The British Summer of 2014: Boycotts, Antisemitism, and Jews

Abstract

The summer of 2014 saw a bloody and destructive conflict in Israel and Gaza that triggered extensive, sustained, and passionate protests in the UK. The use and experience of boycotts as a campaigning tactic, applied to goods, shops, or people linked to Israel, was present throughout that period, usually accompanied by allegations that antisemitism was either a motivating factor or a consequence of anti-Israel boycotts. In every case, the local impact in the UK was greater than any impact on the warring parties in the Middle East. This highlights an enduring challenge for anti-Israel boycott campaigners: the gap between their professed motives and intentions, and how their actions manifest in practice, may be an impossible one to bridge.