Boycott Israel

On October 1, the winner of the Miss Greece pageant, Rafaela Plastira, gave a vague statement that she was withdrawing from competing in Miss Universe because, mumble mumble, Israel.

Her exact words were:
I will not be attending “Miss universe” this year. The reason for that is the country. I am absolutely not disrespecting the country. I love all countries from all over the world but my heart goes to all the people fighting for there lives in Israel & Palestina. I can’t go up that stage and act like nothing is happening when people are fighting for there [sic] lives out there.
This was over six weeks ago.

Greek news sites ignored the story. I can barely find any stories about this in Greek media. The runner up Katerina Kouvoutsaki was quickly set up as the new Miss Greece, and then two weeks ago she withdrew for health reasons and now Miss Greece is Sofia Arapogianni, a stunning beauty, who is preparing to go to Israel.



But now, the BDSers finally found out about Plastira, and is starting to tweet about her and make her into a heroine.

Greek fans will still have someone to cheer at the contest. The only thing that seems to have been accomplished is that a more qualified contestant will be in Eilat.

Plastira ended her message by vowing to compete in future pageants. I somehow doubt that she will have much success; no one wants a contestant who is that ignorant and who causes problems for the people who had been working with her.



 
The Israel Squash Association (ISA) plans to take the World Squash Federation (WSF) to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if it does not ensure Israeli players can participate in the world championship in Malaysia next month.

The Men’s World Team Squash Championship, set for December 7, was moved from New Zealand to Malaysia in May, due to COVID-19 restrictions in the original location.

However, Israelis are not able to visit Malaysia, and the Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) ignored the ISA when it inquired about the possibility of receiving special visas so its players could attend.

(full article online )

 
Boycott Islamic terrorists,




The Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups have suffered a bad week in the Western world.

In a number of separate but mutually supporting actions, various governments and courts enforced new terrorist designations against the groups. These designations will make it harder for Hamas and Hezbollah to raise revenue, advocate for their causes, and organize foreign terrorist activities.
 
In many ways, this is the story of the movement to boycott Israel today.

BDS didn't come out of a vacuum. It is a direct continuation of the Arab boycotts of Israel throughout the 20th century. But the Arab boycott movement had mostly run out of steam by the turn of the century., and BDS came along to modify it and avoid the pitfalls that defeated the Arab boycott.

For one thing, like the Holocaust deniers, the Arab boycott was explicitly antisemitic. It demanded that companies that wanted to deal with Arab countries answer questions about whether their owners or board members were Jewish. It blacklisted Jewish actors and performers. It extended into boycotting Jewish bankers in the 1970s. It didn't allow Jewish employees of multinational companies to set foot in their borders. Blatant antisemitism was not a good look.

Another more technical issue is that the US passed laws against the Arab boycott. The Office of Antiboycott Compliance summarizes its goals: "These authorities discourage, and in some circumstances, prohibit U.S. companies from taking certain actions in furtherance or support of a boycott maintained by a foreign country against a country friendly to the United States (unsanctioned foreign boycott)."

US anti-boycott laws are specifically against boycotts by foreign countries. So BDS emphasizes that it is supposedly a grassroots, non-government movement, answering a call from "Palestinian civil society," to boycott Israel.

This is also why the PLO and the Palestinian Authority have not officially supported BDS, even though they encourage their own citizens to boycott Israel. (In 2018, the Central Council of the PLO did explicitly endorse BDS, but it is unclear if that has any official standing as a government body.) If they called on the world to support BDS, then the US anti-boycott regulations would kick in and US citizens would be penalized. The state-level anti-BDS laws are meant, in part, to counter the loophole that BDS exploited to ensure the campaign does not run afoul of US laws at the national level.

For its part, the BDS movement goes out of its way to deny any connection with the Arab League boycotts, saying "BDS activists are not acting in accordance with the Arab League boycott, which calls for boycott and divestment of any corporation doing business with or in Israel. Modern BDS campaigns take their cues directly from Palestinian civil society groups – not governments or political parties." This is directly to avoid US and possibly European sanctions.

(full article online)

 

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