Former UK Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has released a whiteboard animation to explain what lies beneath the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and why it is so dangerous.
In the six-minute video, created in partnership with Israeli company White Animation, Lord Sacks outlines his views on why “Jews, humanitarians of all faiths and of none, and all those who value a free society,” must stand up against BDS activists as Israel Apartheid Week begins on campuses around the world.
The video includes graphics of a tree’s roots wrapping around Israel and smothering it, as Lord Sacks argues that the BDS campaign “looks less like a campaign for human rights, and more like a campaign against Israel’s very right to be”.
He adds: “I support the rights of Palestinians to a state of their own, and the right of Palestinian children to a future of dignity and hope, but the BDS campaign will achieve neither of these things.”
Referring to the battle against “vicious hatred of Israel that occurs online,” Lord Sacks said the video would act as just one resource in the ongoing battle against anti-Semitism, adding that it will be translated into Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
Lord Sacks pointed ahead to the upcoming Israel Apartheid Week by warning of its consequences: “Over the coming weeks, Jewish students around the world will face the prospect of vicious Israel Apartheid Weeks on their campuses. The Jewish people’s fight against BDS is a serious challenge.
“We need to utilise every resource possible in defence of the State of Israel, making our arguments in increasingly innovative and creative ways in order to capture the widest attention.This includes battling the vicious hatred of Israel that occurs online.”
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