The BDS movement – Boycotting, Divestment, Sanctions – was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005. An Israeli Arab, who received his degree from Tel Aviv University, he launched an international campaign to ensure that all Israeli products and services, commercial or cultural, are simply not available.

Theoretically, if Israel were to achieve peace through giving up the West Bank and Gaza, then BDS would lose its raison d’etre and close down. As BDS leaders oppose Israel’s very existence, that is unlikely.

It is estimated that a full economic boycott would cost Israel around 1% of its annual GNP, forcing a rise in interest rates and a potential destabilisation of the shekel. However, if peace were to be achieved, it is further estimated that this would boost the economy of the Holy Land by over US$100 billion in a decade. In parallel, the Palestinian economy would receive a 50% fillip.

Last week, the CEO of Orange, Stephane Richard, had to clarify recent remarks, which suggested that his telecom company had bowed to pressure from Qatar and was to leave Israel. Two days earlier, the National Union of Students in the UK had voted to enforce BDS regulations. In February, hundreds of artists committed themselves to refraining from any association with Israel.

I will leave aside the hypocrisy of the issue. After all, none of these boycotters have uttered criticisms of Saudi Arabia and assumedly continue to use plastic products made in Chinese sweatshops. Nor will they complain of the mistreatment of Palestinians by Palestinians or by other Arab regimes. And of course, the similarity of the BDS campaign to the 1936 Nuremberg laws is completely ignored.

However, what I find amazing is how BDS proponents appear to be oblivious to how their actions actually impact negatively on the Palestinian economy and society. Bassam Eid, a Palestinian social activist observed:

I’m opposed to the boycott because it only ends up harming the Palestinians themselves. Take, for example, the SodaStream plant in Mishor Adumim that is now moving some of its operations to Be’er Sheva. I’ve met with Palestinians who worked at the factory and were fired because of the move. They told me they were earning an average of NIS 5,000 a month there, and that today they are being offered salaries of just NIS 1,400 in the PA.

To give some perspective of the numbers of Palestinians involved, companies located in the Barkan industrial park in the heart of the West Bank have long been a target of the European Union. Yet of the approximately 20,000 employees, around 50% are Palestinians. Sanction these firms and you will hit those people you ware trying to help. And that is only one of many sectors.

Also forgotten in the inferno of politically-correct rhetoric is the impact BDS may have on fragile economies overseas. Consider the UK, which is still trying to emerge from the 2008 credit crunch. Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Business, is wholly aware that bilateral trade amounts for around US$7.0 billion, and growing. Tamper into that and that means lost jobs. Ouch!

Actually, it means more than that. Referring back to the NUS, if the lunatics at the student HQ were to implement their own resolution, they would have to throw out all computers with Intel technology. In fact, a similar threat would hang over their smart phones with GPS applications. And as if this was not making them thirsty, they would also have to stop using all water, as many authorities in the UK are now using Israeli tech to protect supplies or purify sources. And the list goes on.

This summer, Israel is hosting a roller-coaster of performing artists – One Republic, Bon Jovi, Dionne Warwick, etc. In England, the Curzon Cinema chain has refused to heed calls for a boycott of Israeli films. A conference in Jerusalem this coming September of Cognitive Behaviour will feature a spectrum of overseas speakers and will include an address how Palestinian children are effected by violence. The list of BDS rejection is thankfully still long and strong.

To close, I am bound to refer to the head of Google, Eric Shmidt, who ironically found himself visiting Israel earlier this week.

The impact Israelis are having on science and technology is immense, so that’s why I’m here and why I’m investing here. (In the modern world, for an economy to grow, there is a need for innovation and the establishment of new companies.) For this to happen, a country must invest in several areas – education, high-speed Internet connections, an open immigration policy that allows leading minds to move between countries, and also an environment that encourages entrepreneurship.

So what is the true cruel and despicable reason that BDS supporters want to hide and then to destroy this human triumph, otherwise known as Israeli society? And why do I suddenly hear echoing in my mind the song from Cabaret, when he whispers that “J” word?