On February 15, Rochester, N.Y., radio station WXXI aired a talk show featuring a group of Rochester Blacks and Palestinian-Americans, titled “Discussing the Motivations Bringing Black Americans to the Palestinian Cause.”
Soon after the show, an organization in Brighton, a Rochester suburb with a large Jewish community, called “Brighton Stands Against Antisemitism (BSAA)” issued a statement condemning the show and its host for their expression of solidarity with the Palestinian cause. The Jewish Federation of Rochester subsequently issued a statement supporting the BSAA position.
The “Brighton Stands” group objected to opinions expressed by two Black and two Palestinian-American activists on the Evan Dawson radio program. Here’s a portion of the beginning of the BSAA statement.
“The show outraged many in the Jewish community because of the lies and half-truths that were accepted as facts and not challenged by Host Evan Dawson. These statements were enthusiastically affirmed by Brighton Town Council member Robin Wilt who was on the panel in her official capacity as an elected representative of the Town of Brighton. There is a direct correlation between the dissemination of these types of lies and half-truths and violence committed against Jews.”
BSAA’s main target is Robin Wilt, a Black member of the Brighton Town Board who apparently has previously raised the ire of members of the BSAA by criticizing the State of Israel. The BSAA is calling for remedial action in the form of a censure statement to be made against Ms. Wilt by the Brighton Town Supervisor.
The second paragraph of the BSAA missive presents its lead objection to Ms. Wilt and the others.
“One of the deliberate lies told on Mr. Dawson’s show and enthusiastically embraced by the panel was that Israeli soldiers rip Palestinian children from their parents’ arms. This concept is based on the centuries old ‘blood-libel’ that Jews intentionally and gleefully kill children in order to make ritual bread (or matzah) with the blood. This false and hate-filled concept, which has resulted in literally millions of innocent dead Jews since it was first uttered, is familiar enough to many listeners that it may be readily accepted as truth. The truth is that BSAA was stunned and dumbfounded – when this statement was made and affirmed by Brighton Town Council member Robin Wilt.”
So the BSAA statement condemns the completely reasonable utterance that “Israeli soldiers rip Palestinian children from their parents’ arms.” (Though Wilt did not make the statement, as I show below.)
I apologize for pointing out the obvious here. There are numerous videos showing Israeli occupation soldiers ripping children out of the arms of their parents. But more to the point: the Israeli army has for decades had a policy of invading Palestinian homes in the middle of the night, mostly in order to detain children because they are suspected of throwing stones or other projectiles at the Israeli security forces, and additionally, in order to generally intimidate the captive Palestinian population. What parent would not want to take their child in their arms and protect them from being detained? And when a parent does hold their child to attempt to stop that child’s seizure, what do you think the soldiers do? Yes, rip that child from the arms of the parents. So the statement that Israeli occupation soldiers rip Palestinian children from the arms of their parents is actually more than just literally true, it is a figuratively accurate expression of the cruelty, mindlessness, and, yes, evil of the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime.
The BSAA statement then makes the erroneous claim that political expression directed against Israeli government policy increases both violence against Jews and hatred of Jews in general.
“It is unacceptable when our public broadcasters produce shows that allow our elected government representatives to endorse these types of statements that perpetuate hatred of Jews. It is an understatement to say that we are troubled and afraid for our community. Jews feel threatened in America. One only has to look back to this past weekend to see why (NY, Texas, Kentucky) – Anti-Jewish violence and hate is rising. By sharing or affirming Jew hating blood libels, like those given airtime on ‘Connections’, immeasurable harm is done and the risk of violence against Jews tangibly increases. Fact-checking and follow up doesn’t remove these stereotypes or ideas from people’s minds and hearts. Retractions and complicated truths never make the same splash that gory headlines do.”
The reasoning behind the false conjecture here is nonexistent to say the least, but it is a type of deceptive and inflammatory statement which is typical of many Jewish groups who have the goal of deflecting criticism away from Israel, or from their own inappropriate use of political and economic pressure in support of the Zionist state. They are also hiding their libeling of pro-Palestinian activists by conflating criticism of Israel with the expression of antisemitism. One example of this are letters from the Jewish Federation of Central New York (JFCNY) condemning a local pro-Palestinian event and more recently condemning a weekly demonstration in support of Palestinian rights in DeWitt, NY. (See “Gaza DeWitt Street Heat: Palestinian solidarity amid false charges of antisemitism, Mondoweiss.net.)
The JFCNY letters are not as outrageous as the BSAA statement. They do not single any individual out for punishment; they do not publicly call on a local politician to take action against another politician they condemn.
But the JFCNY letters and BSAA statement share a number of claims in common. Both groups’ arguments conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Both pro-Israel Jewish groups dwell upon the pain and suffering that opposition to Israel and Zionism cause the Jewish community, but dismiss the pain and suffering visited by the Israelis upon the Palestinian people. The Jewish groups are also, not surprisingly, oblivious to the considerable pain and suffering their own tactics cause the innocent targets of their anger.
And finally, both groups falsely and ludicrously ascribe what they believe to be an increase in violence against Jews to political campaigns against Israel such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). For me the most personally offensive attack voiced by the Central New York Federation is when they claimed that the sight of the Street Heat demonstrators in DeWitt– and I have sporadically participated in this action– caused a group of young Jewish students who were passing by in a school bus untold psychological trauma.
Recently I wrote an email addressed to numerous members of the Syracuse Peace Council (SPC) a local progressive umbrella group. Half of those I addressed were Jews for whom the State of Israel is an important part of their Jewish identity. In that email I described what had occurred in Rochester, a nearby city to Syracuse, to the panelists on the WXXI show panel. I urged the SPC members and their organization to condemn the BSAA statement. My email was met with total silence.
I am appalled by the silence of those Syracuse Peace Council members, particularly the Jewish members who all claim to be involved in the cause of justice for the Palestinian people. I think I know why they are silent, too.
For the last three years the JFCNY has sent a series of letters to the SPC attacking a number of their members who participated in pro-Palestinian actions and events. The JFCNY falsely claimed those events were expressions of antisemitism, which were the cause of increased violence against local Jews. As a result of the JFCNY letters and at the request of some of the SPC members, the SPC set up a liaison committee to deal with the Jewish Federation. There have been numerous meetings and ongoing email exchanges among SPC members for the purpose of deciding how to deal with the Jewish Federation. This debate and interaction with the Federation has continued over a period of at least three years. Some of these intragroup meetings and emails exchanges were quite rancorous. One influential Jewish member made a proposal that the SPC establish a group that would fight against “the recent increase in antisemitism” locally and nationally. Happily, I believe, the proposal has been shelved.
The pressure the JFCNY letters placed on lifelong allies to avoid creating discord in their progressive organization by avoiding working on the Palestinian struggle against Israeli ongoing oppression and denial of basic rights and freedoms has been enormous. It often clouds the judgment of otherwise intelligent and effective political actors. In this case it stopped activists from speaking out against the hideous attack upon a group of pro-Palestinian activists from Rochester.
My advice to my fellow Jews whether from the SPC or the JFCNY is to express their ethnic solidarity in a more creative, productive and less destructive manner than their silence and acquiescence in the face of smearing Blacks who support the Palestinian cause. Or than attacking Palestinian-Americans who voice their desire to free their families from Israeli apartheid rule. Or than crying antisemitism at those who hold signs of solidarity with the Palestinian cause at busy public intersections in neighborhoods where Jews happen to live.
I wrote in my email to the SPC members that with the impending turnover in paid staff the present may be a good time to re-evaluate the organization’s relationship with the Jewish Federation and the various rabbis that have been given special access to their group. I suggested that they also make knowledge and sympathy about the struggle for Palestinian rights a qualification for the hiring of new staff. In other words, they may want to consider ceasing to be a Progressive Except for Palestine (PEP) organization.
Since sending my email to the SPC members I have found time to listen to the Rochester radio program. (Unfortunately, the radio program is no longer available on the station’s website.)
The radio program turned out to be a wonderful example of what local political programming can be. All the panelists were informed, well-spoken and their remarks were extremely compelling. Special praise is due for the host, Evan Dawson, whose probing questions made the program good listening from start to finish. A Jewish caller said she was “pretty appalled by many Jewish people in Rochester [for their views about Palestine]” and that she had left her synagogue because of disagreements about the issue of Palestine. For his trouble hosting this groundbreaking program meant Dawson got to present a panel about the rise of antisemitism which was obviously an attempt to placate the local Jewish critics of the Black/Palestinian activist show. (This show “Discussing the rise of Antisemitism,” which was broadcast on February 23 is no longer available at the WXXI website.)
The statement that was attributed to Robin Wilt about Israeli soldiers ripping Palestinian children from their parents’ arms was not said by her nor did she say anything even remotely close. Iman Abid-Thompson, a Palestinian-American and a Rochester native who is the National Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, spoke about a recent specific incident that was widely covered in Israel, in the Arabic, Hebrew and English press, in which Israeli police retaliated against protesters by making random arrests, and some of those arrested were children “taken from their parents” in nighttime police raids. Abid-Thompson never made the general statement that Israeli soldiers rip children from their parents’ arms nor used the words “rip children from their parents’ arms.” Contrary to the claims of the BSAA statement, no other panelist spoke about this incident or the policy of the Israeli Defense Forces of arresting children during nighttime raids.
The good news is that this radio conversation about Palestinian rights and identity happened at all, especially a discussion that involved Black activists explaining the intersection between the Black and Palestinian struggles for human rights. Also good news, five days later, an Associated Press article was picked up by the Utica OD, the daily newspaper of Utica, NY which is one hour’s drive east of Syracuse. The article, by Joseph Krauss, was titled, “New generation of Palestinian activists emerges.” It is available on the Internet with the title, “Jailed Egypt activist sees wider struggle for rights in Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Krauss, as did the radio panelists, discussed the change in pro-Palestinian activism from one based on achieving a two-state solution, which is the default position of the Zionist left here and in Israel, to a rights-based approach, which calls for equality for all citizens of Palestine/Israel.
Unfortunately, the attack from the Rochester BSAA illustrates an ongoing obstacle for pro-Palestinian activists everywhere. Organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Foundation in Defense of Democracies (FDD), American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) are just some of the pro-Israel organizations which attack Palestinians, Palestinian-Americans and their supporters. They are assisted by liberal Zionist organizations like Americans for Peace Now, the New Israel Fund and J Street, who claim to work for justice in the region but usually remain silent in the face of BSAA-type smear campaigns. Many in progressive organizations such as the SPC copy the silence of these liberal Zionist groups.
While we celebrate the accomplishments of pro-Palestinian activists and criticize the injustices perpetrated by the Zionist regime, we should also never forget to speak out against those that want to harm us, such as the BSAA– and those that will help our adversaries with their silence while posing as allies.
*Hat tip to the friend and Rochester resident who brought this story to my attention and supplied many valuable leads. He requested to remain anonymous because of his fears of retaliation from Jewish pro-Israel activists for his efforts.
An earlier version of this article appeared on DissidentVoice on March 4, 2022.
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Lest we forget: The massacre of Palestinians by Zionists at Deir Yassin on April 9/1948:
“Acclaimed historian Arnold Toynbee described the Deir Yassin massacre as ‘comparable to crimes committed against the Jews by the Nazis.’ (Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 85)
“Chaim Weizmann, who had always been very worried about the fact that indigenous Arabs were the great majority in Palestine, described the Deir Yassin incident as ‘a miraculous simplification.’ (Dr. Alfred Lilienthal, The Zionist Connection, pp. 156-57)
“Menachem Begin, leader of the Irgun, could hardly contain himself upon hearing of the ‘victory’ at Deir Yassin. He immediately sent a congratulatory message to the Irgunists who had taken part in “Operation Unity.” ‘Accept my congratulations on this splendid act of conquest. Tell the soldiers: you have made history in Israel with your attack & your conquest. As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack & smite the enemy. God, Thou has chosen us for conquest.’ (Menachem Begin, The Revolt: Story of the Irgun, Tel Aviv: Steimatzky, 1983, pp. 162-165)
“Jamil Ahmed, who lived near the edge of the village, remembered the day his village died. During the battle he watched in horror as first his cousin Youssif, & then his brother, Issa, along with several friends were killed. ‘They took them as prisoners, raised their hands, & took them to the edge of the village near my house & sprayed them with gunfire. A blind man was also shot like that. A child, seven years old, was also killed that way. Other women were taken prisoner & put into trucks. I was in my house carrying a gun, defending the village. It was an old rifle from World War l, British.’ He managed to flee the village at noon, going to the nearby village of Ein Kerem.’ (“Assault & Massacre,” by Sheila Cassidy in Remembering Deir Yassin: The Future of Israel & Palestine, Daniel A. McGowan & Marc H. Ellis, Olive Branch Press, p. 48.)
“Mohammed Aref Sammour managed to escape but not before he witnessed the murder of many of his relatives & neighbors. In a house near his own ‘[t]here were twenty-five people, twenty-four were killed & only one could escape through a window. They used grenades & after they stormed the house they used machine guns. In another house they captured a boy who was holding the knee of his mother. They slaughtered him in front of her.’ (Palumbo, The Palestinian Catastrophe, p. 50) cont’d
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He then saw a family of eleven that included a woman of eighty & a young boy attempting to surrender only to be shot & killed by the terrorists. They purposely murdered even the unborn: ‘They ripped open the bellies of all the women they found straight away with bayonets.’ (ibid) The dead were robbed of their jewelry & if necessary, ‘they would cut off the arm to take the bracelet or cut the finger to get the ring.’ (ibid)
“Twelve-year old Fahimi Zidan survived a mass killing of about 36 villagers, including most of her family: ‘The Jews ordered all our family to line up against the wall & they started shooting us. I was hit in the side, but most of us children were saved because we hid behind our parents. The bullets hit my sister Kadri (four) in the head, my sister Sameh (eight) in the cheek, my brother Mohammed (seven) in the chest. But all the others with us against the wall were killed; my father, my mother my grandfather & grandmother, my uncles & aunts & some of their children.’ (David Hirst, The Gun & The Olive Branch, p. 125)
“Haleema Eid testified she saw ‘a man shoot a bullet into the neck of my sister Salhiyeh who was nine months pregnant’. Then he cut her stomach open with a butcher’s knife. She said that another woman, Aisha Radwan, was killed trying to extract the unborn infant from the dead mother’s womb.’ (ibid)
“Another survivor, Safiyeh Attiyah, saw one man open his pants & leap on her. `I screamed’ she said, ‘but around me the other women were being raped, too. Some of the men were so anxious to get our earrings they ripped our ears to pull them off faster’. (Dr. Alfred Lilienthal, The Zionist Connection, p. 154)
“‘Whole families were riddled with bullets…men, women, & children were mowed down as they emerged from houses; individuals were taken aside & shot. Haganah intelligence reported ‘there were piles of dead. Some of the prisoners moved to places of incarceration, including women & children, were murdered viciously by their captors…’ ( Benny Morris quoted by Ramzy Baroud in “A Hundred Deir Yassins & Counting,” Dissident Voice, 17 http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/04/a-hundred-deir-yassin-and-counting/) (cont’d)
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“The commander of the Haganah, Zvi Ankori described what he witnessed: ‘I saw cut-off genitalia & women’s crushed stomachs. It was direct murder. Soldiers shot everyone they saw, including women & children. Parents begged commanders to stop the slaughter, to please stop shooting.’ (Lenni Brenner, The Iron Wall: Zionist Revolutions From Jabotinsky to Shamir, (Zed Books, Ltd. 1984, P. 97) & Ralph Schoenman, The Hidden History of Zionism, (Veritas Press, Santa Barbara, California, 1988) p. 33.
“The women & children who survived the slaughter ‘were stripped & with their hands above their heads, paraded in three open trucks up & down King George V Avenue in Jewish Jerusalem, where spectators spat on them & stoned them.’ (George W. Ball & Douglas B. Ball, The Passionate Attachment, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, London, 1992, p. 29)
“Although they quickly learned of the massacre at Deir Yassin, the British authorities refused to get involved. This prompted the Arabs of Jerusalem to prevail upon Dr. Jacques de Reynier, head of the International Red Cross delegation, to investigate. He immediately contacted officials of the Jewish Agency & the Haganah, but they denied any knowledge of the incident & strongly urged him to not get involved. ‘Not only did they refuse to help me but they also refused to be responsible for what they were sure would happen to me.’ (Palumbo)
“Dr. de Reynier refused to be intimidated. He traveled to Deir Yassin to look for survivors, tend the wounded & as it turned out, bear witness to the carnage. Upon arriving at the village on Saturday morning, Dr. de Reynier was told by one of the terrorists that they were ‘still mopping up.’ To his horror, they were using knives to kill the few helpless Arabs still alive & he was unable to stop them. ‘A young girl with criminal eyes, showed me her knife still dripping with blood, she displayed it like a trophy…. [I saw] a young woman stab an elderly man & woman cowering on the doorstep of their hut….All I could thing of was the SS troops I had seen in Athens.’ (Palumbo, pp.53-54)
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“Dr. de Reynier declared in his memoirs that Jewish forces attacked Deir Yassin ‘without any military reason or provocation of any kind.’ (Nathan Krystall, “The De-Arabization of West Jerusalem,” J of P S, 106. Vol. XXVII, No. 2, Winter 1998, p.10)
“De Reynier’s assertion was affirmed by Dov Joseph, the first Israeli Governor of West Jerusalem & future Minister of Justice, who described the Deir Yassin massacre as a ‘deliberate & unprovoked attack.’ (Sami Hadawi, p. 85)
“More is still being learned about the Deir Yassin massacre. The 25 April 1993 issue of Ha’aretz quotes the recollections of a former Stern Gang intelligence officer who was there. He divulged how many of the bodies were disposed of after Dr. de Reynier had left: ‘I saw terrible things taking place, I cannot tell everything….[One soldier] took two Arabs, tied them back to back, & placed a dynamite ‘finger’ [stick] between their heads, then shot at the dynamite & their heads exploded. We did not want to bury the Arab corpses because it was too much work, & therefore we burned them. We threw all the bodies into a well, poured gasoline on them & burned them.’ (Dr. Norman Finkelstein, Image & Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, p. 189)
“The Ha’aretz article quotes a Mossad intelligence officer who arrived in the village while the Irgunists & Sternists were incinerating the bodies: ‘We witnessed a most horrible & dreadful scene…. [Irgun] men were throwing Arab corpses into a house from the roof, while a huge fire was burning. It was really like a crematorium. Besides that horror I saw many wood fires along the path on which corpses were burning. The stench in the air was unbearable.’ (ibid)
“Many survivors of Deir Yassin fled to the neighboring village of Silwan where on 14 April, they were visited & interviewed by a British officer accompanied by a doctor, a nurse & a translator. The investigators were very patient & understanding while questioning the women who were in a state of shock & naturally very reluctant to discuss what had happened to them. The interrogating officer, Assistant Inspector General Richard Catling concluded: ‘There is no doubt that many sexual atrocities were committed by the attacking Jews. Many young girls were raped & later slaughtered. Old women were also molested.’ (Palumbo, TPC, p. 54)….
What are these pro-Israel groups doing to combat anti-Palestinian bigotry?