Every year, campuses across the world descend into a week of celebrating the most reprehensible anti-Israel ideology and incitement against the state and its Jewish population. Since 2005, Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) has introduced a new method of promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, while maliciously vilifying the State of Israel. There is no debate, no invitation for dissenting opinion and zero tolerance for any narrative that does not conform to the vitriol of the week. This is all well established fact. What isn’t clear is how exactly these activities are funded. In South Africa specifically, those working on IAW maintain that they have no budget to work with, yet this exposé will reveal the significant resources at their disposal, and the deception they so enthusiastically practice.
In 2017, the BDS board applied for donations and sent funding requests to multiple organizations including, for example, the Raith Foundation and the Karibu Foundation of Norway. According to information presented to potential donors by the board, BDS SA monthly expenses are R174K, with total annual expenses of R2.08M. Despite this, their monthly income stands at a minimum of R95K. BDS SA’s funding sources can be broken down into: an investment company established by BDS worth R7M which pays out R49K a month to the organization, local fundraising which receives around R50K a month, merchandise sales that bring in about R5K a month and the occasional private donor. This translates to BDS SA expending twice their monthly budget every month, with no indication as to where the money is coming from.
With respect to IAW, the 2018 budget accounts for R100k on printing, R25k on couriers and postage, R180k on 4 international speakers and R300K on an international solidarity music concert. This brings the total expenses for one week to R630K. It is known that approximately R285k was received from the Karibu Foundation, while the remaining R345k is raised through local South African supporters.
This is also an important point. Many of these “local supporters” are themselves in dire financial straits. They are systematically manipulated by BDS adherents who arrive in townships to fundraise. Rather than committing to help local communities and build bridges, the standing strategy is one of creating greater enmity and suspicion, spinning the narrative to conform to a very specific, very hostile ideology.
The BDS SA management would have us volunteers walk around the townships with cash boxes to raise money for their cause. We would push hard, believing we were supporting the struggle. Then we would drop the boxes at the BDS SA offices and never heard about its spending or purpose again. We were always suspicious, because the BDS doesn’t even offer to help us, as their volunteers, but their staff is paid very well. Then we found out their “cause” is actually a scam and they don’t even spend the money helping the Palestinians. We were furious, now we refuse to let them play us for puppets. – Former BDS SA volunteer
“Some of us almost lost our degrees at university while fighting for a just cause under the BDS, we sacrificed our time and energy because we believed in the cause. This was the case until we realized that the BDS leadership used us to leverage sponsorship. They used us to climb the ranks of political office for their own gain and influence. When we decided to question their motives and tactics of using the Palestinian people’s cause, we were brutalized and called sell outs, even threatened by their staff. What the organization has turned leaves less to be desired, we pray that one day a true voice of the people of Palestine can rise in the country, not these ones who use our historic tragedy to influence us so they fulfill their personal agenda. – Former BDS SA volunteer
It is also worth noting that the very people who claim to be struggling as they commit to the cause of BDS are actually quite well taken care of. Norway, for example, only donated what they did because Farid Esack, Chairperson of the Board of BDS SA, traveled to Europe soliciting donations. Esack, of course, was not doing this purely out of the kindness of his own heart, nor did he fund his own trip. Furthermore, those employed to work on IAW are tasked in redundant roles that are hardly representative of a financially insecure body. Justin de Swardt, Alex Mdakane and Michia Moncho, for example, are all fulfilling the same general position, yet nobody seems to question why it is necessary to pay 3 people for a week long event where it is unclear what any of them actually do.
This is not the conduct of a benevolent movement. The financials of the organization cannot be properly verified, the ultimate destination of funds donated cannot be confirmed and those convinced to make a pledge are fed false and misleading information. If BDS SA was so confident with their activities, why would they feel the need to conceal shady practices such as their involvement in the purchase of shares of 131 Jeppe Street Investments, or their roles in fundraising and allocating funds for other organizations that their donors are unaware of and never approved?
Therefore, without getting stuck on matters of ideology or politics, the most salient question here is, where is the money coming from and how is it really being spent?
