Author: Peter Larson

Has the BDS movement been sidetracked?

I recently received an email from a thoughtful Palestinian/Canadian friend, who raised concerns about what he thinks is a worrying trend concerning the BDS campaign. (See his email is at the end of this post).

He is concerned that the BDS call from Palestinian civil society is being sidetracked – or in his words “hijacked” – by those who focus primarily on “ending the occupation” and minimise (or even ignore)  the other 2 demands articulated in the 2005 call (i.e. “right of return for refugees”, and “civic rights” for Palestinians inside Israel).
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Anti semitism in Canada – is it really growing?

On CBC’s “Sunday Morning” today (January 19th), Michael Enright had a long interview with American academic Daniel Goldhagen, author of “The Rise of Global Anti-Semitism”. Mr. Goldhagen argues that anti-Semitism is a latent and endemic condition in the Christian world, always there, ready to press forward from time to time. He adds to that what he calls the Muslim Anti-Semitism of the Arab world. This anti-Semitism, while today often directed against Israel, is much more deep rooted than that. The attacks on Israel are solely “a new form of anti-Semitism”.

Goldhagen’s argumentation is the basis, of course, of Jason Kenny’s thesis that the world is awash in the “new anti-Semitism’ and that Canada should struggle against it.
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