BDS is opposed to all forms of racism and racist ideologies, including anti-Semitism. Barghouti defines BDS as a "consistently antiracist struggle for universal rights."[1] Despite this, critics, such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Israeli officials, and others argue that the movement is anti-Semitic. Some have even compared it with Nazi Germany's boycott of Jewish businesses.[2]
Singling out Israel
editCritics, such as conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer, legal scholar Alan Dershowitz, and the Israeli Reut Institute argues that BDS employs a "double standard" and "singles out" Israel. In their view, it is a form of anti-Semitism to campaign against Israeli human rights violations when other regimes are much worse.[3][4][5]
Supporters of BDS argue that by that logic all human rights movements focusing on a single issue would also be racist. For example, the Anti-Apartheid Movement singled out South Africa while ignoring human rights violations in other African countries. The United States sanctions against Iran would also be racist, they argue, as they impact only Iran and not also all other countries committing similar human rights violations.[6] Supporters argue that this view is unreasonable.
Barghouti argues that BDS focuses on Israeli oppression because that is the oppression affecting the Palestinians and BDS is a Palestinian movement. He rhetorically asks: "If you suffer from the flu and seek medication from it, is it misguided to do so when there are worse diseases out there? Well, the flu is the disease that is afflicting you!"[7] He believes that it is the US and most of the Western world - not BDS - that is guilty of applying a double standard over its lenient treatment of Israel.[8]
Targeting Jews
editSome opponents argue that there are similarities between BDS and historical boycotts against Jews. For example, in May 2019, the German Bundestag passed a resolution claiming that BDS was "reminiscent of the most terrible chapter in German history" and that it triggered memories of the Nazi slogan "Don't buy from Jews."[9] Israeli historian Daniel Blatman, himself a BDS-opponent, argues that BDS's calls for boycotts of Israel and historical boycotts against Jews have nothing in common.[10]
Supporters argue that BDS does not target Jews because boycott targets are selected based on their complicity in Israel's human rights violations, potential for cross-movement solidarity, media appeal, and likelihood of success, but not on their national origin or religious identity. According to Barghouti, the majority of companies targeted are non-Israeli foreign companies that operate in Israel and Palestine.[11]
One-state solution and a Jewish state
editBDS deliberately refrains from favoring any particular political outcome, such as a one-state or two-state solution.[12] Barghouti personally, however, rejects the notion of a Jewish state and favors a non-racial Democratic state encompassing the whole of historical Palestine:[13]
A Jewish state in Palestine in any shape or form cannot but contravene the basic rights of the indigenous Palestinian population and perpetuate a system of racial discrimination that ought to be opposed categorically.
Just as we would oppose a ‘Muslim state,’ or a ‘Christian state,’ or any kind of exclusionary state, definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.
Accepting modern-day Jewish-Israelis as equal citizens and full partners in building and developing a new shared society, free from all colonial subjugation and discrimination, as called for in the democratic state model, is the most magnanimous, rational offer any oppressed indigenous population can present to its oppressors. So don’t ask for more.
Opponents to BDS argues that this view, and BDS's promotion of the right of the "Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties" undermines the right of the Jewish people to self-determination and is a form of anti-Semitism.[14] According to them, the call for the right of return is an attempt to "destroy" Israel.[15] Abraham Foxman of ADL describes it as "the destruction of the Jewish state through demography."[16] Supporters of BDS assert that opposing Israel as a Jewish state is anti-Zionism but not anti-Semitism.[17]
Calling Israel an Apartheid state
editBDS frequently characterizes Israel as an apartheid state with Jews as the oppressors and Palestinians as the oppressed. Opponents argue that the characterization is "demonizing Israel" and therefore anti-Semitic.[18] Supporters argue that there is nothing anti-Semitic in calling Israel an apartheid state.[19]
Jewish support of BDS
editSome supporters of BDS, including Jewish supporters, and others argue that Jewish support for BDS is evidence that BDS is not anti-Semitic. For example, Jay Michaelson in the Jewish magazine The Forward writes:[20]
Perhaps it goes without saying that many of BDS's leading voices advocates - Sarah Schulman, Judith Butler, Jewish Voice for Peace - are themselves Jewish. Some even believe they are acting out of their Jewish values in taking these political positions. Misguided? Maybe. Naïve? Perhaps. But hateful? In what way? Martin Buber opposed the notion of a Jewish state. Was he also anti-Semitic?
Opponents note that Jews too can be anti-Semitic. David Hirsh writes: "Jews too can make anti-Semitic claims, use anti-Semitic images, support anti-Semitic exclusions and play an important, if unwitting, part in preparing the ground for the future emergence of anti-Semitic movement."[21]
Conflating anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism
editBDS supporters frequently allege that the accusations of anti-Semitism against the movement are, either deliberately or mistakenly, conflating anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. For example, in 2018, 41 left-wing Jewish groups stated that BDS's tools and tactics "should not be defined as antisemitic" and emphasized the importance of distinguishing between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel.[22] Jay Michaelson in the left-wing Jewish magazine The Forward wrote that accusing BDS of anti-Semitism "cheapens the meaning of the term 'anti-Semitism' itself".[20]
Judith Butler, who is a strong BDS-supporter, argues that if BDS is anti-Semitic, then human rights, which she believes BDS struggles for, is also anti-Semitic.[23] She also argues that calling BDS anti-Semitic is a "lamentable stereotype" about Jews since it assumes that they are all politically committed to the state.[23] Barghouti argues similarily, saying that those who criticize BDS as an attack on Jewish people are equating the latter with the state of Israel.[24]
Saved
editFootnotes
edit- ^ Barghouti 2011, p. 33.
- ^ Bennhold, Katrin. "German Parliament Deems B.D.S. Movement Anti-Semitic." The New York Times. 17 May 2019. 5 August 2020. "The nonbinding vote said the campaign to boycott Israeli products ... recalled 'the most terrible chapter in German history' and revived memories of the Nazi motto 'Don’t buy from Jews.'"
- ^ Krauthammer:Poison of anti-Semitism continues to proliferate 9 January 2014
- ^ Dershowitz, Alan. "Boycotting Israeli universities: A victory for bigotry". Haaretz. 17 December 2013.
- ^ "The Reut Institute: The BDS Movement Promotes Delegitimization against Israel". Retrieved 13 August 2010.
- ^ "Wielding Antidiscrimination Law to Suppress the Movement for Palestinian Rights". Harvard Law Review. February 10, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
- ^ Mullen & Dawson 2015, p. 62.
- ^ Barghouti 2011, p. 62.
- ^ "Why is the BDS movement under fire in Germany?". Middle East Monitor. August 3, 2019. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ^ Blatman, Daniel. Not anti-Semitism but hysteria, Haaretz, 18 June 2015.
- ^ "Wielding Antidiscrimination Law to Suppress the Movement for Palestinian Rights". Harvard Law Review. February 10, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ^ Hitchcock 2020, p. 48.
- ^ "Letters From the August 26-September 2, 2019".
- ^ "Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Resource Page". NGO Monitor. 14 July 2011. 1 June 2013.
- ^ Hitchcock 2020, p. 49.
- ^ "Is BDS Hate Speech?" The Jewish Daily Forward. 14 February 2013. 2 June 2013.
- ^ "Wielding Antidiscrimination Law to Suppress the Movement for Palestinian Rights". Harvard Law Review. February 10, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
Opponents counter that BDS leaders' statements advocating the end of Israel's existence as a Jewish state are direct evidence of anti-Semitism.... Such statements are anti-Zionist, and equating anti-Zionism ... with anti-Semitism ... requires a logical leap that defeats finding direct evidence of religious discrimination.
- ^ "Report" (PDF). Wiesenthal.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
- ^ Mullen & Dawson 2015, p. 3.
- ^ a b "The Wrong Way To Fight BDS". The Forward. February 21, 2013. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ^ "The BDS movement and the opportunistic exploitation of self-denying Jews". ABC Religion & Ethics. November 11, 2013. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
- ^ "First-ever: 40+ Jewish groups worldwide oppose equating antisemitism with criticism of Israel". Jewish Voice for Peace. 17 July 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
- ^ a b Judith Butler's Remarks to Brooklyn College on BDS, The Nation, 7 February 2013
- ^ Why the boycott movement scares Israel, The New York Times, 31 January 2014.
References
edit- Mullen, Bill; Dawson, Ashley (2015). Against Apartheid: The Case for Boycotting Israeli Universities. Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1-60846-527-9.
- Barghouti, Omar (2011). BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions : the Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1-60846-114-1.
- Hitchcock, Jennifer Megan (June 29, 2020). "A Rhetorical Frame Analysis of Palestinian-Led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement Discourse". ODU Digital Commons. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)