by Ben White on December 16, 2009

This week, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is sponsoring a conference aimed at “combating antisemitism” in Jerusalem. It”s interesting to see a conference apparently about tackling racism being co-chaired by Avigdor Lieberman. The other co-chair is a Likud MK who lives in a settlement in the Occupied West Bank.

One of the conference”s working groups is aimed at BDS (you can view the group”s members here). This is from the group”s description:

“The BDS campaign must be taken seriously, for it seeks to escalate, but we should not be defensive in combating it. As Israeli Prime Minister reportedly said when responding to the U.N. Human Rights Council”s vote to send the Goldstone Report to the Security Council, “We are now setting out to delegitimize those who try to delegitimize us.”

The GFCA recognizes the urgent need to combat this campaign as earnestly and vehemently as possible. As a result we have convened this working group to try and come up with imaginative, effective and successful solutions to counter this evil. We will be focusing on how to analyze the problem in North America, Europe, and the rest of the world, as well as how to play both “defense” and “offense” in forging overall strategies.”