Alliance of Hate: What Do White Supremacists and the BDS Movement Have in Common?
December 31, 2019
“The New Anti-Semites” report, produced by StopAntisemitism.org and the Zachor Legal Institute and endorsed by more than 25 American NGOs, documents for the first time the increasing philosophical and intellectual alliance between the US white supremacists, remnants of the neo-Nazi movement in Europe, and the BDS movement.
The report exposes a recent shift within the American white supremacist network regarding their approach to Israel, which ultimately catalyzed the increasing support of the BDS movement by these strange bedfellows. After 70 years of Israeli sovereignty, white supremacists abandoned the idea that all Jews would move to Israel. Moreover, they became increasing hostile and critical of American support of the Jewish state, characterizing the relationship as a slave-master dynamic, with Israel calling the shots vis-à-vis a Zionist Occupied Government (ZOG). Today, this network views Israel as the primary strategic stronghold of international Jewish power and a new frontline of the race war against Jews. Online activity reveals that at least as early as 2017 key white supremacist figures and forums, such as the Daily Stormer, Stormfront and other violent white supremacist Telegram channels, quickly found common ground with what revealed itself to be the perfect partner to actively target and eventually eliminate the Jewish state—the BDS movement. As proof of this alliance, the report presents some of the increasingly common instances of the same far-Right forums, figures and groups promoting BDS talking points and visual propaganda expressing support for pro-BDS views and figures
For neo-Nazis in Europe, the existence of the state of Israel symbolized the remaining vestige of the loathed Jewish people almost exterminated in Hitler’s Final Solution since the establishment of the Jewish state. Many neo-Nazis have stood openly in support of the modern delegitimization campaign against Israel, participating in rallies, for example, during the annual Al-Quds Day since as early as 2012, joining BDS demonstrations against SodaStream in Germany, promoting the BDS Movement’s boycott against Israel and selling anti-Israel paraphernalia on neo-Nazi websites.
The evidence of this recent phenomenon collected in “The New Anti-Semites” is demonstrative of the philosophical overlap and emerging alliance between the perpetuators of the delegitimization campaign against Israel and the neo-Nazi and white supremacist networks. There is little evidence that participating organizations and activists of the BDS movement are overly alarmed by this unholy alliance. Nor is there any evidence that these organizations have paused for reflection as to why their ideas, slogans, imagery and material are being promoted and supported by neo-fascists and self-proclaimed race realists or if the radical Right’s presence and participation in the delegitimization campaign harms their mission. Furthermore, the public presence of neo-Nazis and fascists at anti-Israel demonstrations discredits claims of ignorance by regular BDS demonstrators and activists. Rather, these same BDS activists choose to ignore the reality of the common ground they share with radical right-wing fascists and neo-Nazis: the hatred of the modern Jewish homeland, Israel and by extension, the hatred of the Jew. Simply put, the delegitimization campaign entrenched the goal of eradicating support of the state of Israel as the Jewish homeland firmly within the progressive agenda. This mission has garnered widespread support by the radical Right because it is fundamentally anti-Semitic at its core.
The recent report submitted by the United Nations Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed on freedom of religion or belief detailed the current surge in anti-Semitism, manifested in violent actions, hostility, sentiment and online expressions of Jew-hatred. The UN document acknowledged, “‘attempts to delegitimize the right of Israel to exist, including calls for its destruction’ as a contemporary manifestation of anti-Semitism” being perpetuated by both the far-right and the left, and—as the “The New Anti-Semites” definitively demonstrates—by the BDS movement as well. Shaheed’s findings further stated that failure to address such forms of hatred poses inherent risks not only to Jews, but to members of other minority communities and threatens to seriously fray the very fabric of society itself. In this context it is important to remember that in addition to the six million Jews who were systematically murdered, the Holocaust also claimed the lives of roughly 3 million innocent people of different targeted groups during the Third Reich including Roma people, handicapped people, homosexuals, devout Catholics and communists. As Mr. Shaheed poignantly observed, anti-Semitism is, “the canary in the coalmine of global hatred.” In this developing climate of Jew hatred currently prevailing, it would appear that white supremacists and the BDS movement are now marching together to the same beat of anti-Semitism.