Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the decision of the British National Union of Students (BDS) on Tuesday, 15 Sivan, to launch a boycott against Israel. The prime minister explained the very same union less than a year ago voted against a boycott of ISIS, explaining this says all that has to be said regarding BDS.

“ISIS tramples human rights to the dust. It burns people alive in cages and the national student groups in Britain refuse to boycott ISIS and have boycotted Israel,” Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with new Canadian Foreign Minster Rob Nicholson.

In his comments during a press conference with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Robert Nicholson Mr. Netanyahu said, “As an example, a national student group in Britain voted to support a boycott of Israel. This is less than a year after they refused to support a boycott of ISIS. They boycott Israel but they refuse to boycott ISIS. That tells you everything you want to know about the BDS movement. They condemn Israel and do not condemn ISIS; they condemn themselves.

“Israel has an exemplary democracy. We have academic freedom, press freedom, human rights. ISIS tramples human rights to the dust. It burns people alive in cages and the national student groups in Britain refuse to boycott ISIS and have boycotted Israel. It tells you everything you want to know about the BDS movement.

“At the same time, in the UN, we’ve seen Turkey and Iran vote to give Hamas affiliate status – Hamas. Hamas fires rockets on our cities while hiding behind Palestinian civilians, hiding behind Palestinian children. It tells you about international hypocrisy a lot.

“I stress these points, Rob, because Canada stands out so clearly and so powerfully against these distortions of truth and distortions of justice, and I want to express the feeling of the people of Israel that we believe we have no better friend than Canada. We value that partnership. It was exemplified last week, two weeks ago, in the vote of Canada, alongside the United States and Great Britain, in rolling back the attempt to single out Israel in the NPT votes. That is deeply appreciated here”.

BDS represents 600 student unions around Britain and some seven million students. The boycott is of Israeli products and academia.

Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Emanuel Nachshon explains the decision has no practical ramifications since the group has in the past expressed its anti-Israeli views. He suggests that instead of concentrating efforts on hating Israel, the British students might study some history towards understanding the distance between verbal hatred and prejudice toward heinous crimes is not so great.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)