The official ‘No’ campaign in the Sussex Students’ Union referendum on whether to endorse BDS have repeatedly accused the BDS movement of anti-Semitism. As Jewish students we would like to point out that these inflammatory accusations are completely baseless.

Zionism is a political movement that started in the late 19th century as one of a number of responses to the persecution faced by the Jewish populations of Europe at the time. A deeply controversial movement from the start, when put into practice the creation of the state of Israel entailed the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Those who remained have experienced systematic discrimination and since 1967 Israel has subjected the Palestinians of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem to a brutal military occupation.

Zionism is a nationalist ideology founded not long over 100 years ago and has no intrinsic link to Judaism or Jewishness. Anti-Zionism is not, therefore, hostile to Jewish people or Judaism; it is hostile to this particular nationalist ideology. There are many good reasons to oppose Zionism, fundamentally the discrimination, ethnic cleansing and occupation the Palestinians have been subjected to.

Rabbi Hillel said “If I am not for myself who am I? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” We believe that standing up against injustice and siding with the oppressed is at the core of Jewish history and Jewish values. We, and many others, have been inspired to be anti-Zionists not in spite of our Jewishness but because of it. This serves to reinforce that Judaism and Zionism are not one and the same and that to attack the latter is not therefore to attack the former.

Not only is standing in solidarity with the Palestinians against Israeli state racism – including by pressuring our university to respect the Palestinian call for boycott – not anti-Semitic, but it is complementary to the fight against anti-Semitism. On a basic level, the fight against Israeli apartheid and the fight against anti-Semitism in Europe have in common that they are both anti-racist struggles.

On a more substantial level, one form of racism often feeds off the fear and animosity created by another. Zionist ideology is consolidated by anti-Semitism in Europe, which often makes diaspora & Israeli Jews feel that anti-Semitism cannot be fought, only escaped from. Likewise, when Israel intensifies its crimes against the Palestinians, anti-Semitism in Europe spikes.

Without in any way seeking to lessen the severity of the injustices the Palestinians face, we believe that the struggles against Israeli apartheid and against European anti-Semitism are strongest when conducted together. The coherent anti-racist position is both to oppose anti-Semitism wherever it does occur and to support the Palestinians’ struggle for justice. In practice this means pressuring our university to respect Palestinian civil society’s call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it respects Palestinian rights.