ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA
NEWS RELEASE
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ZOA Concerned: ADL Wrongly Says BDS Not Always Antisemitic |
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It’s enormously frustrating when the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)―which should be working with us―instead undermines the pro-Israel community’s efforts to combat antisemitism. Too often, ADL gives a “free pass” to Islamist, BLM, and other left wing antisemitism. ADL now appears ready to hand out “free passes” to radical Islamist antisemites on college campuses, during ADL’s new partnership with Hillel. The partnership calls for ADL’s “experts” to determine what is antisemitic. Yet, absurdly, when describing how the ADL-Hillel partnership will operate, ADL’s “experts” announced that “a BDS resolution alone would not count as antisemitism,” but “might”―might (!)―count as antisemitism if Jewish students were excluded from the debate on the resolution.
It is deeply concerning that ADL’s “experts” are ignoring the fact that BDS resolutions are invariably antisemitic. These sinister BDS resolutions are propagated on college campuses by the antisemitic hate group Students for Justice in Palestine.
ZOA has been combatting BDS resolutions on college campuses for almost two decades―and we’ve never seen one that wasn’t antisemitic. BDS resolutions single out Jews to Boycott, Divest from, and Sanction (BDS) and Delegitimize. BDS targets and harms Jewish students, Jewish professors, Jewish-owned businesses, American businesses that trade with Jews, Jewish workers, Jewish farmers, Jewish academic institutions and academic exchanges, Jewish speakers, Jewish college clubs, Jewish artists, Jewish musicians, artists of any faith that wish to perform in the Jewish state, Jews whose “sin” consists of living their lives and raising their children in the Jewish homeland, and the Jewish state herself.
Singling out and targeting Jews for boycotts, divestment, sanctions and delegitimization, as BDS does, is the very essence of antisemitism. The Nazis’ campaign to annihilate the Jewish people began with the Nazi boycott of Jewish-owned businesses and Jewish professional offices on April 1, 1933. Nazi Brownshirts stood outside Jewish shops and offices holding signs saying “Don’t Buy from Jews,” and “the Jews are our Misfortune.” Back in 1896, Theodore Herzl wrote in his famous book, The Jewish State, that boycotts of Jewish businesses (“Don’t Buy from Jews!) were one of the types of anti-Jewish persecutions that required the existence of a Jewish State.
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Founded in 1897, ZOA played a key role in the Jewish State's re-establishment. Today, ZOA is the leading major American Jewish organization courageously defending Israel and the Jewish people; fighting against all forms of antisemitism, including anti-Jewish boycotts; and promoting the Jewish people's lawful right to live in and settle historic Jewish lands. ZOA exposes that a Palestinian state would endanger Israel's existence; presents the facts about the Arab/Islamic war against Israel; and combats the anti-Israel lie that Israel is an "occupier" of her own land. ZOA spearheaded long battles to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and apply civil rights protections to Jewish students. ZOA provides free legal assistance and programs to pro-Israel students at numerous college campuses. ZOA's bold, unapologetic voice has a significant impact on public discourse and policy. |
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