Anti-Zionism ≠ Antisemitism
JVL Introduction
In early December the American House of Representatives passed, by an overwhelming majority, a motion that “clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism”.
Arthur Neslen, writing in Red Pepper, places this development in the ongoing history of attempts to erode the right to criticise Israel by demonising those who do as antisemites.
It is not just the long history of anti-Zionism among Jews that is deemed never to have existed. So, too, Jewish and other critics of Israeli apartheid or of what B’Tselem calls the notion of “Jewish supremacy” now at the heart of the Israeli constitution, are fair game.
So too are Palestinians who oppose the crimes Israel committed against them historically in the name of Zionism and continues to commit to this day, deprived of the very language needed to describe their own history. It they tell what happened, they are deemed to be and antisemitic racists.
This resolution goes further, setting up a bipartisan “Commission to study acts of antisemitism in the US Act” which looks set to become the HUAC of the McCarthyite days. But instead of Communists under the bed, they now propose an open season in the hunt for “antisemites”.
RK
This article was originally published by Red Pepper on Mon 11 Dec 2023. Read the original here.
Does anti-Zionism equal antisemitism? Only if you can’t do the maths
Arthur Neslen comments on the latest in a long line of attempts to equate the Palestinian struggle for justice, peace and equality with anti-Jewish racism
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Most Zionists are Christian, while not all Jews are Zionists. Go figure!
It will be no surprise, that the suppression of dissenting voices against the Western Pro-Zionist narrative is in full swing. It’s not just America. Recently, the Jewish Block on the Pro-Palestine March in London was surrounded by the police. A disabled activist in Dorset was arrested for a retweet of a pro-Palestinian statement on social media. People have been accosted for carrying and waving the Palestinian flag. The Metropolitan Police published the face of a marcher for carrying a placard depicting Zionist atrocities akin to those committed by Nazi – Germany. Leading Academics are being silenced or intimidated in the name of “anti-Semitism”. Our civil rights are already being curtailed under whatever Act of Parliament the British Intelligence, the Home Office or the Police can “legitimately” arrest and detain people. The taking down of Palestinian Children’s Art in a London hospital stinks of repression, silencing dissent and denial of our basic human rights. Our support for Palestine is a fight to stop creeping authoritarianism and the spread of Racism and Fascism from Israel and across Europe.
@ Neil G
I agree with your points. Though the worldwide revulsion against Israel’s appalling treatment of Gaza and West Bank civilians SEEMS TO BE usefully prompting new thinking on the Nakba and whether Israel is a rogue state (as Russia now is).
I think the Western world now needs to work MUCH HARDER to protect their democracies and societies against the new threats they face (arising from 21st century technology and the much easier, faster, less observable cooperation the technology and globalism make practicable between powerful individuals and corporates allying against the common good). We need stronger international and national laws and penalties (eg prison time) to stop secretive interests derailing our governance. We need better and better funded investigation and law enforcement agencies.
As an example of the inadequacy of our current arrangements, the investigations of “Tortoise” now show that £2 million funding was in place and Starmer was being courted as a potential leader to replace the twice elected Labour leader (Corbyn) by 2018. The group(s) doing this put to one side the Labour electorate’s choice of leader and worked to install their own preferred leader. Did the same group also fund and motivate the “chicken coups” and the other two challengers (Eagle and Smith) who so notably failed to impress the Labour electorate?
WHO were part of this cabal and its funding? WHAT motivated them to undermine Labour’s chances of getting elected in 2017 and 2019? HOW did they do what they did? WHY did they want Starmer as leader? WHAT more generally did they seek to achieve? We don’t know the answers to any of these questions – and they matter.
A major party that isn’t securely protected by effective legal controls and civil/ criminal penalties from having its leadership and policies changed by a small, secretive group without …
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