Attitudes Towards Israel are Changing
JVL Introduction
We make no apologies for publishing several pieces relating to the report on Israeli Apartheid published by Amnesty International. It is important and powerful.
Predictably the response from Israel and from the Jewish Establishment throughout the world has been to utter very loud cries of “antisemitism” to condemn the report and attempt to get it ignored – with some success from the mainstream media.
Furthermore, Israel complains that Amnesty focuses on Israel rather than human rights violations in, eg China, Myanmar and other repressive regimes. Of course, Amnesty has published highly critical reports on China and Myanmar and many other heinous regimes, but even if they had not already done so, it would hardly make their report on Israel or its conclusions less valid.
One of the greatest fears is that Israel and its unquestioning supporters are losing the argument. They know that apartheid has emotional as well as political overtones and that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was one of the key factors in bringing down the racist regime in South Africa; it is one of the reasons it condemns the calls for such solidarity actions being directed at Israel.
There are several examples of how attitudes are shifting; this recent Guardian article highlights the changing attitudes in the US with growing support for the Palestinians, especially among younger people. Even many mainstream Jewish organisations are urging the Israeli Prime Minister to take action against settlers’ violence, see here.
And Israel will have been concerned at the result of polling carried out last summer of Jewish citizens of the US about their attitudes on a range of subjects.
– A quarter of US Jews believe Israel is an apartheid state; less than a third think it is antisemitic to say it is
– Over a fifth believe Israel is committing genocide: less than a third think it is antisemitic to say it is
– Only one in five believe it is antisemitic to compare Israel’s treatment of Palestinians with US racism
While it is still the case that the majority of Jews identify in one way or another with Israel and want it to continue, it seems that it is no longer the case that the Jewish Establishment can even claim to be speaking for the majority of Jews when accusations of antisemitism are made every time that the State of Israel is criticised for its appalling treatment of Palestinians.
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Thu 3 Feb 2022. Read the original here.
‘Apartheid state’: Israel’s fears over image in US are coming to pass
The likening of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to white-ruled South Africa is growing more widespread in the US mainstream
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There does indeed seem to be a welcome change in editorial attitude at the Grauniad as evidenced by the articles by Chris McGreal. You are absolutely right to keep ‘banging the drum. regarding the Amnesty report. It has been a long hard road for our Palestinian friends. At the age of 81, active in Anti- SA Apartheid, with a like minded family member who had headed up the Veterans section of the SA Ministry of Defence after WWII, and sharing accomodation in Birmingham with Jairam Reddy and Knox Matthews, nephew of ‘ZK’ who was incarcerated with Mandela,it is easy to agree with Archbishop Desmond that the Apartheid in Israel and OT is MUCH WORSE than in SA.
Remaining steadfast in our anti-Zionism is now yielding results.
Jairam was eventually tasked by Nelson Mandela to reorganise higher education, but here we must continue to support people like Prof David Miller eg. https://www.academia.edu/s/a302c2d6e1 This is a discussion on Christian Wakeford and David Miller authored by Chris Friel that supporters of JVL could well contribute to.
The swing in opinion, relates to what we are seeing on Facebook and Twitter. Organisations like JVL, Campaign groups and individuals like Tony Greenstein are getting the evidenced based message out into the open. This is what the Israeli Leaders are worried about and are no doubt looking at new strategies that will combat it, in the hope they can reverse it.
Their major tool has been, to scream Antisemitism, which is clearly wearing thin.
I will also say that the work of the JVL and its allies are giving people like myself, the evidence based knowledge, with links etc, to be able to win debates with those that vehemently support Israel, we can clearly show the evidence that proves them wrong, this also helps persuade those that have little knowledge but show an interest in the Israeli-Palestine conflict, that the Palestinians are being treated in the most vicious way.