[By Aryeh Gelfand]

The BDS movement’s connection to terrorist organizations has been revealed and reaffirmed by the testimony of Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, in the House of Representatives Tuesday..

According to testimony Schanzer provided to a House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee, three leaders of organizations that were designated as supporters of terrorism, or shut down, or held civilly liable for providing material support for the terrorist organization Hamas, have gravitated toward the movement to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel.

The name of the subcommittee of which he testified at is Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade in the Middle East and North Africa.

The effort to delegitimize the state of Israel in the eyes of the international community has taken a new, less overtly violent front in recent years.

The BDS movement began in July of 2005 with the decision of 170 Palestinian Non-governmental organizations (NGO) to promote international sanctions against Israel in an attempt to coerce Israel to comply with their demands.

The goals of the movement are: the end of Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestinian land and the Golan Heights, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and respect for the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

The pressure the BDS movement has placed upon Israel has been felt in real terms in recent years. SodaStream, an Israeli company was forced to close its Ma’ale Adumim plant after a boycott slowed sales and made downsizing the only option.

The movement has faced criticism from many in the international community. Critics cite instances of anti-Semitic rhetoric in use by the movement and efforts to delegitimize Israel as a country.

In western circles, the movement is seen as a nonviolent grassroots campaign similar to the movement against South Africa’s apartheid regime, but a closer look reveals a darker side. The movement is actually funded by the Palestinian Authority leadership and in some cases Hamas itself.

After two failed guerilla wars against Israel; Hamas has taken a different approach this time. It seeks to mobilize the international community in an economic, academic, and, cultural boycott of Israel. This new form of warfare is a dangerous example of the asymmetric tactics non-state actors are now utilizing against forces technologically and financially superior.

Schanzer named the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) as a leading driver of the BDS campaign. It is pretty damning that “at least seven individuals who work for or on behalf of AMP have worked for or on behalf of organizations previously shut down or held civilly liable in the United States for providing financial support to Hamas: the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and KindHearts.”
In fact, according to the Treasury Department, Khaled Meshal, a top Hamas official, identified one of HLF’s officers, Mohammed El-Mezain, as “the Hamas leader for the U.S.”

The AMP is up front about its aims in this bitter fight. In its headquarters there is a poster that reads in Arabic “no Jew will live among them in Jerusalem.”

(Aryeh Gelfand – YWN)