quick political rant: BDS

it saddens me that the BDS movement is so successful in manipulating so many people into believing that it's in the interests of the palestinians. it's not. it's furthering a narrative that runs counter to any possibility of there ever being any kind of resolution in the middle east.

not only that, but the comparison to apartheid south africa will only work on people who have no idea what apartheid was or what the situation in israel and the no-longer-occupied territories actually is. it's highly offensive to south africans who lived through a horrific level of brutality and moral corruption, and it's highly offensive to israeli's who are maintaining a thankless high moral ground in spite of the perpetual existential threat posed by its neighbours.

the palestinians are - and have always been, since their separation and creation - political pawns of the arab countries surrounding israel, and they are getting possibly the rawest deal on the planet. they're being utterly destroyed, year after year, by oil-rich nations dehumanizing and weaponizing them in order to keep their own countries out of global focus and to keep israel too busy to deal with them. now israel's no angel, as i keep having to remind people, but it's certainly no demon either. they're doing the best they can with what they have, but while they do make mistakes i can tell you from personal experience that nothing you've heard in the western media comes close to the real story of what's happening on the ground. and most of the real story is so difficult to believe - as a westerner with western values - that it's far simpler to just pick a story and run with it, regardless of the facts and the nuances.

the BDS movement is a surefire way to distract everyone from the real evils going on in the middle east (including, but not limited to the real story behind the israeli / palestinian conflict) and to ensure that meaningful change is not affected: not for the palestinians, not for anyone else.
the only thing wrong with anyone trying to put a stop to the movement is their not educating people about it and providing context, explaining that it's based on shameless lies that harm all parties involved, that all it is really is a new way to generate antisemitism and simultaneously keep the palestinians under the thumbs of the same bastards that are destroying their own countries while everyone has their backs turned.

it's important to care about the palestinians, but the first step to making a positive difference is learning about them; not from an activist with an agenda, and not from google (filter bubbles), and not from sensationalist media outlets (the bias on cnn and bbc is just as extreme to the left as fox is to the right). you either go there and live it on both sides, or you interview people who've lived there on both sides.