An Alternative to Boycotts or Divestment for Israel
Boycotting Israeli firms that hire Palestinians won't deliver peace; business-housing programs like New York's Co-op City offer alternative
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault invited international leaders to Paris on May 30 to make plans for reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Peace and economic security go hand in hand. Israel is thriving despite boycotts by some European countries while the economic outlook is dismal for Gaza and the West Bank. “There is little evidence that boycotting Israel will have a significant impact on Israel’s thriving economy, let alone help revive the stagnant peace process,” argue Ian Shapiro, director of the MacMillan Center at Yale and YaleGlobal’s publisher, and Yale student Nicholas Strong. “The boycott has, however, added to the ranks of unemployed Palestinians, fueling the misery in the West Bank and Gaza.” Boycotts forced closure of a SodaStream manufacturing plant in the West Bank that hired 500 Palestinians. Shapiro and Strong argue for special political zones, cooperatives of homes, businesses, schools, and other services with joint ownership by Israelis and Palestinians along with tax and regulatory incentives. A possible model for such zones is New York’s Co-op City.
NEW HAVEN—French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is going to try his hand at reviving the Middle East peace process, inviting international leaders to a meeting in Paris on May 30.
Inevitably this will reignite discussion about the usefulness of sanctions against Israel that have become known as the BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, designed to put economic pressure on Israeli firms, particularly those that do business in the West Bank and Gaza. Several European countries, especially Finland, Norway, and Sweden have pursued BDS.
There is little evidence that boycotting Israel will have a significant impact on Israel’s thriving economy, let alone help revive the stagnant peace process. The boycott has, however, added to the ranks of unemployed Palestinians, fueling the misery in the West Bank and Gaza.
