Activists with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement routinely proclaim that BDS is not anti-Semitic. Yet BDS leaders at the highest level also echo the words of white supremacist and former KKK Grand Wizard, David Duke.
While researching our new report on the far-right’s spread of coronavirus anti-Semitism, we uncovered several examples of this disturbing trend. Here are 5 of them…
1. JEWS WHO SUPPORT ISRAEL HAVE "DUAL LOYALTIES"
On January 11, 2019, Duke published an article titled: “Zionists Expose ‘Dual Loyalty’ as really Single Loyalty to Israel and the Global Tribe!”
He wrote: "So, is Jewish dual loyalty just a Canard? In fact, when you study the statements of Jewish leaders of billion dollar Jewish organizations you realize that Jewish disloyalty is far worse than 'dual loyalty.'"
On January 19, 2017, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) National Policy Director, Osama Aburshaid, stated: “those Zionist figures who hold an American passport and American citizenship but who suffer from a syndrome called ‘double loyalty.’”
Similar claims over dual loyalty have been made about Jews throughout the ages and used to justify atrocities against a country’s Jewish minority population.
2. ISRAEL "OCCUPIES' AND CONTROLS THE U.S. CONGRESS
On March 27, 2015, Duke tweeted: “Occupied Congress doing the (Chosen) People’s Business.”
In December 2014, UC Berkeley Professor Hatem Bazian, founder of both Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and AMP, spoke at the 2014 MAS-ICNA convention in Chicago and publicly stated [00:00:22] that “congress is an Israeli occupied territory.”
3. THE TERM "JEWISH SUPREMACISIM"
On February 9, 2019 Duke proclaimed on Twitter, “I coined the term ‘Jewish Supremacism’ in 2003… Now it is recognized as a valid term… [by] anti-Zionists!!”
Indeed, in December 2019, Linda Sarsour, far-left political activist and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) supporter, said in a Facebook video: “How can you be against white supremacy in the United States… but then you support a state like Israel… that is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everybody else?”
4. "ISRAEL HAS HYPNOTIZED THE WORLD"
On November 16, 2012, Omar tweeted: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. #Gaza #Palestine #Israel.”
5. CALLING FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
Duke and BDS supporters both use the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which calls for the dismantling of the State of Israel from its border on the Jordan river to the Meditteranean sea.
On December 6, 2018 Duke tweeted, “From the river to the sea… FREE PALESTINE!” And on November 20, 2019 he tweeted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
So it should come as no surprise that when Marc Lamont Hill came under fire for expressing [00:20:41] support for the idea of Palestine “from the River to the Sea” in 2018, Duke defended him on Twitter.
We should, therefore, also not be surprised that Duke and the founder of the BDS movement himself, Omar Barghouti, have expressed similar sentiments around the State of Israel.
On April 25, 2017, Duke tweeted: “I'm shocked that the racist, genocidal ethno-state - known as Israel, still exist. Kudos to whoever brings it down.”
In 2013, Barghouti said [00:05:53]: “Definitely, most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.”
*White supremacist, David Duke has a Twitter account - it is certainly a wonder as to the criteria that social media giants operate by when removing or limiting some accounts and not others.