BDS stands for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel. It is a well funded and well organized, global propaganda campaign with a focus on negatively impacting Israel via economic, diplomatic, legal, and cultural warfare – its goal is to undermine support for Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, and ultimately to cause Israel to no longer exist as a Jewish and democratic state. The movement was formally launched in 2005, but gained significant momentum after 2010, with increased activity on university campuses and in certain professional organizations.
BDS claims to advocate for Palestinian rights to self-determination while seeking to deny the Jewish people those same rights. It demonizes and dehumanizes Israelis and their supporters, using rhetoric and imagery that often evoke classic antisemitism. Many of the movement’s founders and leaders, including Omar Barghouti, have explicitly rejected Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, stating: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine” – revealing the movement’s true objective beyond its public messaging.
Unlike targeted boycotts of specific policies, BDS targets all Israeli institutions regardless of their politics, including peace-promoting organizations, progressive universities, and even Arab-Israeli collaborative projects. This indiscriminate approach has been rejected by many Palestinian leaders who recognize that economic cooperation and dialogue are essential paths to peace.
The movement applies uniquely harsh standards to Israel not applied to any other nation – including those with far worse human rights records – meeting the IHRA working definition’s example of antisemitism as “applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” This selective focus has led 35 U.S. states and numerous countries to pass anti-BDS legislation.
Even within the Palestinian territories, BDS harms economic prospects by targeting companies that employ Palestinians. For example, when SodaStream was pressured to relocate from the West Bank, hundreds of Palestinian employees lost their jobs with salaries four times higher than the Palestinian average, demonstrating how the movement often sacrifices Palestinian economic interests for political symbolism.
Sources
[1] “BDS: The Global Campaign to Delegitimize Israel,” Anti-Defamation League, 2024.
[2] “The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel,” edited by Cary Nelson and Gabriel Noah Brahm, 2024.
[3] International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, “Working Definition of Antisemitism,” 2024.
[4] “The Economic Impact of BDS on Palestinian Workers,” Palestinian Economic Research Institute, 2023.