Inexcusable weaponisation of antisemitism against Emma Watson
JVL Introduction
Let us hope that those who weaponise antisemitism to prevent Israel from being held to account have met their match in attacking feminist, climate activist and world-renowned actor Emma Watson.
Former and current Israeli ambassadors to the UN, Danny Danon and Gilad Erdan called Emma Watson an antisemite for an Instagram post of hers.
They must be reeling from the backlash for, less than two days after Danny Danon attack on Watson, well over a million people have liked her Instagram post and the number is rising.
The story has been widely commented on; see, for example Em Hilton’s The Emma Watson Saga Exposes the Demonisation of Palestine Solidarity in Tribune, and Skwawkbox’s Israeli ambassador smears Emma Watson as antisemitic for Palestine solidarity tweet.
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Wed 5 Jan 2022. Read the original here.
Emma Watson pro-Palestinian post sparks antisemitism row
Israeli officials attack actor’s message, and are accused of ‘cynical weaponisation’ of term
Loading article text…
The one thing above all others that this reaction to Emma Watson’s post is making plain is that the opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestine has grown vastly in the last few years and is becoming increasingly vocal. It has also become clear to anybody but the most dedicated Zionists that greater part of the criticism of Israel is not being made because the protestors hateJews – many of them ARE Jews – but because they have a view of the state of Israel’s behaviour which they find morally indefensible.
In effect, Israel’s charges of antisemitism are a refusal to acknowledge the humanitarianisn of the protestors. It dare not admit that this is above all a humanitarian issue, and that the criticisms of it are coming from all across the political spectrum, with the exception of the far-right – the natural enemy of the Jewish people – which tends to approve of Israel’s political agenda.
This refusal to admit to a basic truth has now become the centre of attention as never before. Fewer and fewer are those who take Israel at its own valuation, and Emma Watson is just one of the increasing number of celebrities who are making their view plain on this point.
Israel’s threats and Israel’s slanders aren’t working any more.
No comment from the Labour leader of course.
However as someone who has for a certain period attempted to fathom the underlying semantics of Starmer’s public verbiage, my reconstruction of the thoughts underlying this particular silence is as follows:
“Oh for God’s sake Danny, couldn’t you just keep your mouth shut for once instead of putting me in such an awkward position just as I’m doing so well purging all those pesky Palestinian supporters from my party. You know I’m in complete agreement with you – I even said as much as subtly as I could when I condemned “antizionist antisemitism” at the Labour Friends of Israel dinner -(I thought that was a very clever phrase by the way: ‘always leave wriggle room for plausible denial’ is my motto). It’s true of course that I added, as I always do, that I believe in a two state solution; but of course everyone understood perfectly well that I only meant “in the long run”, and as my former hero said “In the long run we are all dead”.
But now what on earth am I supposed to say if some idiot asks me a
about this? You’ve really landed me in it – and just a couple of days after that annoying fellow Tutu had to cause us all such posthumous embarrassment. And after all I’ve done for you to make apartheid popular! You really could take some lessons from me on how to keep shtum; or if you can’t manage that, at least on how to bamboozle people with finesse!”
i think israeli weasels cant recover from this one lol – dont give them an opportunity!
Solidarity is a Verb
I wasn’t interested in Israel/Palestine until the Labour Party anti-semitism controversy erupted. I concluded that there was a crisis of anti-semitism in the Labour Party and a crisis of bogus allegations of anti-semitism in the Labour Party. To begin with, I couldn’t understand the veneration of the IHRA code. Quite apart from anything else, it’s confusing and needs a re-write. Yet to suggest this piece of writing could be shortened or clarified was to risk condemnation as an anti-semite. I worked as a reporter and my stuff was re-written all the time. If I had demanded that my sub-editors never change a single word, I would have been regarded as quite unhinged. And yet we must accord, with the demand that the IHRA code be left pure and untouched no matter how confusing and contradictory or else be branded anti-semitic. Hence my conclusion that there were bogus allegations of anti-semitism. I’m also unable to understand the complaint that there is disproportionate and thus anti-semitic interest in Palestine/Israel compared to injustice in other countries. This comes from Jonathan Freedland among others. Yet it is he (and them) who have done the most to stoke interest in the subject by keeping it in the headlines with their repeated allegations of anti-semitism against Jeremy Corbyn for his sympathy with Palestine.
I was going to keep silent on this one – until I read Terry Messenger’s
comment.
In a few short, simple sentences he shows just how false the anti-semitism crisis in the Labour Party actually was.
He also illustrates the difference between hack journalism, which the Guardian is now largely reduced to, and journalism which requires courage to seek the truth. I am grateful for such insight and clarity.
Time for JVL to talk directly to Emma Watson ?
This is a rare and golden opportunity to up the profile of the campaign against the weaponisation of anti-semitism.
An opportunity to take the campaign into the mainstream.
Silly people, they have woken up a whole new cohort to the Palestinian tragedy. As That well known racist antisemite as described by various foot in mouth Israel apologists Tutu said it reduces Israeli culture to focus on one mythical enemy. They become concentrations of bad feelings about themselves as much as ‘the other’. Happened to white South Africans, happened to the Germans and now Zionist Israelis are doing it to themselves
We seem to have reached the point where apologists for Israel use the word ‘antisemite’ much as some people from less elevated social circles use the word ‘motherf-r’. Understood literally it is a very serious allegation. As actually used it merely signifies that the speaker does not like you very much.