Rabbi David Saperstein exemplifies PEP, progressive except for Palestine. In an hour-long talk, he expressed outrage over ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, apartheid in South Africa and countries that don’t separate religion and state. But never mentioned Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, the new charges that Israel practices apartheid, and Israel’s law that gives Jews exclusive land and language rights.
Moving on from the IHRA definition of antisemitism that bars harsh criticism of Israel, an Israel lobby group says that U.S. progressives usurp the Jewish right to identify as “unique historic” victims, and this “antisemitism” is now threatening Israel’s status as a bipartisan cause. The report singles out Rashida Tlaib and SNL! And it was written by an AIPAC veteran.
There are liberals and those on the right who think it’s okay to fight antisemitism by encouraging Islamophobia and certainly anti-Palestinianism. You don’t fight racism with racism. We need to decolonize our understanding of antisemitism as a matter of urgency. And that means ditching the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Dropping bombs on the Middle East is a rite of passage for modern Presidents and last week Joe Biden officially joined the club.
Israel and its supporters use the charge of antisemitism to deter anyone who dares to hold Israel accountable — from commenters on social media all the way to the International Criminal Court.
Earlier this week, a U.S. State Department official declared that the Biden administration “embraces and champions” the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. That definition notably defines certain criticisms of Israel as antisemitic.
Human rights activists launched a campaign this week to stop social media giant Facebook from adjusting its hate speech policy to classify the word ‘Zionist’ as a protected category, a move that would make any criticism of Zionism a violation of Facebook’s Community Standards and hate speech policy.
Lillian Rosengarten writes, “What is there to understand about the German Holocaust that demands blanket support of Israel? How dare we continue to support white Democracy which so similarly could sound like white Aryan supremacy? Have we become as insane as the lies and destruction of Zionism?”
Despite the challenges of remote learning, campus activism for Palestine charged forward this past year.
The antisemitism controversy in the British Labour Party was orchestrated by rightwingers and Israel supporters. Joshua Leifer of Jewish Currents fails to call out the bigotry of those who attacked Corbyn. Tony Greenstein relates the true history of Corbyn’s downfall.