Editor’s Note: The following press release was issued by The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and National Students for Justice in Palestine (National SJP) on May 17, 2020. Mondoweiss occasionally publishes press releases and statements from organizations in an effort to draw attention to overlooked issues.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and National Students for Justice in Palestine (National SJP) today released a joint statement reaffirming their “unwavering support of the Palestinian cause for justice and liberation.”
They unequivocally condemned the “baseless allegations” made against them by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which falsely conflated their criticism of the government of Israel’s human rights violations and state discrimination against Palestinians with anti-Jewish racism.
On Sunday, May 1, ADL Director Jonathan Greenblatt sparked widespread backlash by falsely equating Palestinian human rights solidarity groups with white supremacists and January 6th insurrectionists. Greenblatt also declared that any form of anti-Zionism is antisemitism, effectively declaring every major Palestinian-American organization and numerous Jewish scholars, organizations and activists, to be antisemitic.
The ADL has also led recent campaigns to undermine international human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem for their respective reports that have designated Israel as an apartheid state.
Here is the full statement by the three organizations:
The movement for Palestinian rights will not be silenced – SJP, CAIR and JVP respond to ADL attacks
At a time when the movement in solidarity with Palestinian liberation is unprecedented in its support — and facing increased attack — the Council on American Islamic Relations, Jewish Voice for Peace and National Students for Justice in Palestine reaffirm our unwavering support of the Palestinian cause for justice and liberation. We unequivocally condemn the baseless allegations by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) against our organizations, and are gravely concerned that the ADL’s attacks will distract from the real threat of white supremacy faced by all our communities.
The ADL’s latest intimidation campaign is based on a highly problematic definition of antisemitism that attempts to conflate criticism of the Israeli government or Zionism with anti-Jewish racism. This is as dangerous as it is baseless. Many people of various faiths and backgrounds–including Jewish scholars, rabbis, and activists–have long criticized and opposed Zionism. For the Palestinian community, Zionism is the political ideology that has enabled their violent subjugation and systematic dispossession. People must be able to discuss and debate these issues without being falsely smeared as anti-Semites.
This latest escalation by the ADL against our organizations is further proof of the ADL’s desperation. The ADL has long worked to secure total impunity for the Israeli government. But poll after poll shows that they are losing ground, as Americans increasingly support equal rights for Palestinians. This includes the Jewish American community, where there is significant condemnation of Israel’s apartheid regime, especially in younger generations, as well as with a large majority of Democrat voters.
The ADL’s attack on our organizations is only the most recent in its long history of campaigns aimed at strengthening the forces of institutional racism while surveilling and undermining social justice organizations. From illegally spying on nearly 10,000 individuals and 600 social justice organizations – including the NAACP, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee and the African National Congress – to advising US law enforcement on infiltrating anti-racist organizers, the ADL’s actions on the ground have always contradicted its claims of working for justice. The ADL is clearly not a civil rights organization. It has been and continues to be deeply harmful to our communities and movements for justice.
We know that freedom and safety for any of us relies on freedom and safety for all of us, and that we must be united in building a better future for us all. Instead, the ADL attacks our organizations in an attempt to pit communities fighting for freedom and self-determination against each other. It’s time for all progressives to join the hundreds of social justice organizations who have pledged to #DropTheADL.
The ADL’s latest bullying campaign has just begun – to which we reply: We are ready, our people are ready, the movement is ready. Our commitment to the right of Palestinians to live in freedom and dignity is resolute. We are not intimidated, and the movement for Palestinian rights will not be silenced.
As much as I detest AIPAC and their misguided, undue, and provably illicit influence, the ADL in comparison is openly and cartoonishly evil. In the most ironic way possible, the ADL has publicly engaged in and personally demonstrated practically every single Jewish and anti-semitic trope and blood libel known to man and womankind. Which is astounding considering that this is quite literally their whole schtick as well as the Sword of Damocles that they use to bluntly hack away at anyone that stands in their way.
Why the media continuously gives this hate group and unregistered foreign agent of a foreign country airtime and a platform to publicly spew their propaganda and thinly veiled agenda is a complete mystery to me.
It shows that even the threat of the Scarlet Letter of anti-semitism still holds powerful sway and that the mainstream media, who itself has a sordid recent history of sicking Wokenstein’s Monster on anyone and everyone they choose to publicly destroy in their regular public hit jobs, routine media lynchings, and trial my media, is scared of its very own shadow and the monster they themselves have engineered in their dungeons. Probably because they are acutely aware that literally anyone in their own ranks could easily be the next victim. No proof, evidence, investigations, due process, crime, civil action, or legal trial necessary. Merely a single baseless accusation based on a completely false, fabricated, or reinterpreted quote in a single tweet is needed now and Wokenstein’s Monster will eat its designated target by lynchtime… um… I mean… lunchtime.
It is time America got wise to these foreign groups, pretending they operate for America and Americans, when we all know Greenblatt, like his predecessor Foxman, has one primary concern, and that is the defense of Israel, and making sure its crimes are never spoken of. He shows up occasionally to talk about hate crimes for others, but his main agenda is to make sure Americans are made to shut up whenever someone has the courage to criticize Israel, brings attention to the fact that many human rights groups have researched and concluded it is an apartheid nation, and mentions its endless crimes.
I am glad these pro Palestinian rights groups are standing up to the intimidation and bullying, despite efforts to suppress them, by accusing them of being anti-semitic. Haven’t we seen journalists and personalities being shut up this way? Enough of this crap. Greenblatt jolly well knows the difference between criticism of Israel, and attacks on the Jewish people, but he knows the accusations of being anti-semitic intimidates, and scares Americans, into being silent. It is a dirty old zionist trick, and it is time people ignored those accusations. Like Israel, the zionists here in the US operates by bullying, using the anti-semitic card, and crying victim.
It is almost predictable.
Did Greenblatt criticize or speak up for Shireen Abu Akleh, an American journalist, when she was killed by Israeli thugs, and when her funeral procession was attacked by the violently? No “defense” for her eh? Shame.
I think the way to deal with the whole can of worms called “Zionism” is simply to declare that whatever theoretical Zionism is – the return of an oppressed people to their ancestral homeland, the right of the Jewish people to self determination – is all nonsense as soon as we confront what Zionism actually does in practice – just read the human rights reports. Zionism is what Zionism does.
Theoretical Zionism has my full support – it’s just real world Zionism that’s problematical.