World Leaders that Have Condemned BDS

  1. US Vice President Mike Pence

  • On December 2, 2018, in response to Airbnb’s Settlements Ban, Pence stated that BDS targeting Israel has “no place” in the US market.

  1. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

  • In a July 2, 2015 letter to Haim Saban, Clinton stated that she was writing to “express my alarm over the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement, or ‘BDS,’ a global effort to isolate the State of Israel by ending commercial and academic exchanges. I know you agree that we need to make counter BDS a priority…”

  1. French President Emmanuel Macron

  • Condemned BDS, explaining that “these actions are against our law.”
  • In 2017, Macron stated that “France has already condemned boycotting Israel, and I have no intention of changing this position.”

  1. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

  •  On January 15, 2019, speaking at Brock University, Trudeau stated that “You have movements like BDS that singles out Israel, that seeks to delegitimize and in some cases demonize. When you have students on campus dealing with things like Israel apartheid week that makes them fearful of attending campus events because of their religion in Canada. We have to recognize that there are things that are not acceptable not because of foreign policy concerns but because of Canadian values. It is not right to discriminate or make someone feel unsafe on campus because of their religion and unfortunately the BDS movement is often linked to those kinds of frames. So yes I will continue to condemn the BDS movement.”
  • PM Trudeau and the Liberal Party supported the 2016 Conservative motion formally denouncing BDS and calling on the Canadian government to “condemn any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement, both here at home and abroad.”
  • In a 2015 interview, PM Trudeau stated that “I’m opposed to the BDS movement. I think that it’s an example of the new form of anti-Semitism in the world, as Irwin Cotler points out, an example of the three ‘Ds’: demonization of Israel, delegitimization of Israel, and double standard applied toward Israel.”
  • Speaking at the University of British Columbia in 2015, he furthered that “the BDS movement like Israel apartheid week, has no place on Canadian campuses.”
  • He reiterated this point on Twitter regarding BDS at McGill, where he included the hashtag “EnoughIsEnough.”
  • During his St. Louis apology speech , PM Trudeau added that “Jewish students still feel unwelcomed and uncomfortable on some of our college and university campuses because of BDS related intimidations. And out of our entire community of nations it is Israel whose right to exist is most widely and wrongly questioned.”

  1. Former Canadian PM Stephen Harper

  • At AIPAC in 2017, stated “The BDS movement is about translating the old ideology of anti-Semitism into something acceptable to a new generation. The BDS movement, in calling for the boycott, sanctions and divestment in Israel, in having Jewish students harassed – these are its realities.”

  1. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte

  • On September 6, 2016 at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Dutch PM Rutte said “as I said the government is opposed to a boycott of Israel…and that the BDS campaign does not have Dutch government support, we will not fund any BDS activities targeting Israel.”   

  1. Former Dutch Foreign Minister Zijlstra

  1. Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar

  • In 2015, stated “I think BDS is an unfair, discriminatory movement based on a moral double standard that is, in the final analysis, anti-Semitic.”
  • “Declaring its aim to put pressure on the Israel government, BDS is in fact trying to harm every Israeli citizen and not only the government. In reality what BDS wants is to make life in Israel intolerable so the Jewish nation will not be able to have a normal existence in its state. BDS does not only want to change the government’s policy, it wants to empty the country of Jews.”  

  1. Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls

  • On December 16, 2015, former Prime Minister of France Manuel Valls condemned “all boycott campaigns against Israeli products.”  

  1. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron

  • In June 2016, stated “Do you want Britain, Israel’s greatest friend, in there opposing boycotts, opposing the campaign for divestment and sanctions, or do you want us outside the room, powerless to effect the discussion that takes place?”
  • In 2014, Cameron stated “to those who do not share my ambition, who want to boycott Israel, I have a clear message. Britain opposes boycotts, whether it’s trade unions campaigning for the exclusion of Israelis or universities trying to stifle academic exchange.”

  1. CDU Party, Germany

  • In December 2016, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU Party party declared BDS to be antisemitic, stating that BDS activists “speak in the same language as the one that was used calling not to buy from Jews. This is nothing but clumsy antisemitism, as already exploited by the National Socialists.”