What is the meaning of BDS? Why do people boycott Israel? The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement markets itself as a non-violent movement to get Israel to withdraw from its pre-1967 borders. While many members of the movement sincerely want peace and are lured in by this human rights façade, BDS leadership in fact seeks nothing less than the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.