President Isaac Herzog on Thursday pushed back against comparisons of Israel's situation with the Palestinians to South Africa's apartheid regime.
Speaking via video link from Jerusalem to the annual World Zionist Organization (WZO) conference addressing the boycott movement against the Jewish state, Herzog said: "The comparison between the State of Israel and the apartheid regime is not a legitimate criticism — it is a blood libel.
"Even if it is a legitimate criticism, it is a dangerous and intensifying terrorism, since the legitimacy of the State of Israel and the justification of its existence is directly related to its ability to protect itself and hence they are trying to undermine this ability," he stated.
The conference was being held at the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.
WZO's chairman, Yaakov Hagoel, also spoke at the event, saying that "the phenomenon of antisemitism needs to undergo major medical surgery to remove this malignant cancer, this problem needs to be dealt with at its roots."
Considered by the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations to be an antisemitic movement that seeks to delegitimize and destroy Israel, the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement traces its roots to the NGO Forum at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in South Africa that proclaimed Israel an apartheid state. The BDS movement officially began in 2005 but is also considered by some a continuation of the historical Arab League boycott of Israel.
"This is an act that has serious economic, political, academic, social and other consequences," Herzog said of the ongoing campaign to boycott and delegitimize Israel. He called BDS a "brutal campaign by organizations promoting a boycott of Israel and spreading lies and false facts and seeking to build a long-term policy that will undermine the existence of the state."
Herzog added: "Let's not be mistaken — this is not a peace-seeking campaign, it is a campaign promoting hatred and incitement."