The Indiana resolution accuses the BDS movement of promoting anti-Semitism.

The Indiana legislature’s resolution was a response to a divestment resolution passed by the Student Senate at Earlham College. The Earlham statement, which explicitly condemned anti-Semitism, targeted three American military contractors – Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett Packard – that profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its periodic wars in Gaza. In its most recent assault on Gaza, Israel destroyed UN schools where it had been informed civilians were taking shelter.

Many Americans support a two-state solution that would be negotiated by both Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem are undermining that possibility, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed there will be no Palestinian state on his watch. Israel’s new Deputy Defense Minister, Eli Ben Dahan, responsible for West Bank civil administration, said: “To me, [Palestinians] are like animals, they aren’t human.”

People of conscience must unite to combat racism and hate in all forms. The charge of anti-Semitism should be reserved for that awful reality, which is on the rise together with discrimination against Muslims. Such charges must not be devalued or used as cudgels to silence a painful but necessary debate about security and justice for Israelis and Palestinians.

Sources:

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Indiana-senate-passes-anti-BDS-resolution-400821
https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/resolutions/house/simple/59#
https://bdsearlham.wordpress.com/divestment-resolution/
https://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/disingenuous-and-dangerous-israel-attacks-bds-antisemitic-1126163414
https://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/6/kill_anything_israeli_soldiers_say_gaza
https://act.jstreet.org/mailings/view/3899?akid=3899.152658.g6BEas

The BDS movement urges those who oppose current Israeli government policies to avoid purchasing products made in Israel or the Occupied West Bank, divest from Israeli companies, and lobby for governmental sanctions against the Israeli government in an attempt to change Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.

To accuse the boycott’s supporters of anti-Semitism is an old and well-worn tactic that attempts to discredit those who would protest against what many in the international community see as Israel’s unjust and illegal actions aimed at the Palestinian people and their land. The accusation of racism seeks not only to discredit the messenger, but to distract from the real issues at hand. In fact there is nothing racist in condemning Israeli government policies, just as there would be nothing racist in, say, condemning President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe for his unjust and illegal actions.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a moral, legitimate and grassroots response to the Israeli government’s aggressive and unwise policy to expand settlement activity in the West Bank and to turn a blind eye to settler violence, as well as its cruel and unjust blockade of Gaza.

Many in the BDS movement (although by no means all) believe that Israeli government actions in the West Bank and Gaza undermine the possibility of a two-state solution and thus in the long term threaten Israel’s Jewish and democratic character. Opposing Israel’s unjust actions and supporting the boycott is therefore anything but anti-Semitic. Indeed, from my perspective, it is the moral calling of our time.