BDS is expanding
Yona Schiffmiller - Israel Hayom
The sudden appearance of anti-Israel BDS posters on the London Underground sparked quite a controversy. Though the accusations of "apartheid" and Israeli abuse of Palestinians aren't new, the fact that they were so prominently displayed in a public place is disconcerting. This provocation demonstrates the anti-Israel activists' drive to reach new audiences and push their extremist narrative into the mainstream.

There are signs indicating that the anti-Israel demonization propaganda is seeping into institutions associated with the British elite. Last week, the co-chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club resigned in protest over the society's endorsement of Israel Apartheid Week. During that week, campuses around the world are flooded with events that paint Israel as a racist state that has no right to exist. The student members of this club are the future leaders and supporters of the British Labour Party, and that should serve as a serious warning for Israel.

In some countries, senior officials already show open sympathy toward the BDS movement. The fact that in January South African President Jacob Zuma called on his fellow party members not to visit Israel demonstrates just how much the leaders of South Africa identify with the battle against Israel. It comes as no surprise, then, that recent reports suggest that anti-Israel lawyers have been trying to bring about the arrest of former Israeli President Shimon Peres when he visits South Africa next week.

But while the anti-Israel trend is gaining strength in these countries, in the U.S. it is the other way around. There, the political elites are making declarations and legislating against BDS. Therefore, anti-Israel organizations in the U.S. are teaming up with minority and student groups, feeding them heaping helpings of anti-Zionist rhetoric.

This phenomenon manifests itself when Israel is linked to various internal American issues, completely detached from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One particularly upsetting example was when the Jewish BDS group Jewish Voice for Peace -- which enjoys extensive funding from private foundations -- invited an African-American activist associated with the Black Lives Matter movement to speak at its annual conference in 2015. In her address, she asserted that Israel was somewhat responsible for police brutality against black people in America because of training that American police officers receive in Israel. Instead of examining the complicated relationship between African-Americans and American law enforcement, this argument points an accusatory finger at the Jewish state.

In one October 2015 video, black activists and BDS supporters presented the struggles of African-Americans in the U.S. and of Palestinians as different aspects of the same struggle. The video plucks at viewers' heartstrings by displaying image of Palestinian children killed in IDF actions alongside black children killed by American police officers. The message is clear: If you oppose police brutality in the U.S., then you clearly oppose the State of Israel, too.

Recently, thanks to the propaganda of a group called Students for Justice in Palestine, Israel and Zionism have also been linked to the battle over tuition at public universities in New York City. SJP makes use of university funding as well as being generously funded by other BDS groups. In October 2015, SJP cells across New York City called on their supporters to demonstrate against the high tuition at public colleges in the city. The group accused the "Zionist administration" of hiking up tuition, saying, "The Zionist administration invests in Israeli companies, companies that support the Israeli occupation, hosts birthright programs and study abroad programs in occupied Palestine, and reproduces settler-colonial ideology throughout CUNY through Zionist content of education." In this way, SJP managed to insert anti-Zionist and even anti-Semitic ideas into a completely unrelated debate over college tuition in an effort to enlist various student groups to the fight against Israel.

The battle over Israel's right to exist needs to adapt to these new arenas. While Israel needs to continue taking action to enlist foreign politicians' support for the idea of the Jewish state, Israel supporters also need to block funding to these anti-Israel groups that are trying to enlist minority and student groups to their battle against Israel.