Re: Is B.D.S. Anti-Semitic? A Closer Look at the Boycott Israel Campaign (July 27, 2019)

In answering the question “Is B.D.S. Anti-Semitic? A Closer Look at the Boycott Israel Campaign,” (July 27, 2019), the absence of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism is a major oversight. The IHRA consensus document includes examples that attempt to deny “the Jewish people their right to self-determination” and apply “double standards” by requiring “a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” BDS campaigns that single out Israel clearly fall into this category. To date, 17 countries (including Canada and the UK), and a number of international institutions, such as the OSCE, and parliaments (including the EU’s) have endorsed the IHRA text, and a recent resolution adopted by the German Bundestag explicitly references the IHRA definition in determining that BDS is indeed antisemitic. In addition, the U.S. State Department’s definition is very similar to IHRA’s.

Without exposing BDS for what it is — a movement used to delegitimize the Jewish State — it is impossible to counter its impact effectively.