On the educational benefits of the campus boycott Israel movement

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement is a worldwide effort to turn Israel into a pariah state. I have written about it, and its foothold on American college campuses, here.

South Africa has been a moral center of the movement. The BDS campaign is modeled on the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, and South African figures like Desmond Tutu are often appealed to, as if to say: “if these people, who know a little something about apartheid, say Israel is an apartheid state, then it surely is.”

Funny moral center. As I have documented in a number of places, including here, South Africa’s BDS movement is a standing refutation of those who assert that BDS has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Yair Rosenberg of Tablet Magazine writes about the latest example,  at Wits University in Johannesburg.

Mcebo Dlamini is student body president at Wits University. He also loves Hitler, and is not too shy to say it: “What I love about Hitler is his charisma and his capabilities to organize people. We need more leaders of this caliber. I love Adolf Hitler.”

When challenged by the vice chancellor of the university and informed that he might face disciplinary action, Dlamini issued a response, which stated, among other things, “I fear that Wits University punishes black radical thought, anyone who dare offends [sic] its white established values or offend white Jews will be punished.”

BDS supporters in the United States complain about the degree of support that Israel still enjoys in the United States. But perhaps it is no coincidence that in neighborhoods in which attempts to demonize Israel have been most successful, anti-Semitism is a growing problem.

http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/417821/i-love-hitler-jonathan-marks