A Reform Jewish leader gave a one hour talk to the American Jewish Committee about religious persecution of religious minorities around the world and while he expanded on the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Muslims in Myanmar and persecution of Uighurs and Tibetan Buddhists and crimes of apartheid South Africa, he thoroughly avoided Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. When the subject did come up, Israel was offered as a model society.
Reform Jewish leader David Saperstein gave an annual lecture to the AJC that embodied the idea of PEP, Progessive Except for Palestine. The lecture was titled, “Speaking out for the Voiceless: Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities Worldwide,” and Saperstein never mentioned Palestinian persecution during an hour of discussion.
Saperstein was outspoken against the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas’ in Myanmar.
You are talking about the ethnic cleansing of a minimum of 750,000 people if not more in the most brutal circumstances simply because of their ethnic Muslim identity that they had in that country… It was a great failure of the democratic efforts in Myanmar that took place. For too long the world was standing by on that.
More than 700,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed by Israel on the basis of their “ethnic Muslim identity” when the Jewish state was founded in 1948-49. Those Palestinians have never been allowed to return to their homes. Saperstein did not mention them.
He praised the “international outrage against apartheid and how it led to significant changes,” but failed to mention what Palestinians call “a watershed moment” of this year: a leading Israeli human rights group said that Israel has an “apartheid regime” of Jewish supremacy from the river to the sea.
Saperstein called for “equality, tolerance and pluralism” and for the separation of religion and state, then went on to name China, India, Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia among countries that put serious limitations on religious freedom.
But he never mentioned the Jewish Nation State Law of 2018 in Israel, which officially makes Jews higher citizens than any one else, and says that Jews have an exclusive right to self-determination in Israel, including land rights and language rights. This law establishes apartheid as official Israeli policy, Aida Touma-Sliman, a political leader of the Palestinian minority inside Israel, explained on a tour of the United States. Saperstein’s voice for the voiceless does not include her!
“The last thing we need is a government deciding whose prayers are going to be heard,” Saperstein said. In fact, Muslims and Christians have complained about restrictions on prayer by Israel; but he did not mention that.
Saperstein said that Jews were the “quintessential victims of religious persecution” and said that victimization now includes criticisms of Israel.
Anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism are features of a new “devastating” rise of antisemitism that has “created a perilous time” for Jews in Europe, Saperstein said. That new antisemitism has a “range of different expressions,” from murderous attacks on Jews to pointed criticism of Israel.
[European antisemitism] is a really serious problem. Obviously in the aughts, A lot of that, The growth of anti Israelism, attacks on Zionism had to do with it, and the IHRA definition that the American Jewish Committee was so important in raising up played a key role in guiding countries in when anti-Zionism and anti-Israeli policy morphs into antisemitism. That was a significant contribution….
People ought to use IHRA as a way to monitor, to educate people to trainofficials and the public on what is and isnt’ antisemitism.
The IHRA definition of antisemitism includes pointed criticism of Israel: such as singling Israel out among other countries, or comparing Israeli leaders to Nazis. Palestinian solidarity groups have campaigned against the definition for limiting free speech on behalf of Palestinians. And many liberal Zionist organizations have opposed the IHRA definition for its broadbrush approach.
But Saperstein said the IHRA is a “consistent standard” that ought to be “accepted by everyone in America for what is and what is not antisemitism.” He lamented that the Trump administration had politicized it by “talking about anyone who supports BDS is inherently antisemitic” or saying that “human rights groups that are critical of Israel” would be punished under the IHRA.
Saperstein praised the Trump administration for cutting deals between Israel and Arab monarchies.
Clearly the Abrahamic accords represent a major breakthrough… [The] outside-in effort to develop better relations between Israel and Arab countries is pivotal. It really is a change in history for us, and it needs to be celebrated, and the Trump administration deserves a lot of credit for that, and I say that as an outspoken critic of much of their domestic and foreign policy.
But he said that the Palestinian situation continues to “fester” and so long as it does there will never be stability in the region. He called for a two-state solution to make a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish one. He did not criticize Israeli leaders for their refusal to advance that project.
Speaking of “ethnic cleansing”:
Between late 1947 and 15 May 1948 by means of force of arms, several massacres, mass rape and intimidation, about 400,000 indigenous Christian and Muslim Palestinians were permanently dispossessed and expelled by Zionist forces of foreign origin as were an additional 400,000 by early 1949 for a total of at least 800,000 as determined by Walter Eytan, then Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. About 25,000 more were driven out just before and during Israel’s first invasion of Egypt in 1956 and an additional approximately 225,000 during and after the war it launched on 5 June 1967. Over 500 Palestinian towns and villages, including churches, mosques and cemeteries were destroyed by Zionist forces. Palestinians’ homes, personal possessions and lands were seized and their bank accounts and safety deposit boxes were looted, e.g., Jaffa.
In 2004, when asked by Ha’aretz journalist, Ari Shavit, what new information his just completed revised version of The Birth of the Palestinian Problem 1947-1949 would provide, Israeli historian Benny Morris replied: ‘It is based on many documents that were not available to me when I wrote the original book, most of them from the Israel Defense Forces Archives. What the new material shows is that there were far more Israeli acts of massacre than I had previously thought. To my surprise, there were also many cases of rape. In the months of April-May 1948, units of the Haganah were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them and destroy the villages themselves.’ (Ha’aretz, January 9, 2004)
Self-censorship of the David Saperstein variety is so much more effective than official, government sanctioned censorship! But Israel practices the official kind as well – the film “Jenin Jenin” is banned from screening in Israeli cinemas ( https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-israel-bakri-ban-jenin-documentary “All 23 copies of the film will be seized, and it will be banned from screening in all Israeli cinemas.”, Jan 2021). But it can still be seen on Youtube or here: https://vimeo.com/499672067
Also: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210113-israel-bans-jenin-jenin-film-orders-payment-of-damages-to-israel-soldier/
The Lod District Court in Israel on Monday banned the screening of a documentary about Israel’s brutal 2002 campaign in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin….’Jenin, Jenin’ can no longer be aired in Israel after an Israeli soldier who was depicted in the footage stealing from an elderly Palestinian filed a lawsuit against the film.
The Palestinians weren’t expelled because their Islam. They were expelled because we weren’t Jewish. There is a big difference. Targeting Islam is contained. If you believe you are God’s chosen or master race then all others are deemed inferior and that is why a parallel that is being called anti-semitic is in fact accurate and not just a way of demonizing Israel. And by the way since I’ve outed myself as Palestinian, Jewish Palestinians were also ethnically cleansed. My family had intermarried and yes they’d have been allowed to remain if their “Race” had been expressed but in both cases my Jewish relatives left with their Islamic and Christian neighbors because they understood family and that a nation that is built on the premise of ethnic superiority is not a place to stay even if it is your kind that is the privileged.
“ Obviously in the aughts,”
What does that mean?
“ he expanded on the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Muslims in Myanmar and persecution of Uighurs and Tibetan Buddhists and crimes of apartheid South Africa,”
That was just window dressing for what he really wanted to whine about.
‘Saperstein said that Jews were the “quintessential victims of religious persecution” and said that victimization now includes criticisms of Israel.’
So no change there.