Sid Frankel

Overview

Sid Frankel is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and is an associate professor in the Faculty of Social Work at University of Manitoba (UM).

Supporting BDS

On November 15, 2017, Frankel signed a petition authored by the Independent Jewish Voices of Canada (IJV), which condemned anti-BDS activism at McGill University (McGill).

Signatories of the petition claimed “BDS is a non violent [sic.] movement for equality for Palestinians and a just peace for everyone in Israel-Palestine.”.

On July 22, 2014, Frankel signed a petition titled “Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!”

The petition charged Israel with “more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide” and claimed “Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence.”

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true. 

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”  

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.


BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.



Social Media and Weblinks

University Website: https://umanitoba.ca/faculties/social_work/staff/forms/548.html  
Sid Frankel
Status:
Professor
University:
Manitoba
Organizations:
BDS

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George Smith,
Bayan Founas,

Last Modified:
05/04/2026

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