{"id":621824,"date":"2026-09-20T10:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/621824\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T10:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:38:12","slug":"challenging-the-one-sided-boycott-of-west-bank-exports-israel-jewish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/621824\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenging the one-sided boycott of \u2018West Bank\u2019 exports – Israel & Jewish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Sept. 20, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n

Numerous facts have been ignored regarding the one-sided European boycott of \u201cWest Bank\u201d exports. But first, two important terminological issues should be mentioned.<\/p>\n

First, there is no such thing as the \u201cWest Bank.\u201d It has been common parlance for a long time, but the term is incorrect. The proper appellation for this neck of the woods is \u201cJudea and Samaria.\u201d Second, Jewish people living in Judea and Samaria are residents, not \u201csettlers,\u201d even though most pundits write as if this were true. In their understanding, \u201csettlers\u201d are people who \u201csettle\u201d and stake claims on land belonging to others.<\/p>\n

But Jews occupied and homesteaded these disputed areas some 3,500 years ago. The Arabs are the interlopers. They are the Johnnies-come-lately, who arrived a scant few centuries ago.<\/p>\n

Why is this important? First, the BDS movement in England and elsewhere wishes to boycott exports from Judea and Samaria because the Jewish occupants have supposedly been brutalizing their Palestinian neighbors.<\/p>\n

Two things are wrong with this. First, the boycotters have it backwards. It is not the Jewish occupants who have been brutalizing their Palestinian neighbors. It is exactly the other way around.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the evidence for this claim?<\/p>\n

Political scientist and writer Bob Goldberg provides<\/a> it. He notes, \u201cSome or all of the incidents of settler violence were responses to provocation, or acts of retaliation.\u201d That is, in virtually all of the cases involved, it was the Arabs who started the fighting, and the Jews who were defensively reacting to these provocations.<\/p>\n

He continues, \u201cWhen Israelis are killed, Israeli lethal responses rise. Palestinian killings of Israelis were not similarly predicted by prior Israeli killings of Palestinians. Palestinian violence, in other words, drives the cycle; Israeli violence responds to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But suppose, for the sake of argument, that we could successfully quarrel with the statistical analysis underlying these claims. After all, it is difficult, not to say impossible, to say which came first: the chicken or the egg. Assume, then, that the boycotters got it right. The direction of causation was exactly the opposite of what we say: The Jews were guilty of initiating the hostilities, and the Palestinians merely responded.<\/p>\n

Can the actions of the Israeli \u201csettlers\u201d still be defended? According to philosopher John Locke, they are the rightful owners of the disputed property if we consider that legitimate ownership arises from homesteading. Jews cultivated the land long before the Palestinians arrived. The Al-Aqsa mosque is situated above the Jewish Second Temple. Archeological evidence supports this pattern throughout the Middle East.<\/p>\n

News of British and European boycotts of products made or grown by Jewish settlers in the \u201cWest Bank\u201d would at first seem to be mere feel-good virtue signaling. But it is worse than that. Why is only one group of \u201cWest Bank\u201d inhabitants singled out for exclusion? What objective body decides \u201cwhoever lives here is bad\u201d (Jew) and \u201cwhoever lives there is good\u201d (Arab)?<\/p>\n

Violence between these two groups has been endemic for decades. As the facts demonstrate, this violence is not a one-sided history of aggression by Jews. Rather, facts show that Jewish violence is usually (if not always) in retaliation for Arab attacks upon Jews. Why are Palestinian attackers given a free pass?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Palestinians located in Judea and Samaria have export products that can be similarly \u201cboycotted\u201d? A one-sided boycott appears to be based on emotional media accusations, not fair judgments based on \u201cfacts on the ground.\u201d Some might say that violence and counter-violence are both bad. But if violence is being punished by European boycotts, then everyone involved should be included. If not, then neither side should be punished.<\/p>\n

This situation resembles the one-sided narratives about the war in Gaza. Ignoring the terrorist actions of Hamas makes the conflict appear one-sided. However, if you consider the initial Hamas invasion of Israel, the IDF\u2019s efforts to rescue citizens and hold war criminals accountable are clearly justified by ethics and international law.<\/p>\n

What is driving this unprecedented boycott of exports produced solely by Jews? Is it the troubling influence of Israel Derangement Syndrome? It is particularly concerning that this action is being taken by ruling left-wing political parties, rather than the often-criticized \u201cright-wing\u201d elements. When did leftists begin leading the charge for antisemitic and anti-Israel movements? Will Jewish \u201cWest Bank\u201d products have to be labeled with the Star of David?<\/p>\n

The real insult is not just one-sided reporting and legally biased boycotts, but the smug attitude of the British and European political establishment, which believes we are too naive to see through its actions. Not this time. Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Sept. 20, 2026 \/ JNS) Numerous facts have been ignored regarding the one-sided European boycott of \u201cWest Bank\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-621824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}