Since haters released the insidious, antisemitic Mapping Project nearly 3 weeks ago, it has been a spectacular failure.
Some fellow Israel-haters have condemned it, and a bipartisan group of 37 House members urged federal law enforcement agencies to investigate its potential use by extremist groups.
Now, the BDS Movement has tried to distance itself from the project, following BDS Boston’s endorsement of it – as revealed in a letter obtained by Aaron Bandler of the Jewish Journal:
Note how their main objection to the mapping project is that it harms their movement by opening it up to potential legal issues and “possible infiltration” (which I believe alludes to their concern the FBI is about to get involved). Tellingly, it does not mention at all as a concern the risk it poses to Jews, nor its inherent antisemitism. Not that they care about antisemitism – the letter’s mention of the “Israeli lobby” is an indication of their own.
Also note how they mention “advocacy of armed resistance” conflicting with the movement’s guidelines. By referring to terrorism as “armed resistance,” it is clear they see it as legitimate – it just is not good for their messaging, hence against their guidelines. Not only that, they approve of any members expressing support of this “armed resistance” outside of the movement – again, indicating they do not really oppose terrorism at all.
The BDS Movement subsequently released this statement, which repeats some of the points of the letter, but adds their condemnation of “the cynical use of this project as a pretext for repressive attacks on the Palestine solidarity movement by anti-Palestinian racists and apologists for Israeli apartheid, especially AIPAC and the ADL.”
The Palestinian BDS National Committee, the broadest coalition leading the global BDS movement for Palestinian rights, has no connection to and does not endorse the Mapping Project in Boston, Massachusetts.
Endorsement of this project by any group affiliated with the BDS movement conflicts with this affiliation.
Simultaneously, we reject and condemn the cynical use of this project as a pretext for repressive attacks on the Palestine solidarity movement by anti-Palestinian racists and apologists for Israeli apartheid, especially AIPAC and the ADL. Their smears and intimidation are clear attempts to shut down freedom of expression, including the right to boycott, in support of the growing consensus that Israel today, like South Africa in the past, is an apartheid state.
They are also a calculated and desperate move to deflect attention from Israel’s settler-colonial reality of daily violence, siege, and ethnic cleansing perpetrated against Indigenous Palestinians.
The BDS movement’s inclusive, nonviolent and anti-racist principles are clear and consistently applied in our struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
We call on progressives everywhere to expand BDS campaigns at all levels to help #DismantleApartheid.
Again, no condemnation of the project’s antisemitism or potential harm to Jews.
Meanwhile, BDS Boston has responded by distancing itself from the very same project they have non-stop endorsed:
But as of the time of this post, they have not removed all forms of promotion of the mapping project from their social media channels, as demanded by the BDS Movement:
Here’s hoping this causes more infighting and – even more importantly – more people to see the BDS Movement for the antisemitic, terror-supporters they truly are.
