In a momentous vote, the National Education Association voted to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League. The reason? “Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be.” 

The recent avalanche of civil rights lawsuits in response to Palestine campus protests is the result of an intentional Israel advocacy strategy: criminalizing anti-Zionist politics by contorting the idea of civil rights.

The Anti-Defamation League is fueling war with its attacks on those trying to stop Israeli assaults on Palestinians, and its pernicious charge that “anti-Zionism is genocide.” 

Last weekend, the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt said the quiet part out loud: in a national speech, he declared that the ADL is making war on antiracist organizers in the United States. It’s not just rhetoric. Blaming young organizers of color and disloyal Jews for antisemitism — declaring us an existential threat — Greenblatt was signaling to the right that it’s okay to target us.

The orthodox anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta is often kept at arms length by the left because of its socially conservative views. Filmmaker Heather Tenzer reached out to Neturei Karta for her upcoming documentary, The Rabbis’ Intifada, and shows how the group has been able to build bridges with conservative religious Muslims, thereby offering a challenge to our ideas about activism.

Recently, community groups called on New York City Councilmembers to skip an all-expenses-paid, eight-day junket to Israel. Challenged on Israel’s racism, progressive Councilmembers’ excuses quickly turned to gay rights following the lead of pro-Israel lobbyists who now tout Israel’s LGBT “tolerance” as often as they conjure anti-Semitism. We’re left to wonder what lobby groups like the Jewish Community Relations Council have whispered in the ears of Progressive and LGBT Caucus members to make them stray so far from their principles – and their voters.