what is bds

BDS stands for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel. Its goal is to eliminate Israel through economic, diplomatic, legal, and cultural warfare. BDS is a global propaganda campaign led by a worldwide network of anti-Israel groups. 

All Divestment initiatives are part of the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS). In fact, the National SJP Divestment Handbook [1] explicitly calls student-led divestment campaigns a key tactic of BDS, though it also advises students to “distance” themselves from BDS when necessary to gain political support (page 24). [2]. Below are quotes about the true purpose of divestment campaigns from an earlier official handbook for campus divestment activists:

  • "Divestment... [was] introduced in North America as a stepping stone towards a broad, comprehensive boycott of Israel." [3]

  • "Don’t base your measures of success on whether or not divestment passes… changing American public opinion through education will ultimately have a greater impact than individual schools divesting." [4]

BDS is a dangerous front that has opened in the war against Israel.  Despite branding itself as a progressive human rights movement, it is designed to erode support for Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, isolate Israel as the pariah of nations, and ultimately cause Israel to collapse as a Jewish and democratic state. It likewise promotes anti-normalization and other bigoted policies that undermine efforts toward peace, justice, and human rights in the Middle East.

The BDS National Committee (BNC) leads the movement globally, and it includes the Council of National and Islamic Forces of Palestine (CNIF) [5]. As of 2022, the coordinator of the CNIF in Gaza was Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad official [8]. According to the New York Times and others,  “terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine." are part of the CNIF and BNC [6].

  • Hamas is the same genocidal terrorist organization that committed, in the words of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, crimes that were “worse than ISIS” on October 7.

  • Immediately after the October 7th massacre, the BNC released a statement calling the atrocities committed by Hamas "heroic” and “reasonable.” [9] While they later took it down, the updated version still calls the mass murder, torture, rape, and kidnapping of civilians in Israel, “a powerful armed reaction.” [10]

All “Divestment” Campaigns Are BDS: All university divestment campaigns targeting companies with ties to Israel fall under the framework of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Despite claims by some proponents that these efforts focus on broader human rights, anti-Israel divestment campaigns are tied to BDS's larger goals. In some cases, these campaigns are selective, only targeting companies that allegedly profit from the most controversial Israeli policies, such as military equipment manufacturers, surveillance technology providers, or infrastructure firms operating in conflict zones. However, all of these efforts are a “stepping stone” towards a total boycott of Israel.