Former general turned far-right politician Effi Eitam lives in an illegal settlement in the Golan and has long advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the occupied territories, as well as the crushing of basic civil rights for non-Jews inside Israel. He is also Benjamin Netanyahu’s choice to be the next leader of Yad Vashem, the world-renowned Holocaust museum.
Jewish Currents article criticizing the British Jewish community for attacking Jeremy Corbyn uses the same misrepresentations as the community it critiques.
How I would teach Hanukkah to Palestinian school children, or indeed to their parents? Robert Cohen asks. How comfortable would I find it to tell this story of Jews denied the right to express their culture, identity and history? What would go through the children’s minds as I explained our annual celebration of an armed Jewish revolt against an occupying power? And could I convey convincingly the idea of on-going Jewish vulnerability in Israel, the United States, or anywhere else?
German and Austrian cultural leaders are right to insist upon freedom of expression, but they should also actively extend their plea to embrace Palestinians.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has run a fascinating long report this week offering a disturbing snapshot of the political climate rapidly emerging across Europe on the issue of antisemitism. The article documents a kind of cultural, political and intellectual reign of terror in Germany since the parliament passed a resolution last year equating support for non-violent boycotts of Israel – in solidarity with Palestinians oppressed by Israel – with antisemitism.
Jewish groups and individuals from around the world stand in solidarity with the recent statement by Palestinians and Arabs challenging the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Justin Trudeau’s appointment of Irwin Cotler is a blatant rebuke of any sense of a fair-handed approach by the Canadian government to the Palestinian cause.
Bari Weiss’s rage over Peter Beinart’s role in a panel on antisemitism with Rashida Tlaib and Marc Lamont Hill next month shows that Weiss is in a battle with Beinart about who will represent American Jews. Weiss represents a tribal perspective of sacred victimhood; and Beinart’s universalism and openness to the Palestinian story is a threat to her.
Ontarians must stand up to antisemitism and all instances of racism and discrimination wherever they appear, but the IHRA definition is flawed and, at worst, limits society’s ability to fight oppression in all is forms.
Instead of targeting the real source of antisemitism in the United States — white supremacy — proposed revisions to California’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum target Palestinian children and their families.