21 October 2019

Subject: Concerns about the Czech Parliament Motion on Anti-Semitism

Dear Member of Parliament,

We are writing to you as Jewish and Israeli scholars, many of whom specialize in Jewish history, the
Holocaust and anti-Semitism. Most of us signed a letter by 240 Jewish and Israeli scholars against a
resolution in the German parliament associating boycotts of Israel with anti-Semitism earlier this year. It
has come to our attention that the Czech parliament is preparing a similar motion, the draft of which we
have seen.

While we strongly welcome your commitment to fight anti-Semitism, which is on the rise in Europe and
elsewhere, we are deeply concerned that the motion’s main focus is to oppose boycotts of Israel. This is
ill-informed, counterproductive for the genuine fight against anti-Semitism and offensive to the many
supporters of boycotts of Israeli goods who are not anti-Semites. It conflates the fight against anti-
Semitism with a political agenda that has nothing to do with it.

Let us emphasize we are not part of the boycott movement (and hold different opinions on it). However,
we all find the motion highly problematic and disturbing, for the following reasons:

1. The right to call for boycotting a state – ANY state – is a democratic right, protected by freedoms
of expression and of assembly. This has been confirmed by three different German district
courts. We mustn’t go back to the days when this right was criminalised and restricted. On many
historical occasions, boycotts by conscientious citizens contributed to positive political change.
We are living in an age in which our shared values of democracy are under attack in many
countries. Let us not weaken them any further.

2. Boycotts of Israel are not per se anti-Semitic. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement
(BDS) targeting the State of Israel has explicitly declared its opposition to all forms of racism,
including anti-Semitism. A large part of the Palestinian society but also many Jews in Israel and
abroad support this movement. The motion on anti-Semitism that you are considering associates
them all with anti-Semitism, which is wrong and offensive.

3. The BDS movement is non-violent. It calls for ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory,
full equality to the Palestinian citizens of Israel, and return of Palestinian refugees. It employs
boycotts as a peaceful tactic to achieve these goals, following decades of international demand
from the Palestinians to give up their violent struggle. Hence even if one disagrees with some of
the BDS goals, one must not delegitimise or forbid it.

4. The motion you are considering generically condemns calls for a boycott of all Israeli goods. This
suggests it also condemns boycotts of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territory. These settlements present grave violations of international law and of human rights on
a daily basis, and are a key obstacle to the achievement of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, which is also the declared objective of your government.

Allow us to stress, as people who care about Israel's future: The real existential threat to Israel’s
democracy and long-term survival is not from boycotts but from the demise of any political solution.

The recent horrific attack in the Germany city of Halle underlines the importance of the fight against real
anti-Semitism. These attacks, just like the vast majority of anti-Semitic incidents in the world, had
nothing to do with boycotts of Israel. Mixing up opposition to Israel’s policies with anti-Semitism diverts
attention from the real threats.

For the above reasons, we kindly ask you: please reconsider this motion before voting on it. Remember
that your decision will reverberate in other countries, including Israel.

We can assure you that the above reflects the viewpoint of hundreds of Jewish and Israeli scholars,
including leading researchers of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, who have been speaking out against
the political instrumentalization of the fight against anti-Semitism. We are more than happy to send you
additional information and are at your disposal to answer any questions you may have.

Finally, let us add that we hope your parliament will also adopt a motion against the recently announced
plan by the current Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to annex much of the West Bank, which would
destroy any peaceful solution once and for all. Such a motion would be a sign of true friendship with a
democratic and peaceful Israel.

Kind regards,

Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Departments of Near Eastern Studies and
Rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley

Avraham Burg, former Member of the Israeli Knesset, Speaker of the Knesset and Chairman of the
Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization

Prof. Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor, University of California, Berkeley

Prof. Alon Confino, History and Jewish Studies, Pen Tishkach Chair of Holocaust Studies, Director of The
Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Prof. (emerita) Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Professor of Comparative Literature, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem

Prof. Deborah Dwork, Inaugural Rose Professor of Holocaust History, Founding Director, Strassler Center
for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Distinguished Research Scholar, Clark University

Prof. Amos Goldberg, Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem

Prof. Neve Gordon, Marie Curie Fellow and Professor of International Law, Queen Mary University of
London

Dr. Anat Matar, Philosophy Department, Tel Aviv University

Prof. Michael Rothberg, 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies, University of California

Prof. Catherine Rottenberg, Department of American and Canadian Studies, University of Nottingham

Dr. Sara Roy, Senior Research Scholar, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, US

Dr. Hannah Safran, Feminist Research Center, Haifa

Prof. Barry Trachtenberg, Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History, Director, Jewish Studies Program
Wake Forest University

Prof. (emeritus) Moshe Zuckermann, The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and
Ideas, Tel Aviv University, son of Holocaust survivors, specialized in Zionism and anti-Semitism