Gaza: "We don't want Peace", BDS Activists Call on EU to Scrap Israeli-Palestinian Peace Event

BDS is fighting peace meetings between Israelis and Palestinians because they may lead to “normalization.”

By: The Tower

An anti-Israel group has called on the European Union to cancel an event bringing Israelis and Palestinians together,The Jerusalem Post reported last week.

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which coordinates the anti-IsraelBoycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)campaign, sent a letter to the head of the EU delegation to the West Bank and Gaza, Ralph Tarraf, protesting an upcoming event as part of a program called, “Israeli and Palestinian Young Leaders at the European Parliament.”

According to PACBI, the event bringing Israelis and Palestinians together “violates the relevant BDS guidelines agreed upon by the vast majority of Palestinian civil society.” PACBI also charged the EU with being “highly complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights and international law.” It further called upon the EU to “end all forms of complicity and to halt all its normalization programs.”

The EU is a member of the Middle East Quartet, which, among other things, calls on the Palestinians to recognize Israel.

Anti-Israel activists, the Post explained, “regularly target meetings between Israelis and Palestinians, claiming that such encounters promote normalization between the two sides.” The report predicts that the PACBI letter will lead to some Palestinians withdrawing from the event.

‘Harmful’ Normalization Projects

PACBI said that it decided to publicize the letter, which was written last month, “so that Palestinians and Europeans alike will realize how harmful these EU-funded normalization projects are to the popular Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”

The anti-Israel group specifically addressed Palestinians who might be participating in the event, saying that they should “avoid becoming themselves complicit in undermining the Palestinian struggle for our inalienable rights under international law.”

Though the BDS campaign often claims that it is fighting for Palestinian rights, its leaders have made clear that their goal is the destruction of Israel.

Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of BDS, said in 2004, “We are witnessing the rapid demise of Zionism, and nothing can be done to save it … I, for one, support euthanasia.” He also said in 2014 that Palestinians have a right to “resistance by any means, including armed resistance.”

Leading BDS activist As’ad Abu Khalil similarly acknowledged in 2012 that “the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel.”

-UnitedwithIsrael