Bernard-Henri Lévy. Photo: Screenshot.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is based on hatred of Jews, famed French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday.

“I want to say to the sincere followers of this BDS campaign, I want to tell them from the bottom of my heart, because I’m not sure they know it, this is an anti-Semitic campaign,” Lévy said during an appearance on Zakaria’s “GPS” program. “This BDS campaign takes its roots a long time ago, 60 years ago, in the fringes of the dying Nazism.”

“The first time when boycott was recommended against Israel…was by Nazis escaping Germany, taking shelter in Iraq or in Syria and building this campaign of BDS,” Lévy continued.

Last month, during a conversation at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan moderated by Charlie Rose, Lévy — author of the new book The Genius of Judaism — said, “Anti-Zionism is the new dressing for the old passion of antisemitism…If you are anti-Zionist, that means you wish for a huge disaster for the Jewish people.”

Watch Lévy’s CNN appearance below: