Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has publicly announced that he will continue to condemn the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, an international campaign to put economic pressure on the Israeli government to end its occupation of Palestinian land, due to its alleged anti-Semitic nature and the discrimination attributed to it.
He delivered this statement when one of the people present at a town hall meeting Tuesday at Brock University in St. Catherines which the prime minister was attending inquired whether Trudeau would retract his earlier condemnation of the movement.
"It’s not right to discriminate or to make someone feel unsafe on campus because of their religion, and unfortunately the BDS movement is often linked to those kinds of frames", Trudeau said, stating that he will continue to condemn the movement.
He also argued that anti-Semitism manifests itself not only in “targeting of the individuals” but also the very State of Israel itself, adding, however, that criticizing the decisions made by the State of Israel is not anti-Semitic.
A number of netizens, however, apparently weren’t convinced by Trudeau’s rhetoric.
READ MORE: Canadian Students Federation Endorses BDS, Condemns Israeli ‘Atrocities in Gaza’
In November, the Canadian Federation of Students endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement along with a statement condemning "the ongoing occupation of Palestine."