ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Israel’s response to the modern delegitimization efforts against it, led by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Using the behavioral approach to securitization, where securitization requires not only speech acts but also behavioral changes, this chapter tracks the institutional and legal changes implemented through Israel’s development of a counter-delegitimization process. This securitization results in the adoption of measures against delegitimization that further undermine Israel’s legitimacy among the same publics whose support it must win if it hopes to effectively combat the BDS movement. These responses, although enjoying high levels of the domestic support, can also alienate the very audience Israel needs to attract in order to secure its international legitimacy—liberals in the West, especially the U.S. who are antithetic to the illiberal measures adopted in the name of “national security” in response to delegitimization. Thus, although Israel’s securitization of delegitimization is successful, it results in a securitization dilemma, whereby its construction of the BDS movement as a national security threat results in counterproductive outcomes, which further erode Israel’s legitimacy.
