Challenging the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement

Challenging the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement focuses on the efforts to oppose antisemitism, the academic boycott, and the BDS movement. The State of Israel has faced many threats, most of them military, since it was established in 1948, but the threat posed by the NGO forum at the United Nations World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, in August 2001 was different. The forum unleashed the "new" antisemitism which targeted the State of Israel, as well as a non-violent, civil society-based campaign based on the South African anti-apartheid campaign of the 1980s - which was to form the basis of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement directed at the State of Israel. Featuring case studies from the United States, Great Britain, Israel, and South Africa, each chapter of this wide-ranging volume discusses examples of opposition to the divisive BDS campaign and the proposed academic boycott of Israel over the last two decades, including the fight for formal recognition of the "new" antisemitism by governments and international bodies and the use of a variety of legal measures. The rise of antisemitism within academia and wider society is also examined. This book will be vital reading for students, scholars, and activists with an interest in social movements, Israel, and Middle East politics and history.

Ronnie Fraser is Director of the Academic Friends of Israel which he founded with his wife, Lola, in 2003. Together they have campaigned against the academic boycott of Israel and antisemitism on campus. He is a retired college lecturer and author of British Trade Unions, the Labour Party, and Israel's Histadrut (2022). Lola Fraser is a retired teacher with a degree in history and sociology. She co-founded the Academic Friends of Israel with her husband Ronnie and is currently a researcher for the history website British Jews in the First World War, We Were There Too (https://www.jewsfww.uk).

1 Introduction 2 Durban: A Different Attack on Israel and the Jewish People and its Consequences 3 Lessons from Durban: A Personal Testimony 4 The Circumstances and Reasons Surrounding the Adoption and Recognition of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism 5 The South African Variant: Anti-BDS Politics on Campuses of the Beloved Country 6 The Central Role of the NGO Network in Promoting the BDS Movement 7 The Anti-Israel Movement on the US Campus 8 BDS: How a Crusade Against Israel Became a Pre-Occupation of the Academy 9 Convergences and Divergences between Secular and Religious Anti-Zionism in the United States 10 The Mutual Weaponisation of BDS: A Perspective from Israel 11 Online BDS and Antisemitic Hate 12 Why BDS is Destined to Fail