First they came for Israel...

First they came for the Socialists,

and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists,

and I did not speak out –  

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I did not speak out –  

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me –

and there was no one left to speak for me.

Berlin 1935: Boycott the Jews

BDS militants claim that they are not anti-Semites.  Any similarity between ‘Boycott Israel’ and the Nazi Judenboykott is, they say, purely coincidental.  This is ‘Don't buy from Israel’; totally different from ‘Kauft nicht bei Juden’.

Is it, really?  Well, one can choose to take their word for it.  Or, one can listen to the music – and draw one's own conclusions.

The main ideologue of BDS, Omar Barghouti, wants to apply “euthanasia” to the Jewish state.  Hmmm… euthanasia?  Jew-hatred?  What happened the last time an ideology adopted those two concepts?  Well, maybe it’s just another coincidence!

Copenhagen 2014: Boycott Israel

Another BDS activist, Italian union leader Giancarlo Desiderati said that, his union having already urged its members to boycott Israel, the ‘logical next step’ was to boycott Jewish-owned and Jewish-run businesses in Rome.  According to Times, Desiderati added that he and his supporters were drawing up a list of Jewish shops, "though it might be better to publish a list of streets in which a majority of the shops are Jewish and ask people to avoid those streets when shopping".  Mr. Desiderati denied that he or his fellow unionists are anti-Semites.

Yet another trade unionist and fanatic BDS supporter, Bongani Masuku of South Africa, issued threats against Jewish businesses and supporters of Israel, declaring that they must leave the country.  Although his words were condemned as hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commission, Masuku was invited to the UK, to address a UCU (University and College Union) forum in favour of BDS.

Also in the UK, Member of Parliament David Ward (Liberal Democrat Party) publicly made the following comment:

“Having visited Auschwitz twice - once with my family and once with local schools - I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.”

London 2012: First they came for Israel...

Challenged about his accusation against "the Jews", Mr. Ward denied that his remarks were anti-Semitic.  He clarified that he did not refer to ‘all Jews’, but only to “the Jews who did that”.  So if you’re a Jew who 'didn’t do it', you’re in the clear, as far as David Ward MP is concerned.  You're a 'good Jew'.

To further prove that he had nothing against "the Jews" (except of course those ‘who did it’), Mr. Ward later twitted a snide comment directed at the Board of Deputies of British Jews.  Not an anti-Semitic comment, you understand -- just one implying that they are too rich and too powerful...

French ‘comedian’ Dieudonné M'bala M'bala needs no introduction.  An extreme Israel-hater, he also invented a ‘reverse’ Nazi salute, called Holocaust commemorations "memorial pornography" and was a personal friend of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.  Mr. M'bala M'bala is, of course, not an anti-Semite.  He just happens to frequently ‘get in trouble’ with Jews.  Among other things, a French court found him guilty of "public insult of people of Jewish faith or origin".  Oy, another coincidence!

Still, his fervour has already crossed France’s boundaries: a Member of the Belgian Parliament recently reproduced M'bala’s ‘reverse’ Nazi salute, before stating that

“The Holocaust was set up and financed by the pioneers of Zionism.”

Back in the UK, a panicked Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC, UK’s main anti-Israel outfit and BDS promoter) had to hastily expel its former leader Francis Clark-Lowes, who had declared himself in writing

“proud to be a Holocaust denier”

Despite PSC’s efforts to portray itself as ‘against all forms of racism’, it later surfaced that fully one fifth of its General Assembly voted to retain the services of the Holocaust denier…

Now, if anyone needs more examples of such ‘coincidences’, just let me know.  There’s more where these came from, much more…