American Jewish Comic Roseanne Barr To Participate In Jerusalem Conference On BDS

TEL AVIV – Jewish American comedienne Roseanne Barr will be in Israel for a conference on combating the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in March, Ynet reported.

Barr was invited to the conference by pro-Israel group StandWithUs, which focuses on fighting BDS in college campuses around the U.S. It is sponsored by the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot.

“I am proud to stand with Israel during the week of Purim,” Barr said. “This is the holiday where Esther mobilized the Jewish community, and because of her strong and unifying stance, she succeeded in overturning the brutal decree to destroy us.”

Barr, who was the eponymous star of the sitcom “Roseanne,” will tour the country for two weeks prior to the conference. The comic will be accompanied by her mother.

Barr is an outspoken critic of the pro-Palestinian left and BDS. She has accused activists of “knowing nothing about Judaism” and noted that the Bataclan, the Paris nightclub where at least 130 people were killed in Islamic terrorist attacks, was named for a 19th-century Jewish operetta.

She has also slammed Jews who support BDS as “anti-Semites.”

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will open the conference and several other government ministers, including Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, are set to attend. Also expected are BDS victims including Sodastream CEO Daniel Birnbaum and chairman of the Strauss Group, Ofra Strauss.