UK Guardian Celebrates Boycott of Jewish, i.e. ‘Israel-Adjacent,’ Businesses

The UK Guardian published a glowing article last weekend celebrating the success of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign in closing Jewish-owned businesses — what it called “Israel-adjacent.”

One example was Shouk, a popular kosher restaurant in the Washington, DC, area, whose owners said that they were forced to close and to lay off 300 employees because of boycotts of their Israeli-style restaurant.

Instead of raising concerns about such tactics — which are illegal in many states — the Guardian’s Dave Smith wrote a laudatory article about BDS, glossing over the antisemitism of targeting a kosher restaurant.

He wrote:

Shouk’s experience is not unique. Two years of humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza have fractured the consensus that once shielded Israel from significant international pressure. There are growing calls to shun Israeli and Israeli-adjacent businesses, ban the country from sporting and cultural events, and cut ties with its academic institutions. From stadiums to the high street, from concert halls to the political stage, the boycott movement is moving from the fringe to the mainstream.

“It didn’t let up: boycotts, harassment, you name it,” recalled Dennis Friedman, 46, a Jewish American who co-founded Shouk with Ran Nussbacher, who is Israeli. “The ability to continue to operate wasn’t there. I feel terrible because Shouk wasn’t a political place; Shouk was a place for people to come together. To become a target and be mislabelled and thrown into things that aren’t true is unfortunate.”

…

While criticism of Israeli policy is not new, the war in Gaza has acted as a catalyst, shattering taboos, emboldening dissent and pushing public and political sentiment into uncharted territory. Many observers see a turning point on the horizon – one that recalls the global campaign against apartheid in South Africa.

Smith cited J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami to claim that BDS tactics against such businesses is not antisemitic. Ben-Ami and J Street oppose Israel in almost every instance. They back anti-Israel candidate Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City, though the he has excluded pro-Israel “progressives.”

The article also cited attempted boycotts at Eurovision and FIFA — both of which have since been abandoned.