By Marc Katz, Special To The Observer
War, terror attacks and constant arguments over whose land it is are constant threats to Israel, but Noam Gilboord travels the United States to warn about the threat of BDS, a movement that’s more subtle.

BDS is a Palestinian-run campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Launched in July 2005, BDS has the endorsement of more than 170 Palestinian organizations according to its website.

Gilboord is director of community strategy for the Israel Action Network, an initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America in partnership with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

He travels across the country, providing members of Jewish communities with tools to counter assaults on Israel’s legitimacy.

He’ll be in Dayton March 10 and 11 to present two programs: one for high school and college-age students, the other for adults.

“What the BDS Movement is trying to do is effectively, slowly erode support for Israel over time — within America specifically,” Gilboord said in a telephone interview from his New York office.

“I think it’s been recognized there should be a two-state solution from the beginning. Even the 1947 UN partition plan accounted for a Palestinian state, or what was known then as another Arab state. That’s what we’re seeking to keep.”

Among its stated goals, the BDS Movement seeks to pressure Israel to enable Palestinian refugees to return to their homes from which they fled or were driven out of during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence; hours after Israel announced its independence, the armies of five surrounding Arab nations attacked the fledgling Jewish state to destroy it.

Israel’s government views the Palestinian right of return demand as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Gilboord said the BDS movement aims for “millions and millions of Palestinian refugees flooding not the West Bank, not Gaza, not even east Jerusalem, but flooding Israel proper.”

This, he said, would create a situation in which the Jewish state would govern a population with an Arab majority.

“And that’s not a democratic state,” he said. “So you would have Israel apartheid or you would be forced to dissolve Israel as a Jewish state, just 70 years after the Holocaust.”

Gilboord said there is a clear difference between antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

“We in the Jewish communities should not be quick to call anything that is anti-Zionism or critical of Israel as antisemitism.”

He advocates for a peaceful, two-state solution.

“If you are going to support the Palestinian right of self determination, which I do, you cannot simultaneously advocate for the dissolution of the Jewish right of self determination. It’s got to be both, not one or the other.”

Jewish communities, he said, must learn to be better advocates for peace. In the face of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the American Jewish community should serve as “constructive peacemakers,” to ensure both Israelis and Palestinians can come out of the conflict as winners.

“There doesn’t have to be a winner and a loser,” he said. “Both people can be winners. It’s up to us to create an atmosphere on the ground where Israelis and Palestinians have trust. Where they have mutual understanding. Where they can get to know their narratives. They don’t have to agree, but understand the other person. “

Gilboord offers tangible ways a Jewish community can stand up for Israel and make progress.

“When you’re advocating for Israel, try and have empathy for Palestinians who are suffering as well,” he said. “That’s something very, very challenging for our community to understand.”

Gilboord said it’s also important to become organized.

“If you’re going to seriously take on the BDS movement, it’s not just about what you say, it’s how you say it and to whom you say it. Sometimes, the Jewish community is going to be the wrong (one) to say it.

“Make sure you have strategic alliances outside the Jewish community — church leaders, business leaders, community leaders, ethnic leaders, high school principals, college administrators. Seek to be a resource for those people. The Jewish community will be seen as a partner for peace.”

He urges members of the Jewish community to educate themselves as well.

“Don’t fall into a trap of becoming a partisan for one side or the other. Try to understand the situation from both points of view.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council presents Israel Action Network’s Noam Gilboord on combatting BDS through strategic advocacy, Tuesday, March 10, 7 p.m. at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.

Gilboord will talk with high school teens and college students about Israel advocacy on Wednesday, March 11 at 7 p.m. at 105 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. R.S.V.P. for both events to Karen Steiger, 610-1555.

To read the complete March 2015 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.