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Israel analyst Shir Hever speaks to guest host Greg Wilpert about the different ways in which US Secretary of State Pompeo's latest effort to demonize the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel actually exposes the far right's internal contradictions and could help BDS in the long run.

Israel analyst Shir Hever speaks to guest host Greg Wilpert about the different ways in which US Secretary of State Pompeo's latest effort to demonize the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel actually exposes the far right's internal contradictions and could help BDS in the long run.

Transcript

Greg Wilpert

Hi, I'm Greg Wilpert, guest host for theAnalysis.News. Last November 19th, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel and the occupied territories where he made an unexpected announcement that immensely pleased his host, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Pompeo said:

"The United States strongly opposes the global discriminatory boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign and practices that facilitated, such as discriminatory labeling and the publication of databases and companies that operate in Israel or Israeli-controlled areas. As we have made clear, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. The United States is therefore committed to countering the global BDS campaign as a manifestation of anti-Semitism."

Pompeo's policy statement went on to specify that the State Department would identify organizations that support the BDS campaign and to make sure that these do not receive any US government funds. The move was condemned by many groups, including Human Rights Watch, which issued a statement that said that Pompeo's move actually undermines the common fight against the scourge of anti-Semitism.

To discuss this latest development in the BDS campaign and the fight over what constitutes anti-Semitism, I'm joined today from Heidelberg, Germany by Shir Hever here is the author of the book *The Privatization of Israeli Security*, which was published by Pluto Press in 2017. Also, he is a board member of the German organization Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East. Thanks for joining me today, Shir.

Shir Hever

Thanks, Greg.

Greg Wilpert

So, it seems like Pompeo's announcement, which is probably one of his last policy actions before leaving office, was yet another blow against BDS. Now, already about a year and a half ago, the US Congress passed a bipartisan resolution that condemned BDS as a movement that "promotes principles of collective guilt, mass punishment and group isolation, which are destructive of prospects for progress towards peace."

Now, what does this new State Department policy that Pompeo announced with regard to BDS mean for the movement? What effect, if any, do you think it will have? And how do you see the state of BDS over the past year or so?

Shir Hever

Well, I think the best way to look at the state of BDS is to look at what's happening in Israel and how the Israelis are responding to BDS and how much they care about it. And if somebody believes this hype -- as if BDS is trying to attack the Israeli economy or to damage the Israeli economy in some way -- then they would say, "Oh, BDS has been very successful this year," because the Israeli economy is in shambles. There is a very, very high unemployment and many companies are on the verge of bankruptcy. Many small companies have already gone bankrupt. The government is unable to pass a budget which creates a paralysis in all of the public services.

But this is not because of BDS. This is because of the of the Covid-19 crisis. This is because of the lockdown and also because of the political machinations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he tr...

Israel analyst Shir Hever speaks to guest host Greg Wilpert about the different ways in which US Secretary of State Pompeo's latest effort to demonize the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel actually exposes the far right's internal contradictions and could help BDS in the long run.

Israel analyst Shir Hever speaks to guest host Greg Wilpert about the different ways in which US Secretary of State Pompeo's latest effort to demonize the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel actually exposes the far right's internal contradictions and could help BDS in the long run.

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Peter Carter of the Climate Emergency Institute says "net-zero" carbon emissions by 2050 and targeting 2 degrees warming are a recipe for runaway climate catastrophe. On theAnalysis.news podcast with Paul Jay.

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