“This whole project is reminiscent of a dangerous antisemitic pattern of activity known from antiquity through the horrors of the 20th century: a pattern which has led to violence against Jews and their institutions,” said Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
An anti-Israeli group in Boston, Massachusetts, published Friday an interactive map showing ostensible links between myriad Jewish groups in the state and public and private companies and institutions, in an attempt to broaden support for the demonization of the Jewish state.
The purpose of the innocuous-sounding Mapping Project is not hidden. The pro-BDS group said it “wanted to develop a deeper understanding of local institutional support for the colonization of Palestine and harms that we see as linked, such as policing, US imperialism, and displacement/ethnic cleansing.”
Other “harms” they throw into the mix include “systemic white supremacy” in the U.S., “privatization and medical apartheid.” The “liberation struggles” against all these types of wickedness propagated by the “oppressors,” which the mappers claim are the U.S. and Israel, “are connected” and therefore should be fought together, the BDS activists say.
This classic example of intersectionality then displays a series of Jewish organizations whose sin, according to the group, is support for the Jewish state. The names range from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), AIPAC and J Street to Jewish charities, newspapers, and a synagogue network, along with almost all those who work for them.
They are linked on the map to such public institutions as universities like MIT and Harvard (which “engage in these multiple forms of oppression and produce much of the ruling class”), municipal governments, labor federations, and military bases. Dozens of corporations in the private sector are also targets, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Citigroup, Deloitte and DuPont.
Local police forces are a special target, as the group supports the discredited claim that officers are flown to Israel to learn anti-terrorism tactics that are then used inappropriately against minorities back home.
In a joint statement, the ADL, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC) and Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) – all named by the group – strongly denounced the effort.
Its “underlying messages are clear: Jews are responsible for the ills of our community and if you maintain your relationship with Jewish organizations, you will share that responsibility,” the NGOs said.
“It is a list with names and organizations to be shunned, isolated and disenfranchised. And it draws on age-old antisemitic tropes that are all too clear to our community: Jewish wealth, control and conspiracies.”
The Israeli government also hit back, not ignoring the fact that its Boston-based consulate general to New England was a prominent target.
“Israel strongly condemns BDS Boston’s publication of a map of local Jews and its blaming them for anything and everything wrong in Greater Boston,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat.
“This publication reveals the true, ugly face of BDS Boston, which is nothing but a conspiratorial antisemitic organization. We call on all decent people to come out against this publication, and to condemn the organization and those behind this racist campaign.”
The Mapping Project says it wants to “dismantle” all its targets. The NGOs’ response: “We will not be intimidated and we will not be silent.”