BDS, Slogans & Nation of Islam

BDS / Slogans / Nation of Islam

We call upon candidates for office in our district to renounce BDS, hateful slogans that call for Israel’s elimination, and the antisemitic teachings of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (which has had a presence in our own Congressional district).

The BDS Movement

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement (which began in 2005 according to the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign) describes itself as a “Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality.”Quotes in this section of this fact sheet are to the following BDS Movement web page: https://bdsmovement.net/what-bds. It claims to believe in the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity (a principle we endorse too). However, the three strategies (boycotting, divesting and sanctioning Israeli people, companies and the Israeli government) deny rights and freedoms to Israelis in the name of advancing Palestinian rights. The movement has not changed Israeli policies in a positive direction and has created a backlash in both Israel and the US, including a movement in the US to enact anti-BDS laws, which have passed in 38 states as of 2024.

The BDS movement states that it is founded on the following belief about Israel: “Israel is occupying and colonizing Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.”

BDS views itself as a “vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches, and grassroots movements across the world.”

Notable Impacts of the BDS Movement

Ostracism of pro-Palestinian activists like Stanford University pre-med student Taryn Thomas for visiting Israel to learn about the Israeli perspective post October 7, 2023—also a powerful indictment of the propaganda/disinformation campaign in campus encampments.
A compelled apology by leading Jewish antizionist activist Peter Beinart for breaking the boycott of Israel by speaking at Tel Aviv University (the most liberal university in the most liberal city in the Middle East).
Rescinded invitations to Israeli academics to attend international conferences dedicated to advancement of science.
Litigation on behalf of Israeli educators whose offers to teach in the US were rescinded in violation of civil rights laws.
Refusal to publish academic works by Israelis and boycotts of Israeli publishing houses.

The BDS movement treats all of Israel, not just the West Bank, as illegitimately governed by current Israeli law, claiming that “since 1948, Israel has denied Palestinians their fundamental rights and has refused to comply with international law.” Because it believes that “Israel maintains a regime of settler colonialism, apartheid, and occupation over the Palestinian people,” it seeks to end all international support for Israel. It promotes a world-wide effort by governments to “hold Israel to account,” and end to commerce and transactions by “corporations and institutions across the world [that] help Israel to oppress Palestinians.” Its core believe is that “because those in power refuse to act to stop this injustice, Palestinian civil society has called for a global citizens' response of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.”

Why We Oppose BDS

It has been ineffective in advancing the interests of the Palestinian people in securing equal rights. (BDS at 20: A failure on its own terms.)
It conflates government actions with individuals. It condemns the Israeli government but targets individual Israelis and Israeli institutions, including those who do not support the government’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza.
It harms all Israelis regardless of background. It operates against Israeli society as a whole, causing sanctions against Israeli Arabs, Druze, Bedouins, Ethiopian and North African refugee Israelis at the same time as its own aims are to advance rights of another minority, the Palestinians. It similarly treats as oppressors the millions of Israelis who fled oppression from their birthplaces and came to Israel as refugees themselves.
Boycotts are a form of censorship that hurt science, technology, the arts, culture, and economic advances by denying the ability of leaders and students in these fields to collaborate for the common good. The BDS movement boycotts films that shed a critical light on Israel including those that are made jointly by Israelis and Palestinians. For example, the BDS movement boycotted No Other Land, the Oscar-winning documentary about demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank. (See also NYT: Hollywood Israel Boycott.)
The apartheid analogy is false and misleading. Israel’s origins are anti-colonial, not colonial. The Israel-Palestine conflict has many complex causes that are not due to classification by racial hierarchy. The analogy ignores that Palestinian aspirations for their own homeland are supported by many Jews and Israelis, including Arab members of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset). Apartheid South Africa’s government, by contrast, had NO black members. (Israel is not an apartheid state.)
It applies a double standard on citizenship. It defines apartheid in a way that makes any legal distinctions between Jews and non-Jews impermissible, while failing to recognize that many countries grant citizenship rights to descendants of their citizens (Portugal, Ireland, Italy). The Basic Law of the Palestinian Authority itself defines Palestine as “part of the larger Arab world” and Islam as its official religion—no different than Israel defining itself as a Jewish state that, per its Declaration of Independence, will “ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”
It ignores abuses under Palestinian Authority law, which prohibits the sale of land to Jews (punishable by life imprisonment). It is silent in the face of anti-LGBTQ violence within Palestinian areas. For LGBTQ Palestinians, refuge in Israel has been a life-saving necessity.
It impairs constructive collaboration. BDS impairs the ability of Israelis and Zionists to work constructively with Palestinian groups that seek to advance justice for Palestinians and oppose the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
It encourages discrimination against Israelis and Jews. Refusing to engage in commerce with Jews in Israel or those who have Israeli ties is similar to refusing to sell a home to a Jewish person—discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, and religion.
It encourages antisemitism. BDS encourages anti-Israeli hate, delegitimizes Zionism—a basic right to self-determination of a persecuted minority—and ultimately encourages the spread of antisemitism.

Slogans That Promote Anti-Israel Demonization, Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism

Multiple slogans that aim to show solidarity with the cause of justice for Palestinians have double messages against Israel and Jews. Because of ambiguous or multiple meanings, the same slogan may be heard as benign or as threatening, depending on who is hearing the chant and the mood of the crowd—similarly to the way that dog whistles operate differently between those who understand their coded meanings and those who do not.

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free”

This chant is a slightly altered version of “From Water to Water, Palestine will be Arab”—a call for the elimination of Israel, and any Jewish presence in the land, that has been heard for decades from protests organized in Arab capitals like Cairo, Damascus, and Jordan, when those countries were poised to attack Israel.Militant and far-right Israelis had their own version of the chant (which rhymes in Hebrew): “From the Sea to the River, All of Israel Will be Ours.” This history shows that both sides have used these “river and sea” chants as calls for violence and exclusion. While the word “free” is ambiguous—it can be read as threatening (for the area between the river and the sea to be free of Jews) or as a positive message of freedom for Palestinians—many Jews and Israelis hear a threat to their personal safety, especially given the aims of multiple states and terrorist groups to eliminate Israel.

“Globalize the Intifada”

A more explicit slogan that calls for violence against Jews around the world. Palestinian rights activists often claim that “intifada” merely means “struggle” and reflects legitimate aspirations. But “intifada” includes “armed struggle,” not peaceful protest. The First and Second Intifadas were violent, armed struggles that included terror attacks, suicide bombings and murders of innocent civilians. A call to “globalize” an “armed struggle” aims to exact violence against Jews around the world.

“By Any Means Necessary”

Another common slogan calling for violence to eliminate Israel. This slogan expressly endorses the Hamas terror attack on Israel as a “necessary means” in the goal of eliminating Israel and its supporters around the world.

“Free Palestine”

At once both the most innocuous-sounding and potentially the most troubling of the slogans. Since the word “free” also suggests “freeing the land from Israeli control” and ridding Palestine of Jews, it carries a tone that is threatening and provocative to Jewish audiences. Politicians on the Left have been very slow to associate this chant with left-wing antisemitism when it is shouted during violent terror attacks on Jews and Israelis. (see murder of hostage marcher in Boulder and Washington DC murder of Israeli embassy staff members Yaron Lichinsky and Sarah Milgram outside the Capitol Jewish Museum)

“Kill IDF” / “Death to the IDF”

Chants at rallies in Europe that have led to violent assaults against Jews. Since military service in the Israel Defense Forces is mandatory and nearly universal, the call amounts to a call to kill Israeli adults and is heard by those who have served their country as a call for violence against them.

When these slogans are chanted, we have to ask, “Where are the Jewish voices?” “Palestinian rights are human rights” is a chant most American liberal Jews would support. But the same rallies say nothing about Jewish rights or Israeli rights. Israeli flags are not flying in the crowds. Within social justice movements, Jews today are often afraid to bring signs of their Zionist or Israeli connections, or even religious symbols that mark them as Jewish. (See Understanding Zionism.)

The prevalence of these slogans on the Left creates a culture that normalizes anti-Israel hate, reinforces litmus tests that exclude Jews and Zionists regardless of their commitments to justice and democratic values, and creates a hostile environment for Jewish participation in the struggle to protect democracy in America.

Jews who object to these slogans have had their concerns marginalized or ignored, been told to “stop whining,” or lectured as to why this is a “non-issue.” This directly contradicts the principle that marginalized and persecuted minorities should be allowed to define their own trauma and discrimination. Hate speech and encoded speech that targets Jews should not be acceptable on the Left. It needs to be repudiated given the reality of the steep rise of antisemitism.

Nation of Islam Antisemitic Propaganda

The Nation of Islam was founded in 1930 in Chicago. It has national headquarters at Mosque Maryam at 7351 South Stony Island Ave. in Chicago, making it a close neighbor to Illinois Congressional District 7. Louis Farrakhan himself, head of the Chicago Mosque and now 92 years old, has a home in the Kenwood area (next to Hyde Park).

While his influence has waned over the past few years, the Chicago area and the 7th Congressional District has experienced the influence of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. For over forty years, Farrakhan has regularly made antisemitic statements referring to Jews as “Satanic,” the “enemy of God,” calling Judaism a “gutter religion,” and praising Adolf Hitler.

Especially damaging, in 1991 and under Farrakhan’s leadership, the Nation of Islam published or promoted false conspiracies stating that Jews controlled the Transatlantic Slave Trade—debunked as early as 1992 by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., and as recently as December 2025 in a new documentary. (See Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History.)

In 2018, Congressman Danny Davis stated in an interview that Louis Farrakhan was an “outstanding human being” and refused to condemn his antisemitic statements (he later walked back some of these statements when pressed).

Farrakhan is identified as an antisemite by the ADL as well as by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which also highlighted his anti-LGBTQ views.

Farrakhan’s influence was felt during the 2017 Women’s March when two national organizers, Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez, reportedly defended Farrakhan and pressed upon their Jewish co-organizers the libel that Jews were disproportionately responsible for the transatlantic slave trade and bore a special collective responsibility as exploiters of Black and brown people. (Tablet Magazine.) The damage this caused to the effort to mobilize against the first Trump administration is incalculable.

It is important that candidates who seek to represent Jewish voters in the district repudiate these teachings.

For an excellent new PBS series by renowned Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, repudiating antisemitism in the Black community and anti-Black racism in the Jewish community, including addressing the antisemitic slave trade myth, see Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History.