“Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish).” – Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism
As Israel has increasingly become an apartheid state, it is important to distinguish between anti-Israel policy and anti-Semitism. The global organization Human Rights Watch recently released a 213-page report detailing Israeli government policies favoring Israeli Jews over Palestinians in Israel proper and in Palestinian territories it has occupied since 1967. In the report, Human Rights Watch argued that the oppression of Palestinians by Israel had reached a threshold point with a permanence that defines an apartheid society.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem also accuses the Israeli government of apartheid because of “laws, practices and state violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.” According to B’Tselem, the Israeli government “practices a policy of ‘Judaizing’ the area, based on the mindset that land is a resource meant almost exclusively to benefit the Jewish public.”
Israeli government officials dismiss these charges as “baseless and outrageous” and as accusations that border on anti-Semitism. However, criticizing Israeli government policy and challenging apartheid do not constitute anti-Semitism, at least according to their recently released “Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism.”
The “Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism ” argues that the following activities are not anti-Semitic:
- Supporting the Palestinian demand for justice and the full grant of their political, national, civil, and human rights, as encapsulated in international law.
- Criticizing or opposing Zionism as a form of nationalism, or arguing for a variety of constitutional arrangements for Jews and Palestinians in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.
- It is not antisemitic to support arrangements that accord full equality to all inhabitants “between the river and the sea,” whether in two states, a binational state, unitary democratic state, federal state, or in whatever form.
- Evidence-based criticism of Israel as a state. This includes its institutions and founding principles. It also includes its policies and practices, domestic and abroad, such as the conduct of Israel in the West Bank and Gaza, the role Israel plays in the region, or any other way in which, as a state, it influences events in the world.
- It is not antisemitic to point out systematic racial discrimination.
- Boycott, divestment, and sanctions are commonplace, non-violent forms of political protest against states. In the Israeli case they are not, in and of themselves, antisemitic.
Anti-Semitism is a form of religious and ethnic bigotry targeting Jews that led to genocide during World War II and it is never acceptable. In the same way racism and apartheid are unacceptable where ever they are practice. Challenging racism and apartheid where ever they occur, including in the State of Israel, and challenging Zionism, a form of Israeli nationalism, when it is used to deny the civil rights of non-Jews, is not anti-Semitism.
This is a critically important distinction for Americans, especially American Jews who identify with the State of Israel but not its treatment of Palestinians and the occupation and annexation of the West Bank. The United States gives Israel almost $4 billion a year in military aid and billions more in loan guarantees. According to the Congressional Research Service “Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II.” Pro-Israel Political Action Committees play an out-sized role in American politics, money goes to candidates from both political parties, including over $600,000 directed to campaigns by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. America-based foundations, charities, and businesses pour also pour vast sums into Israel. Hundreds of U.S. companies, including Apple, Google, Citibank and the Ford Motor Company, operate research and development centers in Israel.
Whether you support U.S. ties with Israel or not, the United States must ensure that no public or private dollars from the United States are used to support the occupation or Israeli apartheid policies. Opposition to U.S. support for Israeli policies does not make you an anti-Semite.
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