opinion
Antisemitism Isn’t a Strong
Enough Word
BY MITCHELL BARD
upporters of the BDS movement against Israel
claim they are not antisemitic. I have concluded
that they are correct in the sense that the word
“antisemitism” is too weak to capture their depravity.

It is not necessary to go into the myriad exam-
ples of the International Holocaust Remembrance
Alliance to define “antisemitism,” the word means
hatred of Jews. Lots of individuals and groups hate
Jews and have for centuries. More recently, a new
form of antisemitism emerged in which “Israel”
or “Zionist” is used as a euphemism for “Jews.”
BDSers certainly do this but referring to them as
antisemites is inadequate because it makes them
indistinguishable from other antisemites who, for
example, don’t care about Israel.

Anyone who has spent any time listening to
the BDS proponents or reading their propaganda
can see that they have no interest in peace, a
two-state solution or changing Israeli policy. They
are not to be confused with legitimate critics who
question the wisdom of the Israeli government’s
policies towards the disputed territories and the
Palestinians, but not its right to exist.

BDSers persecute Jews who don’t live in Israel
but merely have an affinity for Israel and its insti-
tutions. They have one overriding objective — the
destruction of the homeland of the Jewish peo-
ple. This is not mere bigotry; it is a campaign for
genocide. So how can we uniquely describe this level of
malevolence? I considered referring to them as the “New
Nazis” but that would confuse them with neo-Na-
zis who, like Klansman and other white suprema-
cists, have a whole menu of hatreds. BDSers are
single-minded; it’s all about the Jews. They could
be called “Holocausters.” But whenever you make
comparisons to Hitler, Nazis or the Holocaust, you
end up in arguments about the uniqueness of the
Final Solution, and it becomes a distraction.

A few years ago, I suggested a more appro-
priate description would be “Israel Deniers.”
Cary Nelson has since written a book, “Israel
Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism & the Faculty
Campaign Against the Jewish State,” which cap-
tures the idea.

The BDSers deny that Jews are a people and
therefore have no right to self-determination in
Israel, which they also reject as the homeland of
the Jews because the land belongs to the indig-
enous Palestinians. I hoped the term would catch
14 MAY 26, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
on so that Israel Deniers would be treated with
the same contempt as Holocaust Deniers. Alas, it
did not, and now I see that term is also inadequate
because BDSers not only deny that Jews have a
claim to their homeland; they want to destroy it.

BDSers are sometimes referred to as delegit-
imizers, but that also fails to capture their larger
goal of the annihilation of the Jews. The word also
doesn’t roll off the tongue.

UCLA Professor Judea Pearl has suggested we
refer to their malignancy as “Zionophobia.” A pho-
bia is an irrational fear. One might argue that their
demonization of Jews and the double-standard of
treating Jews differently than any other people are
irrational, but BDSers don’t fear Jews; their hatred
is based on an assertive desire to eliminate the
Jewish people as punishment for their crimes.

There are some “Judeophobes,” but they are
mostly conspiracy theorists. While some BDSers
may subscribe to some of these fictions, they are
not driven by them. BDS is not an extension of
QAnon. An apt term would be “ethnic cleansers,” but
that’s a bit awkward. Run-of-the-mill antisemites
are again distinguishable from the BDSers since
they don’t insist on ethnically cleansing the state
of Israel. Ironically, it is also two-state proponents
who want to ethnically cleanse a future Palestinian
state of Jews.

As it is, their attitude toward settlements is
essentially antisemitic because they insist that
there is one place on earth where Jews should not
be allowed to live despite the fact it is part of their
homeland. Imagine the reaction if anyone agreed
there should be two states and that Palestinians
should not be permitted to reside in one of them.

BDSers and other like-minded folks, like
Islamists, belong in the same category as repro-
bates who have sought to exterminate a particular
group of people. We could call them “liquida-
tors,” but that sounds too conventional — like a
store going out of business. “Exterminators” fits
but is too associated with pest control. BDSers
also generally don’t have the Hitlerian view of
Jews as vermin, at least not that they would
admit. “Terminators” makes you think of Arnold
Schwarzenegger, but while their goals are fright-
ening the BDSers themselves aren’t the least bit
scary (Schwarzenegger, incidentally, is an avid
supporter of Israel).

Better terms would be either “genocidists” or
“genocidaires.” Still, we need to distinguish them
from Pol Pot, Stalin, Rwandans or other mass mur-
derers who did not specifically target Jews.

Referring to BDSers as “antisemites” is too good
for them. They are Judeocidists. JE
Mitchell Bard is a foreign-policy analyst and an
authority on U.S.-Israel relations who has written
and edited 22 books, including “The Arab Lobby,
Death to the Infidels: Radical Islam’s War Against
the Jews” and “After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine.”
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