by Gerald Steinberg
BDS campaigns on university campuses and by churches (such as the United Church of Canada) promote hate speech that would not be tolerated against any other group.
The boycott,
divestment and sanctions (BDS) crowd that targets Israel often declares that,
in contrast to the charges made by critics, they are not anti-Semitic or
viscerally anti-Israel. But the evidence does not support claims of innocence –
these campaigns are clearly a form of discrimination based on double standards
and singling out Israel, as the Jewish state, for attack.
Based on the
2001 NGO declaration at the UN anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa,
which called for “the complete international isolation of Israel as an
apartheid state,” BDS campaigns on university campuses and by churches (such as
the United Church of Canada) promote hate speech that would not be tolerated
against any other group.
In many
examples, this anti-Semitism leaks out, beyond the façade of “opposing the
occupation” and supporting “Palestinian human rights.” In addition to ignoring
the human rights of Israelis (including 4,563 rockets and missiles from Gaza
against Israeli civilians in last year’s war – each one a war crime), a number
of BDS campaigners make their hatred of the Jewish state very clear.
For example,
while Amnesty International claims to promote the universal principles of human
rights, its core involvement in BDS reflects the stain of anti-Semitism. Among
other employees, Kristyan Benedict, campaigns manager of Amnesty’s U.K. branch,
is clearly obsessed with irrational hostility toward Israel, as reflected in
his numerous social media posts. In a tweet during a Gaza flare-up in 2012,
Benedict posted a “joke” about three Jewish British MPs, portrayed as
warmongers: “Louise Ellman, Robert Halfon & Luciana Berger walk into a bar…
each orders a round of B52s … #Gaza.” (In July 2015, Benedict re-tweeted a
Hamas post referring to “Israel’s war crimes.”) Amnesty reportedly
“disciplined” Benedict, but he remains in his post and continues with impunity.
Rock musician
Roger Waters is another illustration of the close links between BDS and
anti-Semitism. Abe Foxman, former head of the Anti-Defamation League, called
Waters a “narrow-minded bigot.” Waters is the most visible entertainer to
promote BDS, and in his concerts, he’s used a balloon in the shape of a pig
painted with Jewish symbols, including a large Magen David (Star of David). In
reference to Israel, Waters said that “parallels with what went on in the ’30s
in Germany are so crushingly obvious… So this is not a new scenario. Except
that this time it’s the Palestinian people being murdered.” On another
occasion, Waters proclaimed, “The Jewish lobby is extraordinary powerful here
and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry and in rock
’n’ roll.”
A new level of
anti-Semitism was reached recently when BDS campaigners forced the cancellation
of a scheduled appearance by the Jewish American (and clearly not Israeli)
entertainer Matisyahu at a music festival in Spain earlier this month. His
invitation was withdrawn after he refused to sign a statement denouncing Israel
and supporting the creation of a Palestinian state – an absurd condition
demonstrating that among BDS leaders, there is no distinction between Jews and
Israelis, and both are targets. None of the other singers, from various ethnic
groups and nationalities, were given a political litmus test.
Furthermore,
the use of fringe Jewish groups and a scattering of radical Israelis doesn’t
provide protection or “prove” that BDS is free of anti-Semitism, but rather the
opposite. During centuries of church persecution, including during the
Inquisition, anti-Semites used a handful of Jews and converts to give
“evidence” of Jewish perfidy. In today’s version, groups calling themselves
Independent Jewish Voices and Jewish Voices for Peace provide the same service
to churches that promote divestment (the D in BDS) from Israel under the façade
of “human rights”. But a fig leaf with a few Jews or even Israelis does
not in any way demonstrate the absence of anti-Semitism.
For many years,
BDS and its operating arms, including Students for Justice in Palestine, have
been allowed to promote anti-Semitism. The time to end this impunity is long
overdue.
Gerald Steinberg
Source: http://www.cjnews.com/columnists/calling-out-bds-anti-semitism
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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