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Behind the Aegis

(53,833 posts)
Tue May 22, 2018, 03:01 PM May 2018

(Jewish Group) How to tell when criticism of Israel is actually anti-Semitism

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

As the United States opened its new embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, tens of thousands of Gazans gathered at their territory’s boundary fence to protest the loss of Palestinian homes and villages when Israel was founded 70 years ago. Most were unarmed, but some protesters lobbed flaming tires or Molotov cocktails at the Israeli side. Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing more than 60 Palestinians and wounding thousands. Pro-Palestinian voices often described the Israeli response with words such as “murder” and “massacre.”

The reaction fit into a long rhetorical battle in which harsh criticism of Israel’s actions leads to accusations of bias against Jews. The right-wing Israeli news outlet Arutz Sheva, for instance, accused the United Nations agency that administers aid to Palestinians of encouraging anti-Semitism, citing a Fox News video that showed Gazan children chanting about the right to return to former Palestinian lands. Pro-Israel institutions have tried to blunt what they see as hate speech: South Carolina just passed a law deeming any criticism of Israel in public schools or universities to be anti-Semitic. More than 20 states have banned public contracts with companies that boycott of Israel. Meanwhile, fierce arguments have broken out over whether critics of Israel within Britain’s Labour Party are ignoring anti-Semitism.

Yes, anti-Semitism is alive and well, and increasingly it masquerades as criticism of Israel. But as the executive director of T’ruah, a Jewish organization dedicated to protecting human rights here, in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories, I know it’s possible to criticize Israel without veering into anti-Semitism. I do it every day.

---snip---

But I also see plenty of criticism that crosses the line. Jews increasingly feel unwelcome on the left unless they abandon their commitments to Israel. A University of Virginia student told me that some progressive campus groups responded to the neo-Nazi incursions there (anti-Semitism on the right is often easier to spot) by dismissing Jewish students as “Zionist baby killers.” At rallies on college campuses, speakers regularly list “Zionists” in the same category as white supremacists and Nazis. Progressive leaders circulate lists of acceptable Jewish organizations, including only those that do not address Israel or that define themselves as Palestinian solidarity groups. If the left continues to ignore this trend, most of the Jewish community will be pushed out of progressive spaces.

Despite what some pro-Israel organizations would have us believe, not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Like all countries, Israel has a duty to uphold international human rights laws and to protect the rights of those living under its control. One may protest the use of live fire on unarmed protesters, the closure of the Gaza border and the subsequent humanitarian crisis, the military occupation of the Palestinian territories, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attacks on democracy and incitement against human rights leaders without invoking anti-Semitic tropes. Such policies would be wrong in any country, whether carried out by Jews or other people.

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(Jewish Group) How to tell when criticism of Israel is actually anti-Semitism (Original Post) Behind the Aegis May 2018 OP
Aegis, really? saidsimplesimon May 2018 #1
Didn't bother to read it? Behind the Aegis May 2018 #3
As indicated saidsimplesimon May 2018 #4
Thank you for posting n/t MosheFeingold May 2018 #2
Thank you for posting this, BtA. hedda_foil May 2018 #5

saidsimplesimon

(7,888 posts)
1. Aegis, really?
Tue May 22, 2018, 03:08 PM
May 2018

A message of unity (?), respectfully, not sure where you are headed with this. Sorry if I wandered into the desert of a closed forum.

Behind the Aegis

(53,833 posts)
3. Didn't bother to read it?
Tue May 22, 2018, 03:35 PM
May 2018

Message of unity? For whom? Those who refuse to discuss anti-Semitism, even in the JEWISH GROUP, of which you are in, as you know.

I suggest you read the article.

saidsimplesimon

(7,888 posts)
4. As indicated
Tue May 22, 2018, 03:38 PM
May 2018

in my response, I did not comprehend the intent or meaning of the message. Thank you for the suggestion, not a refusal, just confusion on my part.

hedda_foil

(16,368 posts)
5. Thank you for posting this, BtA.
Tue May 22, 2018, 04:38 PM
May 2018

Israel's policies in the Likud era frighten and anger me, both because of their treatment of the Palestinians and because the brutality of that treatment has led to a huge increase in real antisemitism.

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