Heeb

Up until this week, the Yes Men, a pair of pranksters who pretend to be representatives of major institutions like the World Trade Organization and major multinational corporations and somehow get invited to deliver speeches at conferences, could lay claim to be being pretty darn clever. This week, however, they demonstrated that they aren’t as smart as we thought they were, by announcing that they would be withdrawing their film from the Jerusalem Film Festival because of the "boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign." 

Now, we’ll give credit where it’s due, and note that the withdrawal letter written by the two NJBs in question, Igor Vamos and Jacques Servin, was more thoughtful than most statements on the subject and they did strive to note that the situation is not the same is in South Africa. But be that as it may, you choose your friends, you live with the consequences. 

While apartheid South Africa was fighting a war against terrorists and guerillas, the goal of the ANC was equality, not destruction.  The same can’t be said about Hamas, Fatah, and the rest of the usual suspects, none of whom seem to trouble the organizers of the boycott. We are pretty lefty on Israel, and if we’re going to criticize Jews who fail to take into account the Palestinian side of the story, we’re going to be at least as critical of Arabs—and their supporters—who ignore the Israeli side (and it’s worth noting that the divestment campaign was set up in the summer of 2005, at the same time as the withdrawal frome Gaza). 

According to the official position of the movement’s parent organization, the goal of the boycott is to get Israel to give up everything that was taken in ’67 (including the Old City), as well allow the return of the ’48 refugees and their descendants.  Sorry, Yes Men, but this is not just ending the occupation (which Jewdar supports); this is just a reversal of von Clausewitz’s famous dictum that "war is an extension of politics by other means." We’re willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and presume that you don’t want to see Israel wiped out, but that means that this time, the con artists got conned.