Tel Aviv, June 24 – Scientists at Tel Aviv University are reporting that the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement against Israel, already wrong on so many levels, has somehow increased the number of planes on which its activities and attitudes violate the principles of morality, honesty, and humanity.

Ostensibly a movement aimed at pressuring Israel to change its policies toward Palestinian residents of territories captured in 1967, the scientists note that in practice and rhetoric BDS functions as little more than another manifestation of vitriol aimed at undermining Israel’s very existence. That questionable expression of duplicity forms one part of the original constellation of wrongness on multiple levels, with the other main component the distorted notion that of all countries in the world against which to conduct such a campaign, BDS chooses the lone Middle East democracy in a sea of repressive dictatorships with appalling human rights records.

Recently however, the researchers have documented a steady increase in the number of levels on which BDS is wrong. In addition to regular agitation and harassment of celebrities not to perform in Israel, the movement has cultivated a policy of harassment, bullying, and outright violence against supporters of Israel, notably on college campuses in North America. Thus, in addition to the dubious ethical value of singling out Israel for such treatment, the activists involved add to their transgressions the suppression of free speech, the denigration of opinions not congruent with their own, the promotion of ignorance and bigotry, and the exploitation of liberal attitudes to intimidate and silence proponents of the only place in the region where the activists themselves would ever enjoy the freedom of political expression they wantonly abuse.

“We had originally thought that BDS has essentially reached its saturation point in terms of levels of wrongness,” says lead researcher Adon Belivit. “But recent events took us by surprise.” He conceded that several factors should have been obvious earlier, such as the hypocrisy of movement leader Omar Barghouti, who pursued a Master’s Degree at that same university – a degree in, of all subjects, ethics.

“That one was a doozy,” admitted Fay Spalm, who consulted with the researchers from her position at Oxford. “And it’s in the academic arena, too – the one area in which engaging, rather than shunning, Israelis has a hope of achieving something resembling a liberal resolution of the conflict.” Israeli academics, she noted, are far more favorably disposed toward concessions to the Palestinians than is the rest of Israeli society, and a boycott of them can only strengthen the political forces opposed to the goals that BDS claims to pursue. “They added a whole new level of hypocrisy, and shot themselves in the rhetorical foot at the same time, which we hadn’t even realized was on the wrongness scale before.” She explained that moreover, efforts to isolate or hurt Israel economically will inevitably have adverse effects on the Palestinians, whose economy depends heavily on jobs in Israel’s construction sector and in Israeli-owned enterprises.

Belivit says he would not be surprised at further increases, but remains cautious as to what levels of wrongness will be introduced. “BDS keeps surprising us with the extent and inventiveness in achievement of wrongness,” he said. “For us, the main question is not so much whether the levels of Wrong will increase, but when and by how many.”