BDSers Clash With DNC Protesters Over Buying Israeli Flags To Burn

“You can’t use those!” they yelled. “Every time you buy one you support Occupation!”

A handmade flag of Israel the BDS activists preferred to use.

Philadelphia, July 28 – Demonstrators outside the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in the City of Brotherly Love became enmeshed in a vociferous dispute today after advocates of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement against Israel discovered that other protesters burning Israeli flags had acquired the banner by purchasing it, in direct violation of the spirit of BDS.

Scores of activists assembled outside the convention burned Israeli and American flags to protest the mainstream policies supported by the party’s presidential nominee, which they claim will promote injustice and the dispossession of Palestinians. Within the convention hall some attendees even held a Palestinian flag aloft, but the most vehement displays of anti-Israel sentiment have occurred beyond the confines of the arena, and the need to demonstrate antipathy to Israel has come into conflict with the desire not to support Israeli interests economically.

Eyewitnesses reported that two groups of demonstrators engaged in sporadic shouting matches throughout the proceedings, with pro-BDS activists attempting to snatch Israeli flags from the clutches of activists aiming to burn them. A group of protesters from the University of Pennsylvania chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-BDS organization, confronted a gathering of activists sporting Bernie Sanders paraphernalia, and challenged them over the provenance of the flags.

“You can’t use those!” they yelled. “Every time you buy one you support Occupation!”

“You play into the hands of the Zio-Nazis!” retorted the Bernie Bros. Minor scuffles ensued, recurring periodically throughout the evening. At one point the SJP contingent succeeded in wresting an Israeli flag from a Bernie supporter and throwing it on the ground, at which point the Sanders activist set it alight as intended. Scattered shouting matches flared in small groups.

“They just don’t get what’s at stake here,” explained SJP activist Shudme Selfindafut. “You can’t just buy something Israeli and claim you’re doing it for some higher purpose – bottom line, you’re buying something Israeli, and the fascist occupation-enabling manufacturer gets the money no matter what you do with the product.”

“Idiots,” responded a man in a Bernie or Bust T-shirt who declined to give his name. “Every bit of technology you relied on to set up and coordinate this protest of yours was developed in Israel. The texting, the mobile software and hardware – not to mention the generic drugs you’ll be given when you’re hospitalized for smoke inhalation.”

The solution isn’t to boycott anyone,” he insisted in rising tones. “It’s to redistribute the wealth so everyone has a chance to burn flags together. Come, join me,” he offered, and the two activists together ignited a flag of Israel manufactured in China.