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The Absurdity Of The BDS Day Protests And Counter-Protests

By Jason Diamond / March 30, 2011

Jewcy loves trees! Please don't print!

I’m actually not totally sure which of the two annoys me more.

1. The Pro-BDS (Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel) butchering of a song that I enjoy singing at karaoke when drunk.

2. The awkward e-mail telling me that “sexy” Israel supporters will be handing out Victoria Secret “panties.” (Victoria Secret is on the BDS list, since their products are manufactured by Israeli company Delta Galil. As are products by Gap, J-Crew, J.C. Penny, Calvin Klein, and Playtex.)

Here’s my question: how much good does protest do when it borders on parody? At least #1 has the chance to go viral, and get the cause of the pro-BDS crowd in front of possibly hundreds of thousands of more eyeballs. And in the rapidly changing world we live in, what would probably be “sexier” would be protesting via viral video, the internet, etc. Instead of getting a bunch of good looking people (women, I’m assuming. Making this somewhat misogynistic) to walk around New York looking beautiful, and trying to tell people to not boycott Israeli products.

Both ideas are silly to me, but #1 seems far more effective.

Comments (6)

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By Aaron Bisman 3/31/11 at 10:39 a.m. UTC
No idea who’s behind this site, but they’ve got their own take on the Jewish Enrichment Center-sponsored “sexy” protest: http://jewishfail.com/post/4207448717/like-sexy-panties-the-birthright-israel-alumni
By walt kovacs 3/30/11 at 7:11 p.m. UTC
how in the world will that awful bds vid go viral?

wanna make sure that no one ever sees bds as a serious movement? keep making those horrible “flash mob” vids

cant dance, cant sing, cant play an instrument, cant make lyrics that rhyme….and lie about what the movement is about

10 years of bds…and the epic fail keeps on coming

give it up
By Yitzy 3/30/11 at 2:21 p.m. UTC
Maybe a Jewish blog should concentrate more on not giving a voice to people who don’t have jobs and actively try to delegitimize Israel? Did you ever think of that?
By Aaron Bisman 3/30/11 at 2:02 p.m. UTC
both videos are painful. I want to cry. Activism is dead. this is lame sensationalism
By Jason Diamond 3/30/11 at 1:52 p.m. UTC
Interesting. According to your video, it currently has more hits than the flash mob one.
By EstherK 3/30/11 at 1:31 p.m. UTC
Ask, and you shall receive – this anti-BDS promo video went up yesterday:
http://www.buyisraeligoods.com/promo.asp

By the way, what the videos share is a commitment to overplayed pop songs we’d all like to take a break from.