This article concerns what is happening in the real world that American Cable News never touches. I make no comment one way or the other.
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/2/israel-jittery-overramificationsofglobalboycotts.html
Wow. It appears that the Palestinians finally have some leverage that they constructed with reason by themselves. Thanks for the link, MaryAnne. I'm pasting the part that seems to be a good synopsis for the attention-span-challenged.
Israel’s dilemma
The rise in boycott and divestment initiatives highlights, in part, the success of the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement, a grassroots-based Palestinian campaign that calls for the end of occupation and equal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel. “The BDS movement [has] reached a tipping point in the Western mainstream,” said Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights activist and co-founder of the movement. “A growing number of Western artists and bands now refuse to perform in Israel.”
Barghouti also pointed to growing support for academic boycott of Israel in the U.S., Germany and Ireland as key indicators of this “qualitative leap.” Germany
recently withdrew from all research and technology agreements with Israeli companies and research entities that are linked to settlements.
Last month, a
controversy over actress Scarlett Johansson’s role as a “brand ambassador” for the Israeli appliance maker SodaStream threw the boycott movement into the limelight. Johansson’s association with the anti-poverty charity Oxfam America gave the BDS movement a huge publicity boost, forcing her to resign from Oxfam, where she served as a global ambassador for the last eight years.
Israel understands the potential impacts of the growing divestment initiatives. About 33 percent of its exports go to the EU. Exports from the settlements to Europe are estimated to be around $300 million
annually.
