Incitement Against Jews Within BDS And Pro-Palestinian Facebook Groups – Part II


By: C.R. Rublin

Introduction
The Facebook groups examined in this report are focused on promoting the Palestinian cause and Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. In this report we present posts that appeared in eight BDS groups between January 2016 and July 2019, with explicit and blatant antisemitic incitement against Jews and Judaism without any context linking them to Israel or its policies.
For the first part of this series, see MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1455, Incitement Against Jews By U.S.-Based Neo-Nazi And White Supremacist Members Of Pro-Palestinian And BDS Facebook Groups, May 16, 2019.
Groups Examined (see Appendix for details):

  1. Boycott Israel[1]: Public group with 10,000 members.
  1. BDS FIRST[2]: Public group with about 2,000 members.
  1. Stand with Palestine[3]: Public group with 60,000 members.
  1. ANTI ZIONIST – BOYCOTT ISRAEL[4]: Closed Facebook group with 4,000 members.
  1. A group for Palestine and its friends[5]: Closed group with 24,000 members.
  1. Boycott Israel…. Support the BDS[6]: Closed group with more than 35,000 members.
  1. Boycott Israel️. Free Palestine  ANSWER ALL 3 QUESTIONS PLZ!![7]: Closed group with more than 11,000 members.
  1. BOYCOTT ISRAEL NEWS AND MEDIA.[8]: Closed group with 800 members.
This report focuses solely on posts[9] published in these groups (most of which are very active) that express explicit hatred and vilification of Jews and incite against them. Members of these groups represent a wide range of geographic locations, religious beliefs, and political ideologies.[10] Incitement against Jews is rampant in all these groups, demonstrating that antisemitism transcends geographic, political and religious divides. As of this writing, none of the posts mentioned in this report were deleted or criticized by group administrators or moderators. In fact, many of the posts were created by them. This report includes only a small sample of the anti-Jewish incitement spread in these groups. It nevertheless is an accurate reflection of attitudes towards Jews that are rampant in BDS groups.
An analysis of the personal Facebook pages of users quoted in this work shows that they are based in Western countries such as the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia, in Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Pakistan, as well as in South Africa and India. They express diverse positions towards politically charged issues in the U.S., including abortion, immigration, and gun control. The religious identity of members is diverse as well, with many members indicating that they are practicing Muslims and Christians, while others are ardent atheists.

Source: Memri
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