Apparently, there are some who do not understand the immense distinctions between state sanctions (like those the US imposed on Iraq which led to the deaths of 576,000 Iraqi children from starvation) & boycott movements like BDS & the anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa. Boycotts like BDS are defense for an unarmed people being subjected to genocide. The primary target is corporations doing business with Israel & includes a cultural aspect asking actors, athletes, academics, performers not to legitimize Israeli apartheid, colonialism, genocide. BDS was modeled on the anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa.
State sanctions can be, but are not necessarily, an act of war. US & European sanctions against Burma after the military violently repressed the 1988 uprising & during the Rohingya genocide involved an embargo on selling military arms to Burma. Who could object to those sanctions, especially when Russia, China, Israel, & Pakistan were arming the Burmese generals up to their teeth?
US sanctions against Syria & Iran pale by comparison to those imposed on Iraq because they are extremely limited, focused primarily on some aspects of trade & on freezing assets of wealthy individuals, & because European & other countries do not go along with all of them. That’s because the US, Syria, & Iran are on the same side in Syria in a complex military assault on the Syrian Arab Spring.
Some who confuse state sanctions & boycott movements claim the association of some BDS supporters with Assadism & anti-Semitism has rendered BDS dangerous & irrelevant. Assadists & anti-Semites who leech off Palestinian solidarity do not invalidate the political importance of BDS whilst Palestinians are sustaining genocide. Nor do they render it ineffectual. But they have weakened its impact & growth at a time when it is under legal & political attack. Those who discredit the Palestinian struggle by association with hatred for Jews or support for dictatorships are political weak links & saboteurs. It should not be excluded that many of them are agents provocateurs, like the ‘retired’ CIA, FBI, Pentagon, & US State Department officials who line up for Palestinian solidarity whilst kissing Assad’s ass.
Rohingya activists have initiated a boycott of Burma, Uyghur activists have called for a boycott of China, & many are calling for a boycott of India to end the occupation of Kashmir & the persecution of Indian Muslims. Those boycotts are to be supported as a way to stand with the oppressed & every attempt must be made to keep them from being infiltrated or impugned.