“Keep quiet and listen. It’s not for you to tell African Americans what’s racist or not”
“Keep quiet and listen. It’s not for you to tell women what’s sexist or not.”
“Keep quiet and listen. It’s not for you to tell Muslims what’s Islamophobic or not.”
“Keep quiet and listen. It’s not for you to tell gay people what’s homophobic or not.”
“Keep quiet and listen. It’s not for you to tell trans people what’s transphobic or not.”
“Keep quiet and listen, Jews. We’ll tell you whether we’re being anti-Semitic or not.”
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If you’re guilty of the above way of thinking, you need to stop, because any claims to “social justice” go out the window when you pick and choose which groups are afforded that justice, and which aren’t. This kind of hypocrisy is becoming more and more common on our side of the political divide—and needs to be called out repeatedly.
Here are some other signs you might have a problem:
1.) You think that Jews don’t have a right to speak up, or that we’re blowing discrimination out of proportion, because many of us happen to have light skin, or are often of European descent, or sometimes live in affluent communities, or are well integrated, or whatever.
2.) You invoke the “anti-Zionism does not equal anti-Semitism” mantra repeatedly without thinking about the context of what you’re saying. [while it’s true that the technical definitions are different, the fact that both center on the core identity of an ethno-religious group means that they can’t simply be dissociated, and the “line” is crossed constantly, and often gleefully. (Imagine, for example, trying to fully dissociate Mecca from Islam, and launching a sustained international campaign against it without crossing into Islamophobia)
3.) You invoke the fact that “well, there are Jews who agree with me!” and cite people named Goldstein or Bernbaum when called out on some anti-Semitic remark or action (hint: Ann Coulter is a woman, and Ben Carson is a black guy. Just sayin’)
4.) You think that all invocations of Anti-Semitism are some sort of Zionist conspiracy concocted by the “Israel Lobby” to “silence criticism of Israel”. [granted, sometimes this happens, usually on the right. But not nearly as often as some like to pretend]
5.) You’re convinced that anti-Semitism died along with the war, or that as long as Jews aren’t getting massacred, or called kikes, or subject to this sort of thing www.theguardian.com/..., then anti-Semitism doesn’t exist:
6.) You think that “Zionism” by definition means “oppression”, “inequality”, “racism”, “massacre”, or any such thing. It does not. Has it been co-opted by some for nefarious purposes? Absolutely. Is that what it means to most Jews? Most assuredly not. Here’s a good piece, by a student... thirdnarrative.org/…
7. you believe that “liberal Zionism” is a set of weasel words to “apologize” for Israeli injustices to Palestinian. It is not. If you think so, you need to start deepening your research, or at least get out of your echo chamber.
7a. You cannot distinguish between these above “liberal Zionists” (like me), who regularly criticize and often condemn Israeli government policies while supporting Jewish AND Palestinian self-determination with people on the far right who are true apologists for Israeli right-wing and Netanyahu gov’t policies.
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Some relevant, important and recent things to read:
“My plea to the left: treat Jews the same way you’d treat any other minority”
“Rethinking intersectionality: expanding the progressive tent”
www.facebook.com/…
Its easy to to be pro Palestinian and not leave yourselves open to the charge of being anti Semitic. However much of the left "common sense" on the Israel Palestine conflict has a tin ear to the anti Semitic tropes it often seems to end up peddling (particularly online). If we want genuinely want a movement for Palestinian rights to be effective its important that it drops this nonsense..
Here's just a few helpful suggestions.
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Couple of notes:
a.) My immediate inspiration for all this is the chaos that is engulfing the UK Labour party and fully legitimate accusations of anti-Semitism (although there is ALSO anti-Corbynite motivation involved. These things are complicated). The denial of these problems among some people on the left is obscene. There is also an anti-Semitism row taking over the UK student’s union. I don’t have time to write about all this stuff going on on the other side of the “pond”, but since there are clear parallels with what’s going on with the left in this country—particularly in academic circles, I figured I’d call attention to it.
b.) Anti-Semitism is a perennial and huge problem within the far right, of course. The virulent (and violent) hate mail sent to journalist Julia Ioffe the other day, in response to her column about Melania Trump, and, on the UK side, to Labour MP Luciana Berger www.dailymail.co.uk/… is sick, horrific and twisted. It’s also rife within the Trump and Cruz movements (especially Trump), and in far-right nationalist parties overseas (UKIP, Pegida, Golden Dawn, etc.). However, rightist anti-Semitism is a known problem which we regularly call out, and know how to spot. Leftist anti-Semitism is in some ways more sinister, in part because it’s safer for our side to deny it, and also because it seeks to re-shape a narrative within circles in which Jews traditionally feel secure and non-threatened (e.g. academic enviroments). A kind of anti-Semitic “concept creep” in which all of a sudden Jews become scapegoats again, or the people that “get stuff they don’t deserve”, or the conspirators. When Jews don’t feel comfortable expressing their own identity, or aspects of it (which include Israel), then we’re back to very dark and sinister places in world history.
This is happening on the left, and the left really doesn’t want to hold up a mirror to themselves. How can we—when we’re the party that stands up for people, and human rights, and racism?? But we have to.
Anti-Semitism was never just a right-wing curse.
Ever.