Reasons people support boycotts of Israel (BDS overview)

Why boycott Israel through BDS?

This question is being raised online, and many believe that boycotting Israeli products is legitimate.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement launched in 2005, calling on the world to economically, culturally, and academically isolate Israel. One of its most visible founders is Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian activist who has been explicit that BDS is not about reforming Israeli policy but about ending Israel as a Jewish state. That matters, because movements should be judged not only by their slogans but by their stated goals and measurable outcomes.

BDS frames itself as a nonviolent human rights campaign. In practice, it borrows heavily from Cold War era boycott logic while operating in a globalized economy that punishes the wrong people first. Think less Gandhi, more Larry David accidentally boycotting his own dentist and insisting it’s a moral victory.

When Boycotts Cost Palestinians Their Jobs

The most concrete data point in the BDS debate is also the most uncomfortable for its supporters. SodaStream.

Until 2015, SodaStream operated a factory in the West Bank industrial zone of Mishor Adumim. Roughly 500 Palestinians worked there, earning salaries significantly higher than average Palestinian wages, with benefits that included healthcare and transport. After sustained BDS pressure, SodaStream relocated the factory to southern Israel. The result was not Israeli economic collapse. It was hundreds of Palestinians losing stable jobs.

This was not an isolated case. Israeli industrial zones in the West Bank have employed tens of thousands of Palestinians over the years, often under better labor conditions than those available in the Palestinian Authority economy. BDS does not replace those jobs with alternatives. It simply removes them. The movement treats Palestinian workers like extras in a morality play who inconveniently insist on eating.

The Selective Morality Olympics

BDS supporters argue that economic pain is necessary to force political change. Yet the same activists routinely oppose sanctions on countries like China, Iran, or Qatar, where labor rights and minority protections are objectively worse. Israel, a country with an independent judiciary, free press, and Arab political parties, becomes uniquely boycott-worthy.

This is where the Larry David hypocrisy meter starts screaming. The smartphone tweeting “Free Palestine” likely runs on Israeli-designed chips. The drip irrigation keeping that organic farm alive comes from Israeli water tech. The cancer screening software saving lives in Europe? Israeli algorithms. Boycott Israel, but please keep the WiFi.

Israeli Innovation Does Not Stay in Israel

Israel’s economy is deeply integrated into global problem-solving. Israeli technologies are used in agriculture, cybersecurity, medical imaging, clean energy, and disaster response worldwide. Netafim’s drip irrigation systems are used in over 100 countries, including regions facing severe water scarcity. Israeli-developed medical devices are embedded in hospitals across the US and Europe. Cybersecurity tools created in Tel Aviv protect banks, power grids, and hospitals globally.

BDS demands boycotting Israeli academia and tech without grappling with the downstream effects. When you call for academic boycotts, you restrict collaboration on cancer research, climate science, and public health. When you pressure companies to divest, you are not “holding Israel accountable.” You are cutting off shared innovation pipelines that benefit Palestinians too.

The Legal and Political Backlash

Since 2015, over 30 US states have passed laws or executive actions opposing BDS, particularly when it targets companies doing business with Israel. These laws have survived multiple court challenges, with courts generally ruling that states can refuse to contract with entities engaged in discriminatory boycotts.

This backlash did not happen because lawmakers suddenly became Zionist romantics. It happened because BDS crossed from protest into economic discrimination. When a movement demands blanket boycotts based on nationality, people start noticing the historical echoes, even if the activists pretend not to hear them.

Does BDS Move the Needle?

After nearly two decades, Israel’s economy has grown, foreign investment has increased, and normalization agreements with Arab states have expanded. Palestinian economic conditions, meanwhile, remain fragile. BDS has not delivered a state, ended the conflict, or improved daily life for Palestinians. What it has delivered is polarization, canceled speakers, blacklisted artists, and a politics of moral grandstanding.

Larry David once joked that people love principles right up until they cost them something. BDS costs Palestinians jobs, costs global society innovation, and costs the conversation any chance of nuance. It allows activists to feel righteous without doing the hard work of supporting coexistence, economic cooperation, or realistic political compromise.

So the real question is not whether BDS makes Israel uncomfortable. It is whether making yourself feel morally pure is worth making other people’s lives materially worse.

Read More 

BDS movement overview: Britannica on BDS history and global actions
SodaStream & Palestinian jobs: Times of Israel on SodaStream layoffs and BDS impact
Israeli high-tech economic data: Israel tech sector’s contribution to GDP and exports
Forbes on economic harm to Palestinians: Forbes analysis on BDS and Palestinian economy
Palestinian dependence on Israeli economy: AlWaght detailed trade figures and economic linkage