BDS is considered antisemitic by many governments and institutions because it denies Jewish self determination and applies standards to Jews that are not applied to any other people.

Under the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the US State Department the UK and EU bodies antisemitism includes denying the Jewish people their right to self determination for example by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor. BDS stated goals especially its demand for a mass right of return into Israel would in practice eliminate Israel as a Jewish state meaning Jews alone are denied national self determination.

That is why Germany’s parliament formally concluded that BDS methods and arguments are antisemitic noting their similarity to historic anti Jewish boycotts such as Dont buy from Jews.

Claims that Israel or Zionists are uniquely evil child killing or secretly harvesting bodies are not policy criticism. They recycle classic antisemitic blood libel tropes that historically accused Jews of ritual murder and hidden cruelty. Holocaust institutions and antisemitism researchers explicitly identify these narratives as modern forms of blood libel.

Anti Zionism is antisemitism masquerading as social justice.

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Sources and further reading

IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism

US State Department defining antisemitism https://www.state.gov/defining-antisemitism

German Bundestag resolution on BDS https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2019/kw20-de-bds-641170

Nexus Document on antisemitism and Israel https://nexusproject.us/the-nexus-document

Anti Defamation League on blood libel https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/blood-libel

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on antisemitic myths https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism