Who’s Afraid of BDS? Economic and Academic Boycotts and the Threat to Israel

In June 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the BDS campaign was a strategic threat to Israel, and called for a major counter operation. This call was immediately answered by pro-Israeli organizations throughout the world and the local media, and to this end, Yediot Ahronot convened a conference with the participation of foreign journalists. For the BDS campaign, whose greatest achievement until then was the cancellation of singer Lauryn Hill’s appearance in Israel, the Prime Minister’s remarks constituted official recognition of its status as the new leader in the struggle against Israel; in the first 11 years of the campaign’s existence, Israel refrained from attributing any importance to it. This sudden interest prompted great anxiety among the Israeli public and Jews overseas, and gave a huge boost to the popularity of the BDS campaign. However, how much influence have the repeated efforts to boycott Israel wielded? This essay examines the question with a focus on economics and academia, and concludes that despite the growing noise created by the boycott efforts, mainly in the US and Europe, the practical effect has not caused Israel any significant damage.