We reject antisemitism in all its forms, including when it masquerades as criticism of Zionism or Israel’s policies. We also recognise that, as journalist Peter Beinart wrote in 2019, “Anti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic—and claiming it is uses Jewish suffering to erase Palestinian experience.”
The Jews are the only people for whom criticizing the government of the country they’re typically associated with is interpreted as racism. If I say the Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity no one thinks I’m a racist. If I say Donald Trump is a moron, no one thinks I hate all Americans. If I say the Israeli government shouldn’t be responding to Hamas’ attack the way they are? Oh man, now I’m an antisemite and hate all Jews!
The fuck is wrong with this world?
I would actually disagree on China, the position that it was possible the WIV was the cause of COVID was successful painted as xenophobic or racist, rather than a viable option.
Which always struck me as odd considering a bunch of your people eating random jungle meat so much they cause worldwide diseases sounds like you could be way more racist about it. Yet, somehow that was painted as the less racist option.
It’s public relations spin. If you haven’t noticed, the Israeli government isn’t exactly what one would call ethical. They use every trick in the book to insulate themselves against criticism, up to and including crying antisemitism.
It’s disgusting, really. After WWII, many people did what they could to distance themselves from even the barest hint of antisemitism, and with good reason: the actions of the Nazis were reprehensible. Israel has taken that cultural awareness, unwillingly purchased with the blood of their ancestors, and used it to commit genocide of their own.
If I say the Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity no one thinks I’m a racist.
I see you haven’t met any tankies
They’re such a small group of extremists that their opinion doesn’t matter, that’s all! 😂
I haven’t read the article, but the title made me go “what the fuck”?
Of course it’s not antisemitism. It would only be antisemitism if you said “those people are bad because they are Jews”.
Or am I wrong?
The US is cracking down on protests right now based on this pretext
And not just right now. For decades you would lose your job in academia and media for showing too much sympathy for Palestinians.
In Germany the public discourse as lead by political parties and mainstream media , but also cultural organizations is pretty much claiming any criticism of the shape of thr Israeli state, any analysis towards the occupation as a source of violence or current criticism of israeli war crimes as antisemitism.
Because of that jewish protests for palestinian human rights have been banned like arab and leftist protests, jewish protesters have been violently arrested by police, palestinians have been kicked out of book faires, art exhibitions and other events where just before they were supposed to receive prizes. The head of the main government party has loudly cancelled a meeting with Bernie Sanders because he would be too critical of Israel. Sanders is a jew and has lived in Israel in the past.
So in Germany the term antisemitism is instrumentalised to supress any serious criticism of Israel, which includes in particular jewish criticism of Israel.
By the perversion of the term, Germany is acting antisemitic by banning jewish voices from the public, sometimes with police violence and denyingthe existence of plurality in the jewish communities.
Incidently they try to blame arabs and other immigrants for antisemitism in Germany, deflecting from the widespread antisemitism in German mainstream society. Just two month ago the vice-prime-minister of the state of Bavaria was uncovered to be a Holocaust endorsing Neonazi in his youth and instead of it harming his election it helped his election. Also now the Bavarian state attorneys are investigating the people who brought this Neonazi past to light.
“No, it totally is.”
-Israel
I am not Jewish, but I am married to an Israeli and have spent a decent amount of time in Israel, having traveled to many areas of the country.
The current situation is not surprising and it really comes down to one thing: LAND & RESOURCES.
All of the rhetoric about apartheid, anti-semitism, genocide, pogroms, etc, etc, etc are merely cover-ups for the real issue: Israel is a TINY piece of land that now supports close to 10 million people. The birthrate in Israel among everyone is among the highest in the world. Even secular Jews rarely have fewer than 3 kids. Muslim Arabs and Orthodox Jews frequently have 8, 9, 10 or more kids.
I have been visiting Israel fairly regularly over the last 20 years and I have seen the visible effects this uncontrolled population growth has had. Land is at a premium, everything is expensive and scarce, and it is FREAKING CROWDED. Towns and villages often support far more people than they were designed to support. Everyone there is worried about water and land and money.
And so you get to the real issue - this is about a fight over land. It’s a fight over which group is going to have a place for their own families and future generations to live there. It’s about fights over resources like water.
I think a lot of the discussion is very rightly focused on the war crimes and human rights abuses, but you’re absolutely correct.
The fact that this even requires saying is a testament to how thoroughly drenched the (so-called) “west” is in regurgitated pro-Israeli propaganda.
I personally think that Netanyahu made many huge mistakes, including building the wall, and he should resign and leave politics forever, but I’m going to criticize him only after Hamas is eliminated.
Now, any pro-Palestinian voice is perceived as pro-Hamas. I heard the crowd chanting “from the river to the sea”, which basically means “kill all Jews”. It is antisemitism, yes.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is not an antisemitic chant. It’s calling for the liberation of Palestinians from their genocidal apartheid.
By killing all Jews and destroying the state of Israel. This is literally their political program.
If you’re referring to “landback”, that’s a far deeper act of decolonization that indigenous people all across the world have started fighting for, rooted in leftist revolutionary ideals. It started with Native Americans. No one gets genocided in landback, that’s a colonialist projection. Explain how it’s a slogan for genocide.
Most of Arab countries have far-right government. Hamas is a far-right terrorist organization. What are you talking about?
I don’t give a fuck about Hamas in this conversation. This is strictly about liberation for oppressed peoples.
When you talk about liberation, it’s usually good to clarify what exactly you mean by that.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was called “liberation” too by the Kremlin.
Liberation means that Palestinians get to be treated as human beings, not trapped in an open air prison, not limited to the bare minimum amount of food and water, and not harassed and beaten by the IDF just for being Palestinian. They live in an apartheid state with very few rights or freedoms.
What do you guys think about Thunberg’s statement? In my country it’s framed as antisemitic and FFF Germany renounced it but I don’t think so
I don’t understand why FFF would denounce it, they’re a climate strike movement, nothing to do with this. I feel like someone at the “top” of FFF managed to get their own agenda into this, it’s so strange for someone like them to condemn a call for ceasefire.
What was her statement?
the world needs to speak up and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for Palestinians and all civilians affected
We are of course against any type of discrimination, and condemn antisemitism in all forms and shapes. This is non-negotiable
That does not ring antisemitic at all.
That statement was denounced?
Asking for a ceasefire is apparently antisemitic.
Even when in the next breath you are making it explicitly clear that your comments carry zero prejudice, only concern for civilians.
The second part of the statement was added later. She was denounced because she initially only mentioned sympathy for the victims in Palestine, omitting the Israeli victims. After criticism, she added the second part to her statement.
They called Israel an apartheid state (which Amnesty international also did at some point) and had an octopus stuffed animal (which is an antisemitic dogwhistle).
I don’t think that they knew about the dogwhistle but then again I don’t know why to but a random stuff animal there in the first place.
German media often says “antisemitic and anti-Israel” as if they were the same. Is that the case in other western media as well or is it a German thing due to our history?
Oh I didn’t know about the octopus. That is weird, I’ll look into it thanks.
And at this point, it would be difficult to not classify israel as an apartheid state.
Conflating antisemitic and anti-Israel is not just a German thing, but I think it’s very rare to hear “anti-Israel” in the English-speaking news I read. I only ever hear pro israel pro Palestine, which may imply you are anti one or the other, but the discrete term anti-Israel almost never comes up is that I read anyway. Anti-civilian death anti terrorism, anti the specific acts rather than anti a whole country.
I hear “anti-Zionist” incorrectly conflated with antisemitic more often in the news I come across, anti-zionism is accused of rejecting the establishment of an Israeli state, but anti-zionism also refers to rejecting the continuous illegal israeli occupation of Palestine, so can be seen as a racist dog whistle or a protest against imperialism based on who’s saying it and who’s interpreting it.
The west is so majority-supportive of Israel as a military ally and the Holocaust is so historically recent and rightly popularly vilified that most people take the Israeli side or look at a conflict solely from their perspective regardless of what the news is.
