A recent poll shows that there support for anti-Israel boycotts is low in the United Kingdom, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Wednesday.
Despite a number of high-profile celebrities who advocate for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign — notably former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters — only ten percent of those surveyed advocated boycotts of Israel.
In contrast, 46 percent of the 4,005 respondents disagreed. The poll was conducted by the Ipsos MORI company during 2016 and 2017 on behalf of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the Community Security Trust.
The poll also found a strong correlation between those who advocated for boycotts of Israel and those holding opinions considered to be anti-Semitic.
The respondents who supported boycotts of Israel or who believed that Israel is an apartheid state were also more likely to believe one or more “traditional anti-Jewish tropes.”
Only five percent of those who supported boycotts of Israel believed none of the anti-Semitic stereotypes. However, 58 percent of those who supported boycotting of Israel believed five or more of those tropes.
The report’s authors observed that it “would be wrong to regard agreement with either the apartheid or boycott statements as being anti-Jewish under all circumstances,” as 16 percent of those who believed that Israel is an apartheid state showed no acceptance of anti-Jewish sentiments. However, they observed, “the fact remains that agreement with either statement positively correlates with anti-Jewish sentiment.”
Mark Gardner, the communications director for the Community Security Trust, said the poll’s results showed that the BDS-supporting celebrities “are largely irrelevant, despite the impression some of us may have about what they represent.”
He suggested the Labour Party’s ongoing anti-Semitism scandals are “causing a lot of people to come out against anti-Semitism and come down on our side of the fence.”
On Wednesday, the BBC rejected a request from a group of BDS-supporting entertainers not to cover the upcoming Eurovision contest that is slated to be held in Tel Aviv.
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