Dershowitz Wins Oxford Union Debate on Boycott Israel Movement

Alan Dershowitz, a famed Harvard Law School professor and Middle East expert, won over Oxford University’s Oxford Union on Sunday in a debate over the Boycott Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the state of Israel, defeating his opponent 137-101 in the heart of liberal academia.

The results are in for our BDS debate: 137 votes siding with Professor Dershowitz and 101 siding with @PeterTatchell. Thanks for following!

— Oxford Union (@OxfordUnion) November 1, 2015

Mr. Dershowitz told Breitbart News how he managed to convince students that the case for boycotting Israel was unjust, and only sabotages the peace process.

“The other side argued that BDS was an alternative to war. I argued that BDS was an alternative to a negotiated peace because it disincentivizes the Palestinian leadership from negotiating a compromise resolution and instead misleads them into relying on external pressure to delegitimize Israel,” he said.

Dershowitz squared off against Peter Tatchell, a self-described human rights advocate who is a member of the Green Party of England and Wales.

BDS, which advocates for a boycott of exports to and imports from the State of Israel, has been described by some as an anti-Semitic movement, given that many of its proponents refuse to recognize the sovereignty of the Jewish state.

Advocates of BDS commonly ignore the atrocities committed by actual dictatorial regimes, and tend to only focus on Israel, the only free, democratic country in the Middle East.

The Harvard professor argued that the side that promotes the boycott of Israel approaches the topic from a deep-rooted anti-Semitic perspective.

“BDS is anti-peace, anti-negotiation and anti-Israel. I am pro-peace, pro-negotiation, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine… BDS is based on bigotry. If Israel was not the nation state of the Jewish People, then this debate wouldn’t be happening today,” he said during the debate.

BDS leaders refuse to debate him, which says a lot about their supposed longing for peace, he added, stating: “BDS will absolutely not bring peace. If the BDS movement is desirous of peace, then why will its leaders not debate me?”

And it is impossible at this moment to find a leader of a democratic nation that supports the radical movement, he added.

“Not a single leader of a democracy anywhere in the world supports the BDS movement,” Dershowitz said. “If you’re going to have a BDS movement, then have it internationally based on human rights offenses and lack of democracy.”