There is nothing more significant than President Isaac Herzog's defining the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement as terrorism. Israeli politicians and leaders have yet to do this, yet there is no more precise and fitting term for BDS. This is a leadership step of the first degree that we must hope becomes policy that sees our ongoing, serious, and unwavering demand European countries, the US, and the UN categorize this movement as a global terrorist organization.
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This is not about semantics, and it's a shame the State of Israel needed an ice-cream crisis in the summer to be reminded of the existence and effectiveness of the BDS campaign. One need only visit a European, Canadian, or American college campus during Israeli Apartheid Week to see why to understand that, to put it mildly, you wouldn't want to make your Jewishness overly obvious to others. If there is one challenge Herzog can tackle head-on, in direct continuation of his previous role as Jewish Agency chief, it is to make Israelis aware of this shocking terrorism.
For some reason, here in the Jewish state, the issue has been downplayed. It's not spoken about or taught. Television studios don't bring in Jewish or Israeli students studying overseas to share their stories. In Israel, there is complete ignorance of the issue.
The utter silence in response to a number of lecturers from Haifa University, Bar-Ilan University, and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev calling on Berlin not to recognize the BDS movement as antisemitism is absolutely stunning. Through their letter, these lecturers not only lent a hand to antisemitism, but they also lent a letter to violence, meaning actual terrorism, against Jews, Israelis, and their supporters in Germany. Those unfamiliar with the overseas campus experience could be forgiven for being naïve enough to think this was just another show of support for an ideological movement that sends letters to the editor of Haaretz and The New York Times. This simply isn't the case.
The amazing thing is that this movement does not conceal its objectives or actions: It is a movement that opposes Israel's existence within any borders, whose supporters wave signs with Nazi symbols, and promotes conspiracy theories on every issue on the agenda, accusing Israel of anything and everything from the September 11 attacks to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. On campuses, BDS terrorizes any lecturer who merely contemplates teaching a course that offers a balanced view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Not only will doing so put any future promotions at risk but their physical safety and ability to get through a seminar will also be threatened, ultimately leading to their firing.
The BDS movement seeks to remove the Jewish or Zionist voice from the non-Israeli space by any means necessary, regardless of whether that requires connecting to radical leftist or radical right-wing cells. In Israel, BDS proponents support the movement either in excessive good or bad faith. We must hope Herzog's much-needed call leads to greater coverage of the BDS movement's activities.
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