Dear Letter to the Editor:
Notwithstanding the credulous euphemism --- " This movement( BDS) aims to financially pressure Israel to comply with internal law, targeting a wide range of institutions 'from McDonalds to McGill' " spewed by an anonymous "representative from Students for Palestine's Honor and Resistence" and credulously repeated by Eliza Lee and Martin Blake-- ("Protest Travels Through Downtown Montreal on International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People"), the leadership of BDS for years has been clear that the SOLE purpose of BDS is the elimination of the only Jewish country on earth, Israel, and its Jewish population.
Professor Cary Nelson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, former President of the American Association of University Professors and currently Chair of the Alliance for Academic Freedom has recently written: “... The movement’s major spokespersons have been explicit about wanting to bring the Jewish state to an end. Whether it is BDS movement founder Omar Barghouti (2007) declaring that ‘accepting Israel as a ‘Jewish state’ on our land is impossible’ and that the only solution is ‘euthanasia’ for Israel, California State University political scientist As’ad AbuKhalil (2012) maintaining that ‘justice and freedom for Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the State of Israel,’ or Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah concluding that ‘Israel’s ‘right to exist as a Jewish state’ is one with no proper legal or moral remedy and one whose enforcement necessitates perpetuating wrongs’ and ‘therefore it is no right at all’ (2014) ... all the leaders of the BDS movement speak in modulations of one voice. ("Israel Denial. Anti-Zionism, Anti- Semitism & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State", Cary Nelson, 2019, page 19).
“In the contemporary world, the phenomenon of fierce and unrelenting BDS anti-Zionism constitutes antisemitism’s new face, its political and social cover, its facilitator and enabler. .It also supplies devotees of anti-Zionism with a rationale and reliable mechanism for rationalization and self-deception. Channeling objections to 'injustice', it allows anti-Zionism to be fueled not just with moral righteousness but with rage . Anti-Zionism is the new mask of the world’s oldest hatred”. (“Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles,” Cary Nelson, 2024, pages 114 to 115).
It is no coincidence that BDS demands the euthanasia of Israel, the world's only Jewish state, since the the Nazi T4 Euthanasia Program was the foundation of the Final Solution of the Jews .
When one reads the endless anti Israel screeds naively reported by Eliza Lee and Martin Burke, one cannot help but be reminded of the trenchant words of Noah Tishby, former Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism and Delegitimization:
"All I can say is that if you find yourself on the same side of an argument as David Duke, the Iranian government, and ISIS, then I think you ought to reflect on how you got there in the first place". ("Uncomfortable Conversations with A Jew", Emmanuel Acho and Noah Tishby, page 184, 2024).
Richard Sherman, Margate, Florida
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