BDS has nothing useful to contribute to the Middle East peace process

Nathan Thrall’s 10,000-word polemic on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (‘Something needs to happen’, Long read, 14 August) airbrushes the very nature of a movement whose leaders fundamentally “oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine”, even inside the 1967 lines that are often referred to by the Arab League and the Palestinian Authority as a starting point for negotiations.

UN secretary general António Guterres said last year that “a modern form of antisemitism is the denial of the right of the State of Israel to exist”. However, the BDS movement continues to exhibit an older, more familiar form of antisemitism, too.

South African boycotters recently sang “shoot the Jew”, Spanish campaigners barred a Jewish American singer from performing, and a synagogue in Hove was vandalised as part of anti-Israel “protests”.

To describe a campaign so riddled with anti-Jewish hatred as “peaceful” constitutes the most grotesque form of ignorance at best, and complicity at worst.

The article also maligns the State of Israel. Though, like all democracies, Israel is not perfect, it enshrines the rights of every citizen – regardless of religion, race or gender – in its constitution, and upholds them in practice.

Israelis enjoy a free press, freedom of assembly and a staunchly independent judiciary, in a part of the world where there is precious little liberty.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement does not have anything useful to contribute to the peace process, and will never bring reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians closer. Then again, that has never been its aim.
Michael Freeman
Counsellor for civil society affairs, embassy of Israel, London

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters