Human shields for BDS are complicit in its transgressions
Opinion: When the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment Movement singles out Israel for occupying land but does not do the same to China for over Tibet or Russian over Crimea, they can and should be branded racist - and racism against Jews is called anti-Semitism
They remind me of Palestinians in Gaza, defending the terrorists of Hamas in the face of Israeli aggression. Though the two cases differ, there is also much in common.
The Palestinians who climb up to their roofs in Gaza in an effort to disturb Israeli attacks on the terror groups, are not terrorists themselves.
They do not try to kill Israelis, but they defend these terror groups and support their ultimate goals and means, and in so doing, interfere with Israel's ability to fight terror thereby enhancing it and becoming complicit in it.
People showing support for the BDS in the face of the German government's decision to define it as anti-Semitic are not necessarily anti-Semitic themselves. They are not trying to discriminate against Jews in Europe or in the United States.
They are merely expressing their complete support of an organization plagued by anti-Semitism, that uses despicable anti-Semitic means, and by standing by it, and interfering in the fight against it, enhance it and become complicit in the dangers it presents to Jews in every aspect of their lives.
Standing with the BDS movement is immoral. It is not part of a wider battle against the presence of one people's army in the territory of another. BDS is not interested in the ills taking place in Tibet, nor do they care about an occupation of Crimea. Equally, the fight in Western Sahara is of no interest to them.
The BDS Movement is interested only in the presence of the nation state of the Jews in disputed territory.
Active interest in one place while completely and persistently ignoring a similar situation elsewhere is a type of racism.
Racism against Jews is called anti-Semitism and racism towards Israel is the new anti-Semitism.
Opposition to Germany's classification of the BDS as an anti-Semitic organization is in fact support for the BDS.
Supporting BDS is immoral because its intentions are to cause financial, cultural and political damage to all citizens of Israel with complete disregard of the injustice that that might pose.
Supporting BDS is also an act of cowardice because there is no similar effort directed at China or Russia, boh of which occupy other people's land.
Supporting BDS is also an act of hypocrisy because the movement has no intention of confronting the United States under President Donald Trump, the country Israel relies on most.
If the BDS movement had any consistent moral stand it would call on its supporters to boycott the U.S. but that is not the anti-Semitic way.
The BDS movement is well funded but has very little achievement to show for it. It continues to function because its founders have a vested interest in keeping the new anti-Semitism alive and active despite its lack of efficacy.
Movements like the BDS have no need for achievements to justify their existence. They exist to be heard and nothing else so assisting them in any way means giving a bully pulpit for the new anti-Semitism.
Human shields for terrorists are not terrorists themselves, but nor are they benign civilians from the perspective of those fighting against terror.
Human shields protecting the new anti-Semitism are also not benign from the perspective of those fighting anti-Semitism, and sometimes they too must be targeted using political, legal and financial means in order to fight the new anti-Semitism.
Prof. Asa Kasher in a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and an expert in philosophy and ethics
