I'm seeing some people on Twitter ask why boycotting Israel is considered antisemitic.
One reason is that history shows that these boycotts are just a continuation of the boycotts that Arabs enacted against Jews in the decades before Israel was reborn.
Here is a list of boycott actions of Arabs against Jews - not Zionists, but Jews - between 1891 and 1945.
February 1909: "In Hebron, where out of a total population of 18,000 about 2000 are Jews, the Arabs decide to boycott Jewish merchants."
January 1915: The American Jewish Yearbook reports "At Hebron, Jewish storekeepers are boycotted
by Mohammedan women."
April 2, 1920, AJC: "Rosh Pinah: Thirty Arabs attack Arab workmen in fields belonging to Jewish inhabitants in endeavor to bring about boycott by Arabs against Jews."
June 4, 1921: "Haifa: Arabs issue proclamation urging the populace to boycott the Jews and drive them out of their villages."
1922: Arab Congress calls on Arabs to boycott Jewish businesses in Palestine.
1924:
MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.—AS in the past, the Muslim-Christian Association again expressed its opposition to the Mandate and to the very idea of the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, and voiced its demands for the independence of Palestine. It conducted an anti-Zionist and also anti-Jewish propaganda. In a publication which it widely distributed in the past year, the Association repeatedly refers its sympathizers to the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", as a book which should be read by every-one who still doubts the pernicious motives of the Jews. ...It voted to authorize the Executive Committee to boycott the forthcoming elections and to promulgate an economic boycott against the Jews. The economic boycott, however, was later abandoned.
1925:
ARAB ASSOCIATIONS.—The Moslem-Christian Union during the past year continued its policy of obstruction—not only in political matters but it also tried to interfere with the economic development of the country. Early in the year under review, a congress adopted a resolution urging the boycotting of the Ruttenberg Electrification Plan.
1929: Arab Congress vows to compel Arabs to boycott Jewish merchandise. Syria prohibits import of merchandise produced by Jewish businesses in Palestine.
1931: World Islamic Congress passes resolution requesting Muslim countries to boycott trade with Jewish businesses in Palestine. Arab Labor Federation pickets Jewish businesses in Palestine.
1945: Arab League Council adopts Resolution 70, recommending that all Arab states establish national boycott offices.
The antisemitism is clear. It is absurd to think that the continuous boycotts by Arabs of Jews (the boycott office of the Arab League is still in place) suddenly changed in 1948 from a boycott of Jews to a boycott of Israelis.
Moreover, the Arab League boycott was explicitly against Jews even through the 1950s.
My sources were the American Jewish Yearbook and a chart in the book Effects of the Arab League Boycott of Israel on U. S. Businesses By Constance A. Hamilton, 1994.
