How in 20 years has the appeal signed by organizations whose names were known only to their members, in God’s forgotten and people’s corner of the world, turned into a global movement that has mastered the hearts and minds of millions with which governments in the planet must reckon and which gives their participants a moral mandate to usage violence? If I compose that I mean the BDS movement (Boycott, Division, Sanctions), then very fewer people in Poland will know what is going on. But if I add that this is simply a boycott of Israel, it will become clear.
On 9 July 2005, 8 months after the death of Arafat and the conclusion of the second Intifada, in Ramallah, more than 170 Palestinian organizations sent to the West planet "Palestinian civilian Society Call for BDS" [1]. The appeal was inspired by the anti-apartheid fight in South Africa and called for boycotts, diversions and sanctions "similar to those against South Africa in the apartheid era". The aim was to bring down the wall, return refugees and the creation of the Palestinian State. No media in the West informed about the signing. After 20 years, we have not only hundreds of thousands of manifestations in the world's largest cities, protests at universities, demands of the liquidation of the State of Israel and the “return” of Jews to Poland and Belarus, but besides acts of panic as part of the “Global Intifada”. It can be said, of course, that the global success of the BDS is the consequence of Israel's actions under the leadership of Netanyahu, but even the participants themselves would not describe the reasons for the success of the BDS.
BDS import
Practically unknown in Poland and hard to understand, is the process of "importing" BDS into the British discourse. And this Britain is the first western country in which the BDS developed. Without this step, the movement would stay the appeal of the activists of a tiny passage of the 3rd planet (that was then called the Global South) for fair treatment, which remained without any applicable consequences.
Why didn't it? On the map of the British discourse on moral work for South Africa colonialism occupied a peculiar place. On the 1 hand, we have a shameful and contemptible Boer War. A colonial, imperial, and racist war. On the another hand, this blame can be regarded as being ‘receivable’ due to the effective defeat of the criminal apartheid in South Africa, in which the overthrow of the UK citizens had an crucial part, forcing their authorities to establish boycotts and sanctions.
The moral symbol of “pure evil” was neither India — colonialism was relativized by the historical context nor Kenya — the concentration camps after Mau-Mau's uprising the British learned from Caroline Elkins' book Britain’s Gulag [2] which appeared six months after an appeal from Ramallah.
Moral panic and collective responsibility
So we have a symbol of pure evil transferred from South Africa to Israel. What is more, the evil that was overcome by the left rather recently. present we hear a cry for aid again, and since it worked erstwhile again, let us repeat the same model of action. This mechanics allowed BDS to rapidly settle in progressive environments — at the Academy, NGO, trade unions, and media. The first resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli universities was adopted by AUT (Association of University Teachers) on April 22, 2005 — and thus before announcing the BDS appeal from Ramallah. It was a reaction to the earlier appeal of the PACBI (Palestinian run for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) of April 2004, signed by about 60 Palestinian dormitories. Although the AUT resolution was repealed after a month, the boycott case was regularly returned at the conventions of academic teacher organisations. This shows that the July appeal from Ramallah was an effort to unify and formalise existing initiatives alternatively than to initiate them.
The usage of the mention to South Africa unleashed the moral panic mechanics described by Stanley Cohen: “The state, episode, individual or group of people who are beginning to be defined as a threat to values and social interests; their nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical manner by mass media; moral barricades include editors, bishops, politicians and another law-thinking persons” [3].
The mechanics described by Cohen consists of respective elements. There must be “The People's Devil”, a group for which social fears are designed. It is not essential to read the 2,000 pages of Poliakov's "Historiy of Anti-Semitism" to know that Jews have been cast in this function in Europe for hundreds of years. This group shall be assigned deviation (in this case the charge of apartheid) and follows Deviation winding spiral — like a media resonance chamber. For this to happen, moral authority is needed (moral entrepreneurs), in this case academics and media. Finally, the moral panic feature is disproportionate consequence to actual threat [4].
Moral panic creates a ‘good community’ to which membership requires a circumstantial attitude and its questioning results in exclusion. In this case, the British progressive environments cast Israel in the function of evil and Jews in a privileged role, and exclusion from the “good community” resulted in questioning this certainty. It was written by David Hirsh, a sociologist at Goldsmiths University, who has opposed the BDS movement at the British Academy since 2005 [5].
Moral panic brings not only the exclusion of decent ones who do not join in criticizing “pure evil”. Fighting the devil justifies violence. possibly not physical (it's Oxbridge and we're not fighting each another here), but verbal, emotional, and symbolic. Moral panic not only excludes wrongdoers, but besides justifies something else by demonization: collective responsibility.
USA and Intersectionism
The improvement of BDS in the US is worth more detailed discussion for respective reasons. First, it had roots in the tradition of progressive movements going deeper than in Britain. Secondly, its impact on the countries of the British Commonwealth was greater than the UK itself. Thirdly, he had a strong influence on making weapons out of legal terms (weaponisation of law).
“Soyusz” progressive-Palestinian in the US is counted from Black Panthers. Malcolm X visited Gaza in 1964, met with PLO head Ahmad Shuqayry, and in Egyptian Gazette He published an essay entitled “Zionist Logic” — an attack on the logic of Zionism as colonial [6]. Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther organization wrote that “Israel was created by Western imperialism and maintained by Western firepower” [7]. BPP treated African Americans as "internally colonized" people, in Palestinians saw "brotherly 3rd planet people", and al-Fatah supported since 1968. The propalaestine communicative in the African American liberation movement was present until the end of the 1970s. In 1979, Jesse Jackson meets with Arafat, but then the subject fades until the end of the 1990s.
However, the academic community in the US was in the early 2000s. ‘ready’ for BDS traffic. In 1993, Hatem Bazian, a Palestinian-American activist at UC Berkeley, established the first branch of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), although until 2002 the movement remains marginal. In 2002 Palestine Solidarity Movement is formed, a campus network hosting yearly conferences. After announcing BDS Call from Ramallah, SJP troops multiply on American campuses like mushrooms after rain. By 2011, SJP had about 100 of them — including Ivy League colleges, and Columbia hosted its first national conference. By 2024, the number of troops exceeded 275.
Key to the revival of the alliance of progressive environments with the Palestinian origin was intersectionality (intersectionality) — the concept from the critical explanation of the Kimberlé Crenshaw breed [8], meaning the intertwining of various forms of oppression. American pro-Palestinian organizations have built the Palestinian case into the social justice network: rights of colored people, feminism, LGBTQ+, Native Americans, prison abolitionism, climate. Palestine has become part of the package — if you are progressive, you must support the BDS as you must support the trans laws. The turning point here is the emergence of the Black Lives substance movement after the execution of Michael Brown in Ferguson in August 2014. During the protests that spread across the country, the slogan “From Ferguson to Palestine, business is simply a crime!” (in July Israeli troops conducted the “Protective Edge” operation in Gaza), and in 2015 BLM activists' delegations visit the West Bank. In 2016, a Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) coalition publishes a political manifesto in which it calls Israel "a apartheid state" and accuses the US of complicity in the "genocide of the Palestinian people" [9]. The book besides appears in 2016 Freedom is simply a Constant Struggle Angela Davis [10], which straight combines racism, industrial prison complexes and settlement colonialism “from an intersectional perspective”. The latest chord in this composition are pro-Palestinian slogans and symbols during protests against ICE in Minneapolis.
There are 2 more reasons why the US is crucial for the improvement of the BDS movement. The first is due to the usage of the word “settler colonialism” to describe Israel. This construction — the alignment of the Palestinian case with the persecution of indigenous peoples in colonies as a consequence of settler colonialism — resonated very well in the Australian, Canadian and fresh Zealand left, resulting in the spread of BDS in these countries. The second reason is possibly even more important. In the United States, the knowing of freedom of speech is much broader than in Europe. First Amendment is interpreted in accordance with the judgement Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) [11]: speech loses protection ONLY if it is ‘directed to call and likely to origin direct unlawful action’ (imminent lawless action). This means that, unlike Europe, the usage of the word "genocide" in a public message does not require any peculiar justification and can only be prohibited if it is simply a direct call for force (e.g. anti-vaccination movements without legal implications utilized the word "vaccination genomice" as a description of adverse vaccine effects). For American discourse, it was not different for M4BL to usage the word "genocide of the Palestinian people" in the summertime of 2016. As a result, it was much easier to spread the same structure globally. Thus, the concept of the "worst possible" crime of global law began to function in relation to Israel much earlier than in the beginning of the war in Gaza.
Both “apartheid” in Britain and “genocide” in the US served the same function: they gave the BDS movement a moral burden that justified extremist action. It's worth looking at how this mechanics works.
Language as a weapon of good cause
The notions of "apartheid", which was a vehicle for the spread of BDS in the United Kingdom and "genocide", which had a akin function in the US, have 1 common feature. They are concepts in the field of global law, they have a circumstantial delicacy, judicial practice and serious sanctions. Mixing the usage of publicistic, in order to emphasize the importance of the problem, with legal and criminal law is called veponisation of the legal language. A series arises: publically this genocide (seeing similarities) — that is, genocide — genocide has its legal sanctions — we are obliged to draw these sanctions with the same ruthlessness as we did before.
Starting with genocide — Convention on the Prevention and punishment of Genocide Crimes (1948), Article II defines genocide as being committed “with the intent to destruct all or part of the national, ethnic, racial or spiritual group as such” [12]. It is not adequate to supply evidence of 5 types of genocide: killing members of the group, causing serious physical or intellectual harm, imposing surviving conditions calculated for physical destruction, preventing births, forcing the transfer of children. We inactive gotta prove the intent to physically destruct the group. In practice, this means that there are many criminal behaviors that are akin to genocide, but they are not. In its ruling on Bosnia v. Serbia (2007), the MTS argued: “It is not adequate to establish that there have been deliberate unlawful killings of members of the group. Additional intent must besides be established and is defined very precisely" [13]. However, Amnesty global issued a study on the genocide in Gaza, the MTS ordered temporary measures in January 2024, and the UN Human Rights Committee made a clear message on this issue. Only neither Amnesty global nor the UN Human Rights Commission are a court of global law and their position has no power of judgment. Moreover, in its explicite report, the AI rejects the standard of evidence adopted by the MTS to show the country's genocide intent, recognising it as "an overly restrictive explanation which in practice excludes the uncovering of genocide in the context of armed conflict" (overly cramped interpretation... that would effectively foretell a uncovering of genecide in the context of an armed conflict) [14]. In another words, AI comes to the conclusion of genocide utilizing a milder threshold of evidence than that before global courts. On the another hand, the MTS decision on provisional measures is not a substantive decision — the Court simply held that South Africa’s claims are likely (plausible) and the situation requires a safety against a meritum which has not yet been decided [15].
Genocide is simply a “crime crime” and its speech justifies taking all possible action, including collective responsibility, specified as carpet bombings of German cities during planet War II, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians died.
The apartheid problem looks similar. There is simply a Convention on Apartheid (1973) and the Rome Statute of the ICC defining apartheid crime as "inhuman acts committed to establish and keep the dominance of 1 racial group over another racial group and systematic oppression thereof" (Convention) and "accompanied in the context of an institutionalized government of systematic oppression and dominance of 1 racial group over others and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime" (Roman Statute) [16]. Since 2005, erstwhile this accusation was presented by the BDS movement, to this day specified accusation against Israel has not even been accepted for consideration by the ICC. Mainly due to the fact that it would be highly hard to prove "the context of the dominance of 1 racial group over another".
The Emotional fuel of the BDS movement cannot be accusations of war crimes (this is besides a serious crime of global law). In this case, it would be much harder to accomplish the moral panic effect. War crimes are not only more "daily." It would besides be essential to place our own countries under a akin bar. The method of settling war crimes in Abu Ghraib differs small from akin trials in Israel. In contrast, suppression of Mau-Mau's uprising in Kenya did not origin anyone to be accused of war crimes (in 2005 they lived straight liable and their commanders). It's a small hard to mobilize the fight against Israel, since we haven't just settled our colonial past, but besides today's crimes.
The thought of colonialism should be added to this collection. The usage of the word "colonial settlementism" in relation to the fresh behaviour of the State of Israel and Jews surviving in the West Bank is appropriate. Only that the concept in Europe is incomprehensible and the adjective is omitted. It is described as equal to European colonialism, and morally equates Israel's behaviour with King Leopold II's behaviour in the Congo.
Weaponization of the language, whether conscious or not, leads to the consent of force and collective responsibility. Even making it a virtue, as Fanon wrote about the fight against colonialism: “At the individual level, force detoxifies. It liberates the colonized from the inferiority complex, from despair and inaction” (translated by the author) [17].
Philippe Sands (UCL, author of East West Street, represents Gambia before the MTS of Rohingya: “The word genocide has gained a position in political circles and public discussions as a “crime crime”, representing the protection of groups beyond the protection of the individual (...). It seems improbable to me that killing 100,000 people as a crime against humanity is little horrible than killing 100,000 people as a group.” [18]
The left can't be anti-Semitic?
Not without importance for the improvement of the BDS movement was that it was carried out by the left. The reputation and tradition of the left acts as a vaccine for accusations of anti-Semitism. How can individual with leftist views be accused of anti-Semitism? Jews built socialism and communism. Bund was founded during the First legislature of the Social Democratic Workers' organization of Russia. The communists were the main enemy of the Nazis. They witnessed this on the streets of Berlin in the 1930s, in Stalingrad in 1942 and in Northern Italy in 1944. Socialism is an ideology of equality, tolerance and defence of the persecuted. So by definition, the left-wing man cannot be anti-Semitic.
Unfortunately, the left not only may, but frequently was anti-Semitic adequate not to treat it as a coincidence. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon wrote: “The hebrew is an enemy of mankind. This breed must be sent back to Asia or exterminated." Charles Fourier wrote that “Jews are a leprosy and ruin of the political body” [20], and his disciple Alphonse Toussenel became celebrated for the classical work of “economic anti-Semitism” [21]. Not only did French socialists — besides Engels utilized anti-Semitic stereotypes repeatedly in correspondence [22]. specified behaviours could be multiplied, although of course there were besides many left-wing activists, like Rose Luxemburg, who opposed specified attitudes.
This is not only about traditions of the left, but besides about behaviour from the second half of the 20th century. The postwar Stalinist purge, which did not come to fruition simply due to the fact that the dictator had left this world, was to concern “the cosmopolitan deviation” (read: Jewish) [23]. Anti-Semitic par excellence was a Gomulkowska run that drove at least 13,000 Jews out of Poland. It was part of the russian strategy, in which “anti-Zionism” became a virtue and shield against anti-Semitism charges — Zionism was redefined by russian propaganda from the national movement to racial and colonial ideology [24].
When we talk about left-wing movements, it is besides worth recalling the past of the Lead Years in Western Europe. A crucial part of the environments reaching after panic in the 1970s began by participating in peaceful manifestations of the left in the late 1960s. The force of the state's apparatus, the deficiency of self-depreciation and the sense of alienation led activists to scope for violence. The arrival from the peaceful conflict for equality, justice and number rights to the participation of German left-wing terrorists from Revolutionäre Zellen in the selection of judaic hostages during the hijacking of the Air France aircraft to Entebbe in 1976, under the umbrella of Uganda's dictator Idi Amina [25], is an example of the moral degradation that happened to the left.
The anti-Semitism of the left is not much little uncommon than the right-wing one, although it is not part of the DNA of its worldview, as in the case of nationalism. Rather, he is “the socialism of fools”, as August Bebel called him [26]. However, anti-Semitism is more than a hiccup of the left. It is correct that the Jews were cast in the function of the enemy of the people, social justice and equality until besides apparent were the intentions of utilizing Resentimants and anti-Semitic cripples to gain the support of the masses.
What's next?
It is worth looking at the dissemination processes, due to the fact that Poland is besides on the BDS traffic map. The litmus paper to measure at what phase we are may be the Nitro-Chem case (a Polish maker of explosives utilized in weapons sold by the US to Israel) and the participation of the Last Generation. Why am I summoning the OP? Since October last year, the only public actions of this movement have been demonstrations under Nitro-Chem and the Ministry of State Acts. And those who might uncertainty what the Palestinian case has to do with climate activists explained: “The crimes in Gaza and climate crimes are contempt for human life.” another propalestinian Polish activists were detained in March 2026 with allegations of “help in terrorist activity”, which was arson by The Earthquake Faction of the Czech weapons company LPP Holding.
Three months ago, I would have written that compared to Britain, we are at the phase of mainstreaming and non-violence. present I am not so sure, I see a large difference with the Palestine Action in the UK [27], which has gone from symbolic actions to sabotage of the factories. Is this the last phase of BDS development? Historical experience shows that specified a limit does not be unless we set it ourselves.
Is further radicalisation possible? There's a reason. Secret organizations reaching for panic exist: Palestine Action in the UK, Turtle Island Liberation Front in the US [28], or The Earthquake Faction in Central Europe. There is simply a mass movement whose actions are called into question. As in the 1960s, the climate of force was expanding and there is no reason to presume that an event akin to the shooting of Rudy Dutschke [29], which became an impulse for the formation of Rote Armee Fraktion, would not push extremist activists from the non-violence road towards force “in the fight for the right cause”.
There is no uncertainty that specified a process would be curious in Moscow, which wants to destabilise Europe. Are we ready for this? British and German service alternatively so. By bringing Polish detainees from fresh detentions too. However, let us admit that the threat to the safety of Poles and Poles is not the most serious threat of pro-Palestinian terrorism. I have no doubt, however, that European societies are completely not ready for this situation, as they are not ready to face Russia.
Will the Lead Years repeat in Europe? I don't think so, due to the fact that present terrorism looks a small different. Today's terrorists are radicalized in amorphous environments, deciding to attack rather compulsively. I would not anticipate precisely planned kidnappings or assassinations of known persons — rather, the service will cope. More "amateur", improvised attacks, utilizing a weapon that just happened to be at hand and with victims that may symbolize "evil" but are surely not liable for them.
I'm overreacting? I'll remind you. On December 14, 2025, 2 ISIS-inspired bombers opened fire on respective 100 people celebrating Hanukkah on Bondi Beach, Sydney. 15 people were killed — from 10 - year - old Matilda Bee, to eighty - 7 - year - old Alex Kleytman, a survivor of the Holocaust who was killed, covering Larisa’s wife with his own body — besides survived. Matilda’s mother, Valentina, said: “I came from Ukraine. I was so happy that my boy didn't gotta fight for his land and that he was safe here. I couldn’t imagine losing my daughter here.”
[1] Palestinian civilian Society Call for BDS, Ramallah, July 9, 2005. Text of the appeal available at bdsmovement.net.
[2] Caroline Elkins, Britain’s Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya, Jonathan Cape, London, January 2005.
[3] Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers, MacGibbon & Kee, London, 1972.
[4] Erich Goode, Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance, Blackwell, Oxford, 1994.
[5] David Hirsh, Contemporary Left Antisemitism, Routledge, London, 2018, pp. 1–32.
[6] Malcolm X, ‘Zionist Logic’, Egyptian Gazette, September 1964.
[7] Huey P. Newton, ‘On the mediate East’, The Black Panther, 1970.
[8] Kimberlé Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex", University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989, pp. 139–167.
[9] Movement for Black Lives, "A imagination for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom, and Justice", 2016. The "Invest-Divest" section included the phrase "genocide of the Palestinian people".
[10] Angela Davis, Freedom is simply a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement, Haymarket Books, Chicago, 2016.
[11] Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969).
[12] Convention on the Prevention and punishment of Genocide Crimes, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1948, Article II.
[13] Application of the Convention on the Prevention and punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), ICJ Juggment, 26 February 2007, par. 187.
[14] Amnesty International, “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, London, 2024, p. 101, Section 5.5.2 "State Intent". AI writes: “Amnesty global hosts this an overly cramped explanation of global jurisdiction and 1 that would effectively foretell a uncovering of genecide in the context of an armed conflict.”
[15] Application of the Convention on the Prevention and punishment of the Crime of Genocide (South Africa v. Israel), ICJ, Order on Providial Measures, 26 January 2024.
[16] Convention on combating and punishing apartheid crimes, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 30 November 1973, Article II; Statute of the Roman global Criminal Court, 1998, Article 7(2)(h).
[17] Frantz Fanon, Les Damnés de la Terre, François Maspero, Paris, 1961, Chapter I "About Violence".
[18] Philippe Sands, interview for New Statesman, 2020. Sands is simply a prof. of global law at University College London and author East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016).
[19] Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Carnets (Notebooks), entry dated 26 December 1847.
[20] Charles Fourier, Théorie des quatre mouvements, 1808.
[21] Alphonse Toussenel, Les Juifs, rois de l’époque: Histoire de la féodalité financièreParis, 1845.
[22] Friedrich Engels — utilized anti-Semitic stereotypes many times in correspondence with Marx, including in letters from 1840 to 1850.
[23] The case of the Cremlow doctors (the alleged "doctoral conspiracy") — January 1953. The anti-cosmopolitical run has continued since 1948.
[24] David Hirsh, Contemporary Left Antisemitism, Routledge, 2018. See besides Izabella Tabarovsky, ‘Soviet Anti-Zionism and Contemporary Left Antisemitism’, Fathom JournalMay 2019.
[25] The hijacking of Air France flight 139 to Entebbe, Uganda, June 27, 1976. Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann of Revolutionäre Zellen selected hostages, separating judaic and Israeli passengers from the others.
[26] The word attributed to August Bebl (1840–1913), co-founder of the SPD, although the authorship is discussed.
[27] Palestine Action — an organization founded in 2020 in the United Kingdom, moving direct sabotage operations against Elbit Systems' weapons factories.
[28] Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF) — in December 2025, the FBI arrested 4 members of the group in connection with planned fresh Year's Eve bombings in California. The U.S. Department of Justice described the group as "extremely left-wing, propalestine, anti-government and anti-capitalist".
[29] Josef Bachmann, right-wing extremist, shot Rudy Dutschke on 11 April 1968 in West Berlin. Dutschke survived the assassination, but never recovered full and died on December 24, 1979 of the wound effects. Bachmann committed suicide in prison in 1970.
