Letter: The Horror of BDS and Intersectionality

Dear Letter to the Editor:

Since 2005 Omar Barghouti, a founder of BDS, has declared the sole purpose of BDS to be the euthanasia of Israel. A student of history Barghouti knows full well that the Nazi T4 Euthanasia Program was the foundation of the Final Solution of the Jews as enacted in the Wannsee Protocols in January 1942. His use of the word euthanasia leaves no doubt that he founded BDS to continue the antisemitic eliminationist mission formalized by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann at the Wannsee Conference.

“In 2013” as described in  Lana Melman’s “Artists Under Fire: The BDS War Against Celebrities, Jews and Israel“, “when Israeli jazz artist Daniel Zamir performed in South Africa (SA) at Wits University in Johannesburg, intimidation escalated into death threats. BDSs charade of peaceful political action was exposed when the cry of ‘Shoot the Jew’ rang out on campus like the shouts of a lynch mob.” ( “Artists Under Fire: The BDS War Against Celebrities, Jews and Israel“, Lana Melman, 2022, Page 199)

Ms. Melman  quoted local Jewish leader Mary Kluk: ” What this incident unmistakably shows is that BFD-SA’s real agenda is not to stand up for the Palestinian cause but to invite hatred, and possibly even violence against Jewish South Africans” (page 200).

Recently intersectionality has aligned itself with BDS.  As Professor Alan Dershowitz has written, intersectionality “is a euphemism for anti American, antisemitic and anti Israel bigotry”. (“The Bigotry of Intersectionality“, Alan Dershowitz,  3/29/17).

Similarly, Elana Dushey of the Miryam Institute wrote: “When it comes to Israel, intersectionality becomes a veiled threat and hypothetical discourse to spew antisemitism “. (“BLM, Israel and the Danger of Intersectionality“, Elana Dushey, The Miryam Institute, 6/26/20).

Also Italian-Israeli journalist, author and politician, Fiamma Nirenstein, has written: “The so-called intersectionality purportedly aimed at realizing human rights for all has become the catalyst for the current wave of antisemitism.” (“Jewish Lives Matter“, Fiamma Nirenstein, 2021).

Now in Turkey the logical and psychopathic conclusion of BDS and intersectionality  has been made clear. The BDS mentality of Barghouti’s “euthanasia of Israel” and Wit University’s “Shoot the Jew” has coalesced in the midst of Turkey’s earthquake.  Israel’s highly skilled search and rescue team United Hatzalah — which rescued 19 civilians from the rubble and treated 180 injured —  was forced to end its life saving rescue efforts prematurely because of “a concrete and immediate threat to the Israeli delegation”.

“Due to a significant security threat on the Israeli rescue and relief mission in Turkey, United Hatzalah’s rescue mission will be ending and our team will return to Israel as soon as possible,” the United Hatzalah  mission said in a statement on Twitter. (“Israel’s Rescue Delegation Ends Mission in Turkey Due to Security Threats“, Algemeiner, 2/12/23)

Obviously it is more important for those who worship at the alter of “intersectionality” and BDS to have earthquake victims suffer and die rather than to  normalize relations with  highly skilled Israeli rescue teams .  Nothing makes the horror of BDS and “intersectionality” clearer than this. From Barghouti to Wits University to Turkey, it is simply as Joseph Conrad has written “The horror. The horror.”

Richard Sherman
Margate, Florida