BDS activists. Photo: Mohamed Ouda via Wikimedia Commons.

The recent fiasco surrounding a Spanish reggae’s festival’s ban on Jewish-American reggae star Matisyahu underlines concerns that the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) has overreached its purported goal of promoting Palestinian rights and become a front for “anti-Jewish bigotry,” the Wall Street Journal declared in an editorial on Wednesday.

Extending its criticism beyond the Rototom Sunsplash festival itself, which re-invited Matisyahu to perform at the festival next week after its ban spurred outrage among Jewish communities worldwide, as well as the local Valencia government and Madrid, the Wall Street Journal editorial staff said the incident highlighted the “connection between singling out the world’s sole Jewish state for opprobrium and the explosion of” antisemitic sentiment in Europe.

After all, Jamaican artists Micah Shemaiah and Andrae Jay Sutherland were not required to issue public statements concerning violence against the LGBT community in their country, neither was Sudanese journalist and festival presenter Sami al-Hajj demanded to address Khartoum’s myriad human rights abuses.

“Remember the Matisyahu affair the next time proponents of the anti-Israel boycott, divest and sanction movement insist their aim is to promote Palestinian rights, not anti-Jewish bigotry,” they wrote.