You may, like me, have lost count of the number of times Gideon Levy’s opinion pieces in Ha’aretz have been invoked as justification for the academic boycott of Israel and for the dissolution of Israel. I’d mistakenly come to think of him as another pro-boycott campaigner smuggled onto the UCU Activists List.
To the contrary, Aimee Riese reports his recent presentation at the London School of Economics, including:
“In a question-and-answer session following his lecture, Levy was questioned about the current Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He said while he understands the “motivation for wanting to punish Israelis”, he does not think BDS will be effective because it will make Israeli society more nationalistic. An academic boycott, he said, would be directed in the wrong place. He also said within Israel, BDS is perceived as another method of attempting to delegitimise the state and has not been effective.
When asked if he supported a “one state” solution, Levy said he would like to live side-by-side with Palestinians in one state, if it were to be equal and democratic. He said he was sceptical as to whether this would be the case, and therefore said he supported a two state solution.”
(I don’t understand the motivation for wanting to punish Israelis.)
An mp3 recording of the event is available via the LSE’s podcast channel.
Engage 
March 16, 2011 at 2:31 pm
“(I don’t understand the motivation for wanting to punish Israelis.)”
Actually, Mira, I’m sorry to say that it is all too obvious, given how the BDS, etc, movement has developed. Israel and the Israelis (to the BDS movement members, as well as IJV types, JfJfP, PSC, etc) are those wicked people oppressing the nice, displaced, deprived, etc, etc, Palestinians. They pen them in refugee camps, starve them in Gaza, carry out genocide on the West Bank, fail to offer them a just peace (let’s not get into whose definition of “just” we’re using here), and keep insisting (the majority of them) on a two-state solution, rather than a nice secular bi-national one.
Above all, those pesky Israelis just refuse to go away! They insist on creating a high-tech society, with (for the most part) a high standard of living for all (including Arab-Israelis), high levels of education for all – up to and including, apparently, equal access to higher education for all. Further, they successfully defend themselves against any and all attempts to destroy the State of Israel.
Come now, what’s to like in all this. _Of course_ there’s a motivation for wanting for wanting to punish Israelis, if only for being successful and surviving. After all, what have the successive waves of antisemitism over the last 2000+ years been all about, if not this?
And let’s not forget that we’re talking about the socialism of fools here.
And that this comment is dripping with sarcasm is totally intentional.