The boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel is an “antisemitic” vehicle used by those who want to destroy the country, a new report from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre has concluded.

While anti-Israel efforts on university campuses and among trade unionists had enjoyed some success, the report said, the BDS campaign had failed to convince global business leaders to end economically-beneficial links with Israel.

Historian Harold Brackman, who compiled Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, BDS against Israel, an antisemitic, anti-peace poison pill for the Los Angeles-based centre, concluded that the campaign movement was a “stalking horse for those seeking to destroy Israel by other means”.

He wrote: “It is a key component of the global asymmetrical war on the Jewish state. It’s committed not to peace but to a piecemeal elimination of Israel. It doesn’t believe in its own distinctions between ‘targeted’ and ‘total’ boycotts. Nor is it really interested in the economic welfare of Palestinians.”

Dr Brackman said BDS “lacks the one virtue that Hamas possesses: credible honesty about its intention to replace by any and all means Jewish Israel with (Islamist) Palestine”.

The report notes the failure of boycott activity to influence corporate decisions, and highlights international companies including Caterpillar and Veolia — both have been regularly targeted by anti-Israel campaigners — refusing to end their activities in Israel.

“The anti-Veolia campaign… had little impact, failing even to convince the Saudis to terminate environmental management projects with the French firm,” the report said.

The efforts against Israel on campuses constituted an “academic jihad”, with incidents in Britain continuing to “gain momentum”.