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Boycotting Israel Doesn't Advance the Palestinian Cause
(National Interest) Avner Halperin - As an Israeli, I stand firmly against the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for unfairly singling out Israel in a complex conflict. As a researcher looking at the economic development opportunities in the Middle East, I see much better ways to advance the Palestinian cause. If we hope to make progress towards the resolution of this conflict, we need to move away from the simplistic debate of "I am good, you are bad," and instead search for creative solutions to strengthen Palestinian economic opportunities. Proponents of BDS want to strengthen Palestinians by weakening Israel. Yet, practically all data has shown that BDS has achieved a negligible impact on Israel. After more than a decade of intense activity, the impact of BDS on Israel's GDP was estimated to be a decrease of only 0.004%. The writer is a research fellow at the Middle East Initiative of Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center.