon Liel, former Israeli ambassador to South Africa (1992-1994) recently came out in favor of Zionist BDS.
I can understand the desire, by people of conscience, to reassert an agenda of justice, to remind Israelis that Palestinians exist. I can understand small but symbolic acts of protest that hold a mirror up to Israeli society. As such, I cannot condemn the move to prevent goods made in the occupied Palestinian territory from being falsely classified as "Made in Israel". I support the South African government’s insistence on this distinction between Israel and its occupation...
The simple act of marking settlement products differently to Israeli products pulls the rug from under the refusal to declare a border. It has provoked Zionist outrage because it says: to here and no further. It causes embarrassment because those who claim to want two states cannot morally justify why products from the future Palestine should be marked as "made in Israel".
And Liel’s not the only one. Yesterday, Daniel Zajfman, President of the Weizmann Institute, threatened to boycott the Ariel University Center of Samaria if the institution gains full status as a University as scheduled. Hebrew University President Menachem Ben-Sasson joined the fray, adding that giving university status to a settlement institution “is a strategic threat to the State” and “endangers the next Nobel Prize.” Is Zionist BDS catching on?
