Why do supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement reject charges of antisemitism?

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Antisemitism demonstration in Paris — antisemitism Demonstrators protesting antisemitism during a silent march in Paris. The march commemorated Mireille Knoll, a Jewish woman who had survived the Holocaust and was murdered in her home on March 23, 2018, in what authorities called a hate crime.

Supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement reject charges of antisemitism by emphasizing that the movement explicitly condemns all acts or discourse that promote it. Proponents argue that their efforts are directed at the policies of the state of Israel rather than at Jewish people, and they maintain that accusations of antisemitism are used to conflate legitimate political criticism with bigotry in an attempt to delegitimize their cause.1

Central to their position is a distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Supporters of BDS contend that Zionism is an ideology that suppresses the human rights of Palestinians, and they characterize their opposition to it as a struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. By framing their movement as a form of nonviolent resistance against what they describe as colonialism and apartheid, they assert that their goals are rooted in the principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as all of humanity.1