US envoy: We will fight ‘pernicious’ BDS movement
Washington’s policy is to ‘vigorously oppose and counter such measures,’ Dan Shapiro tells Herzliya Conference
The “pernicious” BDS campaign against Israel runs against American interests, and some of its supporters “have an anti-Israel, and in some cases even anti-Semitic, agenda,” Washington’s ambassador to Israel said Wednesday.
Ambassador Dan Shapiro spoke out against the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in his speech to the annual Herzliya Conference, saying that while those who promote it have the right to do so, “no one should have any doubt that the policy of the US government is to vigorously oppose and counter such initiatives.”
The US, having been subjected to the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s, knows what it’s like, he said, and Washington sided with Israel then, too.
“Others may advocate boycotting Israel — but we are doing the exact opposite,” he told the conference. “We are actively seeking to deepen our economic partnership with Israel. We encourage American companies to invest in Israel, and then celebrate their successes. We are recruiting Israeli businesses to invest in the United States.”
Despite American opposition to the BDS movement, Shapiro said substantive progress in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians would better combat “those who advocate isolation.
“True supporters of BDS have an anti-Israel, and in some cases even anti-Semitic, agenda, independent of efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said. “But we must also reach those who support a two-state solution, but who might be tempted by the misguided arguments of the BDS movement.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last week signed an executive order banning New York state agencies and departments from investing in companies or groups that, as a policy, promote or engage in boycotts, divestment or sanctions against Israel.
The order also requires the state to draw up a public list of companies that engage in or promote BDS.
Cuomo’s order stands out, however, as it enacts opposition to BDS in the fourth-most populous state — and the home to the largest number of Jews in the country. And it places Cuomo, a prominent governor and national figure, at the center of the American debate over Israel.
JTA contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.