BDS is back on American college campuses, especially on the West Coast — if indeed it ever left. For the last several months, public attention has been focused on successful boycott campaigns staged by anti-Israel groups at American academic associations such as the American Studies Association and the Asian American Studies Association. Now the energy in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is returning to American college campuses. Anti-Israel groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine, are preparing to mount massive BDS campaigns on campuses across the country, such as the University of California at Los Angeles. Once again, we can expect Jewish students to face a barrage of anti-Jewish stereotypes and defamations, anti-Israel smears, factual exaggerations, and outright falsehoods, together with just enough factually accurate criticism to disguise the entire charade as a legitimate political movement. Until recently, campus-based BDS campaigns were all losers. Student groups inevitably saw these tawdry efforts for what they were. Even then, the Jewish community paid a price, as Israel’s image was falsely connected in students’ minds with incomparable topics such as South African apartheid and Nazi Germany. Last year, the situation deteriorated, especially in California, as several student governments actually passed BDS resolutions. Ultimately, these resolutions are empty gestures. American student governments have no power to act on the resolutions by, e.g., divesting from companies that do business by government. And university administrators, being grownups, invariably reject the motions. But the damage is nonetheless done, even when ultimately BDS fails, because the anti-Israel groups often smear Israel and the Jewish community with impunity. In the wake these campaigns, the campus situation for Jewish students often deteriorates, and Jewish students are sometimes spit at, threatened, and assaulted. The Louis D. Brandeis Center continually monitors problematic campuses, sometimes with personnel on the ground, for evidence that Jewish students are being harassed. In some cases, anti-Israel extremists create a hostile environment for Jewish students that violates state and federal laws, such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In other cases, anti-Jewish attacks involve criminal activities, such as vandalism or assault. Public universities also sometimes violate the constitutional rights of Jewish and pro-Israel students, sometime suppressing their lawful right to free speech. Not all criticisms of Israel are anti-Semitic, and not all anti-Semitism is unlawful. Even the vilest of anti-Semites is entitled to the full protections of the First Amendment and the doctrine of academic freedom. Nevertheless, when BDS campaigners cross the line into unlawful harassment of Jewish and Israeli students, the community needs to stand ready to protect them. For more information on Jewish students’ legal protections, see the Louis D. Brandeis Center’s Short Guide to the Law Against Campus Anti-Semitism. Suggestions for countering the anti-Israel movements worst tendencies may be found in LDB’s Best Practices Guide for Combating Campus Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israelism. Finally, if you are aware of anti-Semitic or anti-Israel (national origin discrimination) incidents on any American college campus, please contact Brandeis Center attorneys. To support the Brandeis Center’s campaign against campus anti-Semitism, you may do so here. More information is available, including a monthly newsletter, for those who sign-up here.