The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS)

 Aims to Delegitimize and Destroy Israel as a Jewish State

  • BDS calls for destruction of the Jewish state, denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination in their historic homeland -- a key aspect of Jewish identity. 

    • BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti: “most definitely we oppose a Jewish state." Barghouti also urges BDS supporters "to resist by any means, including violent means.”  

    • BDS leader Professor As’ad AbuKhalil: “the real aim of BDS is to bring down the State of Israel.” 

  • United Nations Special Rapporteur reported that United Nation’s Secretary-General Guterres characterized “attempts to delegitimize the right of Israel to exist, including calls for its destruction” as a contemporary manifestation of antisemitism. (United Nation's “Combating Antisemitism,” 2019)
  • For these and other reasons, the United States House of Representatives passed H. Res. 246 with a 398 to 17 vote "oppos[ing] the ...BDS Movement...and all efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel” (2019).

    • The House Resolution states that BDS stands “in contrast to protest movements that have sought racial justice and social change” and “is not about promoting coexistence, civil rights, and political reconciliation but about questioning and undermining the very legitimacy of the country and its people…not recogniz[ing] the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination.”

    • This Resolution had 351 co-sponsors -- 44 from California, including Adam Schiff, Zoe Lofgren, and Ro Khanna -- with diverse and bipartisan support including Jackie Speier; Anna Eshoo; John Lewis, Jim Clyburn, Maxine Waters, Hakeem Jeffries and Alyanna Pressley; Joaquin Castro and Juan Vargas; and Deb Haaland.

Fundamentally Discriminatory Against Jewish and Israeli Americans

  • 82% of American Jews view BDS as antisemitic. (Mellman Survey, 2018 and AJC Survey, 2019)

  • The US House Resolution 246 (above) proclaims that BDS “leads to the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students and others who support Israel” on American campuses and "violate[s] the core goals of the university and global cultural development."
  • Recent reviews confirm this:

    • The Israeli Ministry catalogued 80 examples of anti-Semitic content promulgated by BDS activists, including content prepared by “key members of the BDS National Committee (BNC), that sets the worldwide agenda and tone” which “invariably results in the stigmatizing of Jews worldwide.” (Behind the Mask, 2019).

    • A 2019 report of 238 Antisemitic incidents on college campuses notes that the vast majority were incited by BDS and anti-Israel sentiment. (AMCHA, "The Harassment of Jewish Students on U.S. Campuses")