New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang said in a statement on March 19 that although he doesn’t believe the BDS movement is violent, it is anti-Semitic.
Yang told The Forward in a statement, “BDS does not recognize the right of Israel to exist. Not recognizing Israel’s right to exist is anti-Semitic. I strongly oppose BDS, as I’ve said countless times.”
During the event, Palestinian-American moderator Dean Obeidallah told Yang that when the mayoral candidate wrote in an op-ed for The Forward in January that BDS harkens “back to fascist boycotts of Jewish businesses,” it “caused a lot of pain in [the Palestinian] community.” Obeidallah told Yang that his grandmother’s “land has been taken by Israeli settlers and turned into a settlement.”
He acknowledged to The Forward that he “used a poor choice of words on BDS” at the forum, “and it has caused pain to many people.” He added that he will reach out to Jewish leaders “to make sure they know what’s in my heart.”
Yang said at an event on Feb. 24: “My view on BDS is that because of its failure to disavow certain organizations that have expressed violent intentions toward Israel that I disagree with it, but I have complete respect for people who have a very different point of view.”