On May 31, 2016 the Israeli Mission to the UN commandeered the General Assembly for the “Ambassadors Against BDS” summit -- a day-long pro-Israel pep rally, filled with an estimated 1,500 people–many of them college students–who listened to speakers rail against the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.

Daniel Birnbaum, the CEO of SodaStream, claimed the West Bank is “not legally occupied”–that it’s “disputed” land, and in one of the more bizarre moments of the conference, said that an Israeli soldier “wants to come home to his family, and he wants to go to the beach and he wants to travel after military service. He is not motivated by 72 virgins”–an Islamophobic reference that implies Palestinians are driven by a religious belief that they will be rewarded after their death.

For more on the “Ambassadors Against BDS” summit see Alex Kane's report here: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/israel-...