Student demonstration outside One Illinois Center in Chicago (Courtesy of StandWithUs)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt takes an extremely one-sided approach to a complex problem,\u201d he added, \u201cand rather than really engage in peaceful protest, it\u2019s a disingenuous and prejudiced movement.\u201d Roz Rothstein, founder and director of the pro-Israel nonprofit StandWithUs, employs a litmus test to determine whether criticism of Israel veers into anti-Semitic speech: the \u201cthree Ds\u201d of delegitimization, demonization and double standard. Those are key parts of the State Department\u2019s official definition of anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you apply the three Ds, you can see that [BDS] does qualify,\u201d Rothstein said. \u201cThe movement targets [only] Israel, blaming it for the lack of peace. The movement conveniently does not discuss its goal, which is not peaceful coexistence.”<\/p>\n
Rothstein points to some of the more extreme examples of imagery seen in anti-Israel protests: posters that replace the six-pointed Jewish star with a swastika, blood-spattered Israeli flags, or political cartoons that contort Israeli leaders into hook-nosed ghouls out of the pages of the Nazi propaganda sheet Der St\u00fcrmer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Jewish star to the Jewish people signifies their religion,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very scary. People don\u2019t understand how egregious this is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such imagery may disturb, but the First Amendment protects anti-Jewish speech, no matter how hateful. And there is little university administrators can do to stop it, one of them notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a First Amendment maven,\u201d said Mark Yudof, the former president of the University of California and a professor of constitutional law. An ardent supporter of Israel who is active in the Bay Area Jewish community, Yudof says that in no way diminishes his stance on this issue. \u201cI believe in free speech. I honestly believe people can be highly critical of Israel and not be anti-Semitic. It\u2019s painting with too broad a brush to say everyone who doesn\u2019t agree with you on policy toward Israel is tarred and feathered with anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, though he defended free speech and peaceful protest during his tenure as U.C. president, Yudof always found the BDS movement and its agenda contemptible.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get suspicious sometimes,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve listened to the narratives. Sometimes it\u2019s not that Israel is wrong or it should do this or that. The [BDS] narrative is that Jews are too powerful, too privileged, have too much influence with Congress and the media. It strikes me as containing an anti-Semitic element.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yudof once met with indignant pro-Palestinian students, who told him he was wrong to defend the free speech rights of Israel supporters because \u201cthe First Amendment is only for marginalized people, and not privileged people like Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
If anyone is marginalized, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin would say it is the pro-Israel college student. The U.C. Santa Cruz Jewish studies lecturer and co-founder of the Amcha Initiative, which combats anti-Semitism on campus, believes that sticking up for Israel has grown dangerous.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit\u2019s website has a tracker monitoring anti-Semitic incidents on campus. Since January 2014, the tracker has logged 29 incidents of swastika graffiti on or near American campuses, among them U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Davis and Stanford.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s becoming more clear, more explicit every day,\u201d she said of the link between BDS and anti-Semitism. \u201cWhat used to be Israel Apartheid Week is now called Anti-Zionism Week. No more \u2018Let\u2019s criticize the policies of the government of Israel.\u2019 Now it becomes opposition to Israel\u2019s very existence.\u201d<\/p>\n
And since making Israel disappear would require the disappearance of 7 million Israeli Jews, that would amount to anti-Semitism, Rossman-Benjamin argues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a certain hostile environment for Jewish students who identify with the Jewish state,\u201d she said. \u201cSo when there are divestment resolutions, you have a climate that is actually toxic. It spills over into acts against Jews. In the minds of those carrying out BDS activities, it\u2019s about the Jews, the Jewish state, and the Jews who support the Jewish state. It can\u2019t be a coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jews who are active in BDS say their very presence in the movement disproves the charges of anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have StandWithUs and Amcha that use a claim of anti-Semitism as a political weapon,\u201d said JVP\u2019s Wise. \u201cThat desensitizes people to actual incidents of anti-Semitism and makes it harder for those of us concerned with Jewish safety and anti-Jewish oppression to counteract and address it. To me it reads as a last-gasp attempt to maintain the status quo of Israeli right-wing policy.<\/p>\n
\u201dGabi Kirk, 24, echoes Wise\u2019s sentiments. A San Jose native and former counselor at Camp Tawonga, Kirk most recently served as the campus liaison for JVP. Though she left the organization last month, she still agrees with its criticism of Israeli policy and considers BDS a legitimate tactic.<\/p>\n
Not only does she believe BDS is not inherently anti-Semitic, she thinks the status quo the Israeli government maintains in the Palestinian territories incites anti-Jewish sentiment more than any campus campaign could do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe ultimately that occupation, militarization and systems of apartheid harm everyone,\u201d Kirk said. \u201cThey harm Jews by eroding moral values and pitting people against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirk said any time she encounters anti-Semitism from within the BDS movement on campus, she calls it out. When someone spouts anti-Semitic tropes, she tries to explain that their actions are no different from Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry. \u201cAnti-Semitism exists,\u201d she added. \u201cWe don\u2019t deny that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kahn says JCRC works to combat BDS on campus. But the organization also wages the fight in other arenas, such as liberal Protestant denominations, labor unions, and even grocery stores.<\/p>\n
He cites past victories, such as persuading Sonoma County not to cancel a contract for buses made by a company that does business with Israel, and convincing San Francisco\u2019s Rainbow Grocery co-op to resume stocking Israeli goods, which had been targeted for boycott.<\/p>\n
But he concedes the battle is growing tougher. Kahn estimates the number of pro-BDS organizations in the Bay Area has risen from 60 to 130 in the past five years. Outside some campus actions, Kahn says one of the most notorious local anti-Semitic incidents was last summer\u2019s Block the Boat campaign at the Port of Oakland, which turned away an Israeli-owned cargo ship under the banner \u201cZionism is not welcome in Oakland.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Kahn it\u2019s a short hop, skip and jump to a banner that one day could read \u201cZionists not welcome in Oakland.\u201d<\/p>\n
The JCRC counter-strategy has been to expose extremism. In 2010, the pro-Palestinian Christian organization Sabeel, which promotes church divestment from Israel and companies that work with Israel, held its biennial in San Anselmo, with more than 450 attendees and dozens of sponsors. Kahn says the thrust of the conference was to advocate for BDS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had many speakers who wanted to see no Israel,\u201d he recalled. \u201cWe sent a large delegation, not to make waves but to attend every session.\u201d JCRC then shared what it heard at those sessions with sponsors, which led to many pulling their sponsorships from the next conference after \u201cwe exposed how extreme [the organization] was.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for BDS on campus, Kahn acknowledges that anti-Semitism likely does not animate a majority of activists, but he worries anyway. As a textbook case he points to the chain of events at U.C. Davis, which passed an Israel divestment resolution in January, immediately followed by a Facebook posting from one of the bill\u2019s proponents claiming \u201cSharia law has come to Davis\u201d and the swastika scrawled on a Jewish fraternity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vitriol injected by the BDS movement, the repetitious espousal of hate for Israel and its supporters, potentially creates an atmosphere in which an individual may get his or her wires crossed and engage in a blatantly anti-Semitic act, such as painting a swastika,\u201d Kahn said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever perpetrated the act ultimately bears responsibility. By the same token, people who so readily create a hostile atmosphere for pro-Israel and Jewish students on campus cannot ultimately absolve themselves of responsibility, either.\u201d<\/p>\n
By aligning with BDS, Kahn says, Jews such as Wise and Kirk and organizations such as JVP merely provide the movement with a veneer of diversity.<\/p>\n
Wise counters by noting that JVP has grown in the last few years to 30 chapters, with 200,000 supporters who donate or take action of some sort. That adds up to many Jews who, presumably, do not consider themselves anti-Semites.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would never advocate anything that I think would do harm to Jews,\u201d Wise declared. \u201cOne of my biggest pet peeves is when people accuse me of that. If I believed the work I was doing was putting my family and friends in Israel in harm\u2019s way, I wouldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even as the BDS movement gains strength on many campuses, particularly in California, pro-Israel activists note examples of growing pushback.<\/p>\n
Student councils at UCLA, U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Santa Barbara have adopted the State Department\u2019s definition of anti-Semitism (including the three Ds), though how it might be enforced on campus is unknown. Supporters of BDS, furthermore, believe this definition would silence legitimate criticism of Israel.<\/p>\n
A biennial global forum for combating anti-Semitism just wrapped up in Jerusalem, recommending that governments and websites around the world adopt new, more stringent standards for hate speech.<\/p>\n
The ADL has launched a program, Words to Action, to push back against anti-Semitism and inoculate younger generations against it. It is designed to teach high school and college students how to differentiate between legitimate criticism of Israel and anti-Semitic speech, actions and symbols, and how to respond.
The tide may be turning.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, divestment was rejected at Bowdoin College in Maine, Princeton University, San Diego State University, the University of New Mexico, University of Texas at Austin and U.C. Santa Barbara, as well as the general assembly of the Student Senate for California Community Colleges (resolutions did pass at Oglethorpe University in Georgia and Earlham College in Indiana).<\/p>\n
In California this month, 57 rabbis from across the state joined 23 Jewish organizations in writing to U.C. President Janet Napolitano, drawing her attention to \u201canti-Semitism on U.C. campuses\u201d and urging the system to adopt the State Department definition of anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n
Kahn believes the majority of college students are not very engaged in Middle East politics, but says that with enough effort, a convincing pro-Israel message might sway the persuadables.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreasingly [students] know that a tiny fringe is trying to push the campus in a direction that is both divisive and embarrassing when it engages in this blatantly biased beating up of Israel,\u201d Kahn said. \u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity for Jewish students to build coalitions that may address anti-Semitism and this broader challenge around anti-Israel activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Stanford, even though the divestment resolution passed, pro-Israel activists took heart from the backlash that followed \u2014 not only the open faculty letter opposing the resolution, but a petition signed by thousands of students concerned over what they felt the resolution, and the BDS movement, might portend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a small but very strong group of Israel supporters on campus,\u201d said Kadisha, the Stanford senior who formed Coalition for Peace to work against future divestment efforts. \u201cI have total faith that they will continue to educate the campus and have this conversation in the best way possible going forward. Instead of pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students fighting each other, there should be a place where their interests are one and the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Jbds-swastika\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Jbds-swastika.jpg\")