During a major conference in the European Parliament today, Israeli Minister for Public Security and Strategy Gilad Erdan presented a new report directly linking antisemitism and BDS. He was joined by the EU and US envoys on Monitoring and Combatting anti-semitism, Ms. Katharina Von Schnurbein and Mr. Elan S Carr, and European Jewish Association Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin.

"9 out of 10 Jews in Europe sees anti-Semitism as their main problem," Von Schnurbein said. "There is no time for complacency."

She asserted that, while it is legitimate to support "Palestinian aspirations" and criticize Israeli policy, "we must be careful that this does not legitimize hatred of European Jews."

Rabbi Margolin emphasized, “I want to be clear: legitimate criticism of the government of Israel is normal. However, anti-semites are increasingly using anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism as a means to spew vile hatred.

“BDS is the main organization responsible for incitement that has caused thousands of attacks against Jews in Europe and made their life very hard using the cover of Anti-Zionism as an excuse.

“We called this meeting together to show concrete examples of how BDS is not only abusing our cherished right to free speech, but is one of the largest perpetrators of anti-semitic hate speech in the world.

“If Europe would really like to fight antisemitism the very first step is to declare BDS as an organization non-grata, stop any funding towards them and brand them, as the German government has already done, as fundamentally anti-Semitic.”