Disagree with Zain Esseghaier

Re: “These are hardly anti-Semitic demands” (Dec. 30, 2018, Page A11) by Zain Esseghaier, a member of the Muslim Society of P.E.I. and a faculty member at UPEI.

Contrary to Zain Esseghaier’s suggestion, Zionism is the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. Anti-Zionism is the belief that the only people in the world that can’t have a state are the Jews.

Ergo: Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism.

Esseghaier’s support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) is abhorrent and falls outside the Canadian consensus, where the governing Liberals, opposition Conservatives, and the NDP view it as discriminatory and counterproductive to the prospects of peace.

Consider the following words spoken by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: “No, we do not support the boycott of Israel … We do not ask anyone to boycott Israel itself … we have relations with Israel. We have mutual recognition of Israel.”

The Palestinians’ own leader views BDS as antithetical to the prospects of peace as it unfairly singles Israel out for opprobrium and doesn’t advance Palestinian interests. Esseghaier’s support for economic sanctions against Israel unfairly assigns blame to the Jewish state and is at odds with Canadian values, as it applies differential treatment to Israel. BDS doesn’t care about peace, tolerance and mutual respect.

BDS encourages unilateralism, discourages dialogue and reconciliation, and its efforts have only protracted the conflict.

It seeks to make Israel a pariah nation and paint it as a rogue regime whose six million plus Jews must be blacklisted and slandered.

Importantly, BDSers support the so-called “right of return” which is a de facto demographic ticking bomb that would destroy Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people by flooding Israel with millions of Palestinian “refugees.”

Ergo: BDS = Anti-Semitic.

Mike Fegelman, executive director of HonestReporting Canadas