Epic House Testimony – BDS in business of “Manipulation, Violence and Destruction”

WILLIAM A. JACOBSON JUL 29, 2015 4:00 PM

The Security Subcommittee of The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on July 28, 2015, on The Impact of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement.

According to the House Advisory, the purpose was

•  To better understand the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, and review the economic impact of the Movement on American and Israeli businesses. 
• To review how the goals of BDS may or may not be affected by International Trade Law, U.S. federal law, and state law. 
• To seek to establish the formal position of the Administration with regard to BDS.
• To review potential actions by the Department of State to maintain free and open trade among the U.S., Europe, and Israel.

The Tower has a write up on the full scope of the hearing. In a later post we will focus on the testimony of Northwestern Univ. Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich, whose lecture on The Legal Case for Israel is a must watch.

Today we focus on the testimony of Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of SodaStream International.

We previously have featured the success story of SodaStream in hiring Palestinians and bringing Israeli Jews, Arabs and Palestinians together:

Because it represents peace and coexistence, SodaStream has been a prime target of BDS, including failed attempts to get SodaStream commercials banned at the SuperBowl:

There were attempts to force SodaStream to close its West Bank factory.

When it decided to move the production to an Israeli factory for business reasons unrelated to BDS, the BDS movement nonetheless continued to boycott SodaStream — proof positive that the complaints about a factory in the West Bank were just pretext.

In France the lies spread by BDS about SodaStream were so extreme that SodaStream won in French court case against a boycott group.

In his congressional testimony, Birnbaum revealed the full depth and breadth of the attacks on SodaStream — threats, sabotage, and disruption around the world.

Birnbaum’s written testimony is embedded below, and contains extensive documentation of the BDS war against SodaStream.

Here is an excerpt as to BDS tactics:

Following our experience of 8 years, we learned that BDS is focused on de-legitimizing the State of Israel as a whole, not just the West Bank, and in order to achieve this, BDS is willing to sacrifice the Palestinians themselves. Let me repeat that, because this is the most important aspect there is to know about the BDS. It is an anti-Semitic Israel-hating organization that is using the Palestinians as a proxy to achieve its vicious goal and bring an end to the Jewish State.

Here is his verbal testimony, including Questions and Answers:

(Full Hearing Video here.)

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SodaStream Written Testimony on the Impact of the BDS Movement – U.S. House Subcommittee

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