Survey reveals clear link between BDS and Jew-hate

● Majority of those who support boycotts hold antisemitic views, says new report

A NEW report has established a clear link between antisemitism and hostility towards Israel, finding that a majority of people in the UK who support boycotts or regard Israel as an apartheid state hold anti-Jewish views.

No fewer than 58 per cent of those who consider Israel an apartheid state strongly agreed or tended to agree with five antisemitic ideas presented to them, while 52 per cent of boycotters identified with six or more.

Jonathan Boyd, executive director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the report’s co-author, said that people who hold “traditional antisemitic views” about divided Jewish loyalties or the nefarious use of power are more likely to back ideas of boycott or apartheid than those who do not hold them.

“That does not mean that everyone endorsing these ideas [apartheid and boycotting] is necessarily an antisemite,” Dr Boyd added. “Indeed the data also indicate that some people who hold these views about Israel exhibit no particular hostility towards Jews at all.

“But it does indicate that Jewish people, the majority of whom are broadly supportive of Israel, are right to be cautious here.”

The paper — jointly published this week by JPR with the Community Security Trust — was based on a survey of 4,000 people in Britain carried out

by Ipsos Mori between late 2016 and early 2017.

When shown seven negative statements about Jewish people — such as “Jews get rich at others’ expense” or “Jews have too much power in Britain” — only 16 per cent of those who considered Israel an apartheid state distanced themselves from all of them, and only six per cent of pro-boycotters.

Boycotting Israel or considering it an apartheid state was supported only by a small minority of British people overall, according to the report, The apartheid contention and calls for a boycott, which was coauthored by JPR research fellow David Graham.

Just over a fifth, 21 per cent, agreed that Israel was an apartheid state — five per cent strongly — compared with 19 per cent who disagreed. The majority were either neutral or did not know.

More people, 46 per cent, rejected a boycott than backed it — 10 per cent.

Among those with a political allegiance, Scottish Nationalists were the most likely to consider Israel an apartheid state — 37 per cent against 15 rejecting the notion. Labour voters supported the idea by 27 per cent to 16, LibDems 30 per cent to 25. Only among Conservatives did more reject the idea than support it, 26 per cent to 18.

Among ethnic groups, Arab respondents were “most likely to agree with both the apartheid and boycott contentions about Israel”.