Daily Alert Archives

The Alignment of BDS and Black Lives Matter: Implications for Israel and Diaspora Jewry

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Dan Diker - American Jewish leaders unequivocally condemned the murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd while in police custody. Yet Jewish support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement failed to prevent a surge of anti-Semitic violence across the U.S. in the aftermath of the Floyd murder. Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) organizations have ratcheted up racial tensions and anti-Semitic agitation by accusing Israel of complicity in the Floyd murder, recasting Israel as an illegitimate "white oppressor" state that should be dismantled. These BDS-led accusations have moved from the margins to the mainstream of U.S. discourse. The BDS-BLM narrative rebrands Israel as it has the U.S.: as paradigms for white supremacy. This has removed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from its territorial framework and has recast it as a racial issue. The BDS and BLM movements share a vision for the replacement of Israel, which they see as an extension of the white United States - inherently unjust. In this view, Israel is the result of a historical sin - an error that can be corrected only by Israel's replacement by Palestine. The rebranding of Israel as a white supremacist entity also categorizes Diaspora Jews as "white supremacists" by extension, unless they disavow Israel as a centerpiece of their American Jewish identity. This assault against the historical and international legal legitimacy of the nation-state of the Jewish people also delegitimizes, criminalizes and dehumanizes Diaspora Jews by extension. The writer is Director of the Project to Counter BDS and Political Warfare at the Jerusalem Center.
2020-07-20 00:00:00
Full Article