Hillary Clinton targeted the "alarming" anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement during her address to AIPAC on Monday, calling for a united front against BDS and a rejection of "all efforts to malign, isolate, and undermine Israel and the Jewish people."
BDS is a movement aimed at economically isolating the Jewish state, and in opposing it, Clinton called for a heavier promotion of relationships between the young people of Israel and the United States.
"Many of the young people here today are on the front lines of the battle to oppose the alarming Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement known as BDS," Clinton said. "Particularly at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world, especially in Europe, we must repudiate all efforts to malign, isolate, and undermine Israel and the Jewish people. I have been sounding the alarm for a while now. As I wrote last year in a letter to the heads of major American Jewish organizations, we have to be united in fighting back against BDS."
To a raucous ovation, Clinton also encouraged pro-Israeli students to not be bullied or silenced in the face of these kinds of forces.
"Many of its proponents have demonized Israeli scientists and intellectuals, even students," Clinton said. "To all the college students who may have encountered this on campus, I hope you stay strong. Keep speaking out. Don't let anyone silence you, bully you, or try to shut down debate, especially in places of learning like colleges and universities. Anti-Semitism has no place in any civilized society, not in America, not in Europe, not anywhere."
The Washington Free Beacon recently reported on the spike in anti-Semitism at top colleges with large Jewish populations:
Top colleges throughout the United States are experiencing an unprecedented rise in anti-Semitic incidents and anti-Jewish behavior, according to a study that determined the behavior is being fueled by a rise in the number of campus organizations promoting inflammatory anti-Israel propaganda.
The survey, which focused on 113 U.S. campuses with large Jewish populations, concluded that at least 70 percent of those schools surveyed experienced "one or more kinds of anti-Semitic activity" in the past year.
There were more than 300 anti-Semitic incidents in total at these schools in 2015 alone, according to the report, which was compiled and released Monday by the AMCHA Initiative, a non-profit organization that monitors anti-Semitism on campus.