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Cary Nelson and Noah Gabriel Brahm (Editors). The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2015. 550 pp. Paperback: $27.95. ISBN: 978-0-9903316-0-5
When the state of Israel was declared on May 15, 1948, she was invaded by six Arab armies who tried to destroy her. Following their failure, the Arab league tried to destroy Israel economically. They declared an economic and political boycott of the new born Jewish State. While Egypt and Jordan have since signed peace treaties with Israel, other Arabs states and the Palestinians have yet to make peace with the idea of Israel's existence. Israel is still subject to military attack from time to time. Economic war against her has similarly continued on and offsince 1948.
Ten years ago, on July 9, 2005, a collection of 170 Palestinian activists and organizations decided to pick up where the Arab League boycott leftoffand launched a call for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) from Israel.
The book shows that BDS is not only about economic boycotts. BDS's agenda in the long hall is an attempt to erase 1948 Israeli Independence from history, marking the end of an Israeli state.
The book makes a positive contribution by exposing aims of the movement to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel. Books by Babbin (2014), Pollack (2011), Chesler (2003), Foxman (2003), and Gerstenfeld (2007) and articles by Bensoussan- Burstein (2014, 2015), Fishman (2011), and Sher (2014) also defend Israel from acrimonious BDS attacks of what is called the "new anti-Semitism." However, this book uniquely outlines and raises a balanced case against the BDS movement. It provides 34 scholarly essays by an international group of distinguished scholars from the United States, Britain, and Israel in 500 plus pages that analyze, debunk, and critique the Boycott-Divestment- Sanctions (BDS) Israel movement. It unmasks BDS as anti-Semitic in essence. It shows that holding Israel to a higher double standard than other nations with worse civil rights records by subjecting Israel to greater scrutiny, singled out attack, and pressure is unfair. Thirdly, this book contributes by revealing how the aim of BDS is to delegitimize and stigmatize the existence of Israel and thus exposes the BDS's denial of Israel's right to exist motivated by deep seated hatreds....