One Industry That Will Never Boycott Israel

By Steve Apfel

The more wholeheartedly one particular industry operates in Israel, and the more profitably, the better the boycott movement thrives. What possible business could promote and facilitate Israel, boycotting on the one hand while flouting the boycott on the other? The human rights business could. Just look at the sustainability factors in favor of the NGO players: mountains of cheap capital on demand, global reach, well-connected stakeholders, media channels beating a path to their door, and a traded commodity for which the world has a gluttonous hunger. A big-five club tops the NGO industry pyramid. The names are household words: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children Fund. Nominally, they, along with second-tier NGO entities, are autonomous, not-for-profit, and apolitical. In real life, they are none of those things. There are not hundreds but thousands of second-tier entities, medium to small -- a bewildering number of them operating in tiny Israel and the West Bank. They compete fiercely to supply human rights product -- sometimes to.... (Read Full Article)