Noted Palestinian activist Bassam Eid , the founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group , and a proponent of a two-state solution , rejects BDS outright . “ For our own sake ,” he says , “ we need to reconcile with our Israeli neighbors , not reject and revile them .”
Even Edward Said , a father of Palestinian nationalism and the furthest thing from a Zionist , wrote before his death that it was “ fatuous to impose total blockades against everything Israeli ( now in fashion in various progressive Arab circles ) and to pretend that that is the really virtuous nationalist path .”
HOW SUCCESSFUL HAS THE BDS MOVEMENT BEEN ?
Is BDS effective ? It can claim some small moral victories — a few cancelled concerts , non-binding divestment votes by a handful of university student governments , the support of some church groups and spiritual and political leaders — but to judge by the effect on Israel ’ s economy , the movement must be deemed a failure . According to a report by Bloomberg , the level of foreign investments in Israeli assets hit an all-time high of $ 285.12 billion in 2015 , nearly triple what it was when BDS began in 2005 . A RAND Corporation study , conducted in 2015 , came up with similar findings , and the Israeli government , too , reports that BDS has had little to no impact on the country ’ s economy .
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