Claims that “antisemitism” is being weaponized to support Israel miss that its function has always been to bolster European supremacy. Today, the chimera of “Jewish safety” is used to justify Western dominance through Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
Ideas of Jewish supremacy have been central to the Zionist movement from its beginning. Just as we call out white supremacy in the United States, we must call out Jewish supremacy in occupied Palestine.
Donald Trump has ushered in his second term with a full-fledged assault on DEI programs and advocates for Palestinian rights. Both attacks should be understood within the long history of White backlash to movements for social and racial justice.
After igniting outrage for raising a Nazi salute at a Trump inauguration event, Elon Musk tweeted: “So I am both a zionist AND a nazi?” He meant it mockingly, but the historical and ideological affinities between Zionism and white supremacy run deep.
Underlying the unqualified American support for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza are feelings of white guilt over antisemitism, which have been projected onto a people that had nothing to do with the crimes committed against Jews in Europe.
Anti-Black racism and Zionism are two cornerstones of Harvard’s flawed foundation. We should mourn Claudine Gay’s tenure at Harvard because she was both a victim and an agent of white supremacy.
Understanding Palestine as a racial justice issue is to understand it as part of the broad fight for collective liberation.
Palestinian courage this spring has stunned people across the world. At home and abroad, the US and Israel can kill, and for the moment, this cannot be stopped. But they can also be made to lose the war of ideas that makes the killing sustainable. We have no right to ask that the Palestinians stand alone in this fight.
Racist Capitol Hill rioters brandished Israeli flags for a reason, because they admire Jewish supremacy as a guiding principle in that country. Democratic Party supporters of “Jewish democracy” who call for diversity in U.S. politics are living a contradiction that gets more glaring by the minute.
Racism plays a huge role in how Israel is able to get away with apartheid and ethnic cleansing without facing major backlash from the international community. Political philosopher Charles Mills’s notion of the racial contract is useful in both understanding Israel’s existence, and how its continued apartheid practices are sustained.