Blumenthal, an advocate of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, was invited to speak about "The 51 Day War" at a Toronto PEN Canada event in February 2016. Blumenthal said: "What certain groups — which are very partisan right-wing groups affiliated with the Republican Party in the US and the Conservative Party here — decided to do is to declare me an anti-Semite, that I actually hate Jews." He explained: "However I decide to observe Judaism is irrelevant, because in their view, you can disagree all you want with Moses, but you can’t disagree with King Bibi Netanyahu."