Left Response to Antisemitism Should be to Call for BDS
Image by Nikolas Gannon.
There’s been much debate on the left around the world about how best to respond to what appears to be rising antisemitism. What, if anything, is the best response? Some argue, mostly correctly, that raising the subject amidst Israel’s genocide in Gaza, bombing many of its neighbours etc. is an attempt to deflect attention away from that country’s crimes.
However, in so far as there has been a rise in one form of racism, let me suggest a ‘left’ solution:
An effective way for governments around the world to halt the rise in antisemitism would be to apply BDS principles towards Israel. Boycotting, divesting and sanctioning would last until either a two-state solution was arrived at with Palestinians or all the people living on the land Israel currently occupies were given equal rights and opportunities.
Based on experience with the South African apartheid state, BDS could pressure Israel to end its military-might-makes-right, international law ignoring, colonial, racist, anti-human behaviour. That is by far the major source of increasing antisemitism today. This should not be a controversial statement, but it is for those who remain supporters of Israel despite that country becoming a pariah in most of the world. Some people, for religious, political, or pro-U.S. empire reasons justify ongoing ethnic cleansing, apartheid policies, the destruction of Gaza, mass killing of children and women, expansion of illegal settlements and repeated bombings of neighbouring countries. They either agree with or excuse Netanyahu’s extreme right, Jewish supremacist government that believes in expansion of a state imposed on the people of southwest Asia by western powers. They attack anyone who criticizes Israel and call them antisemites. They conflate Judaism with the interests of the Israeli state.
These should not be controversial statements. Israel’s current behaviour and its conflation of Judaism with that country’s actions is by far the biggest reason for a rise in antisemitism in the last few years. Therefore, ending that behaviour and the notion that all Jews are responsible for and agree with what Israel is doing are necessary to deal with this form of racism.
The most effective and quickest way to accomplish these essential tasks is a widespread and complete BDS campaign by most countries in the world. The goals would be to force Israel’s respect for international law and end what the largest Israeli human rights organization calls “a regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”. But instead, most western countries support Israel, empowering and excusing its bad behaviour which emboldens existing antisemites and creates more. In other words, supporting and emboldening antisemitism rather than trying to end its current most damaging cause. It seems like those western governments and the pro-Israel organizations that pressure them to continue this madness are fine with the resulting increase in antisemitism. Why? One answer might be to push longstanding Jewish communities around the world to emigrate to Israel. Certainly, the notion of Aliyah is something promoted by Zionism.
But all of us, including millions of Jews, who oppose religious/ethnic nationalism and support progressive secular democracy as the best way to overcome all forms of racism, including antisemitism, must say no to Israel’s horrible behaviour and quickly end it. The best non-violent way to do that is supporting BDS.
Massive economic, political and cultural pressures are needed to change Israel’s behavior. The same is true to change the behaviour of supporters of Israel in many western countries who enable that bad behaviour. For example, in Canada, government subsidies and give tax breaks to Zionist organizations that use this funding to attack anyone who criticizes Israel. More importantly they push the mistakenly dangerous notion that Israel is the state of all Jews, thus convincing people that all Jews are responsible for Israel’s behaviour. Rather than give money to organizations that claim to be fighting antisemitism but instead use those funds to defend and promote the interests of a foreign state whose actions are a significant cause of antisemitism, governments must get to the root of the problem. They must engage in real action to stop Israel’s bad behaviour. They must end support for organizations that promote the conflation of Judaism with that behaviour.
It’s time for the left and those who believe in human rights for all to call for BDS as a way to combat antisemitism.
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