Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is antisemitic

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 as a self-described “Palestinian-led movement” that aims to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.”

Founder Omar Barghouti has explicitly stated [00:05:53] that the goal of the BDS movement is to end the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from the terror organization Hamas.

International BDS organizations reportedly receive hundreds of millions of dollars and euros from foreign governments and private foundations. In the United States, the BDS movement is financially linked to American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).

In June 2011, Barghouti admitted [00:00:27] that 2005 “was not the beginning” of the BDS movement, but rather “a culmination of decades of Palestinian boycott initiatives” and “for more than a century Palestinians have used boycotts.”

Arab boycotts against Jews and Jewish-owned businesses in soon-to-be Israel started in the 1920’s and continue until the present day.

BDS campaigns include infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions,” calling on institutions, trade unions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel and lobbying governments to sanction the Jewish state.

To learn more visit our BDS organization page.

BDS is Antisemitic

Fighting BDS starts with clarity.
Clarity as to what it’s leaders say and what BDS wants to do with the Jewish population of Israel.
Clarity that BDS is antisemitic.

The True Origins of BDS

The BDS movement claims to be a grassroots human rights movement but in reality, its a carefully crafted continuation of anti-Jewish boycotts predating the state of Israel.

"The Origins of BDS," is a complete overview on how BDS started, why it exists and what its REAL goals are.

Rabbi Lord Sacks on Antisemitism

The Many Lies of Omar Barghouti

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks analyzes modern antisemitism. Omar Barghouti, founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, reveals the antisemitism within the movement.

BDS founder Omar Barghouti has been spreading lies about Israel and the Jewish people for years. His movement is naturally based on these lies, misinformation and anti-Israel propaganda.

Featured Report: GWU

This Canary Mission report highlights the individuals behind an April 23-24 antisemitic BDS resolution that passed the George Washington University (GWU) Student Association (SA), via secret ballot.

Activists with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at GWU (SJP at GWU) led the BDS resolution campaign, titled “#DivestThisTime." The campaign was SJP at GWU’s second in two years; their 2017 resolution failed to pass.

This report includes the following 41 individuals:

13 SJP activists
8 SJP coordinating committee members, as indicated by SJP activist Abby Brook
4 SJP-allied group leaders
4 Co-sponsors of the 2018 resolution
12 Student senators who voted for the resolution to be held via secret ballot

Among the supporters of the 2018 resolution were SJP and BDS activists who made physical threats and used intimidation tactics.

To read the full report click HERE.

Founder of BDS

Omar Barghouti founded the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in July 2005 after becoming a founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) in 2004 (PACBI joined the BDS campaign in 2005).

He also co-founded the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions National Committee (BNC) in November 2007. The BNC leads and supports the BDS movement and, according to Barghouti, “sets the overall strategies, the objectives of the movement."

Barghouti has expressed support for terrorism, promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories and regularly demonizes Israel. He opposes the Jewish right to self-determination and Israel’s existence, openly calling for its destruction as a Jewish state.

Barghouti was born in Qatar, grew up in Egypt and later moved to Acre, Israel, where he lived as of 2017. He holds two degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and a master’s degree in Philosophy (ethics) from Tel Aviv University. He began studying for a doctorate there in 2009 but did not finish.

Over 184,000 people signed a petition in 2009, demanding Tel Aviv University expel Barghouti, but Tel Aviv University Rector Zvi Galil responded that “A university campus should be a place that encourages and tolerates free speech, no matter how offensive the expressed opinions may be… The University cannot and will not expel this student based on his political views or actions."

Barghouti promotes BDS through interviews, lectures and op-eds.

To learn more about Barghouti click HERE

SJP Chapters: Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

To see the full report click HERE

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

In June 2018, Canary Mission completed an investigation into a November 15, 2017 Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolution that passed the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (UM) Central Student Government (CSG), via secret ballot.

Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), the UM chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), orchestrated the resolution through its divestment campaign, #UMDivest.

The report includes the following 40 individuals:

4 SAFE activists behind the #UMDivest campaign
4 co-authors and 1 co-sponsor of the resolution (3 co-authors were SAFE activists)
4 professional BDS activists who spoke for the resolution
5 pro-BDS students, including the CSG vice-president
7 representatives who spoke in favor of the resolution
15 representatives who voted for the resolution to be held via secret ballot

Ohio State University

To see the full report click HERE

Ohio State University

Canary Mission investigated student activists with Students for Justice and Palestine (SJP) and the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at Ohio State University (OSU), in June 2018.

SJP OSU activists were the driving force behind OSU Divest, a campaign to present a BDS resolution to the University Student Government (USG), on January 25, 2018.

At the presentation of the resolution, 38 OSU students reportedly spoke against it, while eight spoke in favor. One student described the resolution as “intentionally dishonest," while other students cited “its antisemitic undertones."

The resolution underwent various amendments as attempts to remove its overt connection to the BDS movement were considered.

The final version of the resolution retained its references to anti-Israel divestment resolutions passed by student governments at over a dozen other universities. Links to multiple websites accusing Israel of “apartheid" and promoting BDS were also retained. A proposed amendment to add a statement denouncing the BDS movement was rejected.

Ultimately, a watered-down version of the anti-Israel resolution passed in the USG. Passage of the resolution was enabled by the USG president, who allowed the vote to be held via a controversial secret ballot.

This report includes the following 23 individuals:

10 Students affiliated with SJP OSU
9 Co-Sponsors of the 2018 OSU Divest resolution
3 Students affiliated with OSU Divest
The USG president who allowed the vote to be held via secret ballot

The social media activity of the students investigated revealed antisemitism, support for terrorism, promotion of violence and widespread demonization of Israel as well as the United States.

Tufts University SJP

Tufts University

To see the full report click HERE

Tufts University

Canary Mission reveals who was really behind the Tufts University surprise Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolution that spurred outrage last Passover eve – as covered by The Algemeiner, Fox News, The Washington Times and Legal Insurrection.

At First Glance – Tufts SJP

On April 9, 2017, on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday, several Tufts Community Union (TCU) student senators submitted a surprise BDS resolution that called on the university to divest from four companies that do business with Israel.

The resolution was authored by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

By scheduling this surprise BDS vote on the eve of Passover, they ensured that Jews would not be present to defend themselves against an antisemitic attack on the right of Jews to self-determination.

The resolution hearing was fraught with lies and half-truths presented by SJP members Noah Habeeb and Mile Krstev. In a further shameful move, the TCU senate also ensured the vote was held as a secret ballot, in order to shield the voters from any form of accountability.

JVP – The Real Culprits?

The Tufts story was both covered in the media and by Canary Mission. We have since duly investigated and have now released a number of profiles on culprits in SJP and JVP (see links below).

SJP is rightly to blame for their role in the exclusionary timing of the resolution. However, upon closer examination, the entire episode was in fact masterminded by the fringe extremist organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) (a name that is false advertising on many levels).

JVP planned the entire vote in advance.

At the resolution hearing, JVP leader, Hannah Freedman revealed that although the resolution was ready for presentation the previous week, the authors chose to push it to the following week’s senate meeting because “many of us were away at a conference last weekend…”

Freedman omitted to mention that the “conference” their activists were attending was the anti-Israel JVP National Member Meeting (NMM).

By scheduling the vote on the eve of Passover, when most Jews would not be around to vote, JVP deliberately undermined the Jewish community at Tufts – in favor of giving themselves more time to strategize against Israel.

It gets worse…

At least seven SJP Tufts leaders took part in the JVP conference. They made a presentation and collaborated with senior JVP officials. This included Parker Breza who admitted that Tufts SJP consulted exclusively with JVP during the resolution drafting process.

Quotes on BDS

"My concerns are heightened by the fact that the global BDS movement does not seem to distinguish between opposition to the policies of the government of Israel and opposition to the existence of Israel."

-Eric Kaler, President of University of Minnesota

“The idea that Israel should be singled out as a human rights abuser was morally insensate,” he said. “It seemed to me that there wasn’t much question that if an African country was singled out for censure and there was no clear grounds for why that African country was worse or different than a number of European or Asian countries, I had no doubt that it would be seen in many quarters as racist.”

-Larry Summers, Former President of Harvard