Tag: Antisemitism

Israel

Sanctioning universities for failing to address antisemitism

Sanctioning universities for failing to address antisemitism

Israel

Inquiry into anti-semitism a Trojan Horse for the Israel lobby
Waving flag of Israel and Australia.Image:iStock

Inquiry into anti-semitism a Trojan Horse for the Israel lobby

Israel / Palestine, Politics

By Michelle Berkon

Aug 29, 2024

In June this year, Liberal MP Julian Leeser introduced a bill in Federal Parliament for a Commission of Inquiry into Ant…

Fascism

Understanding the Rise of Fascism

Popular accounts of Nazism often claim that Hitler rose to power democratically. But, historian Richard J. Evans argues, German fascism relied on armed militias, made up of disaffected veterans inspired by antisemitism, to crush communists and socialists.

Understanding the Rise of Fascism

Israel

Crying antisemitism drowns out the real problem

Zionism has become for some people a sort of ethnic superiority which denies equal claims to recognition by Palestinians. If we are unable to talk about this within the Jewish community we are doing a great disservice to both Palestinians and Israelis, writes Dennis Altman.

Crying antisemitism drowns out the real problem

ALP, ALP Government,

The two envoys

The Prime Minister says he has appointed an antisemitic envoy and will soon appoint an islamophobia envoy, because the population does not understand the complexity and seriousness apparent in a perceived threat to Australia’s social cohesion. But the boot is on the other foot. He and his government have shown an abysmal lack of understanding or perhaps wilful blindness to the causes of misplaced anger with racist overtones. Defacing war memorials and attacking the offices of members of parliament, which I do not condone, are protests against our government for not sanctioning Israel for its gross violations of international law.

The two envoys

Israel

Jewish peace group blames Zionists, Christian Zionists, Neo-Nazis for antisemitism – Michael West

Jewish Council of Australia

Progressive Jewish group The Jewish Council of Australia has blamed “extremist” right-wing Zionist lobbyists such as the Executive Council of Australian Jewry for ‘weaponising antisemitism’ and therefore giving rise to antisemitism in Australia.

Source: Jewish peace group blames Zionists, Christian Zionists, Neo-Nazis for antisemitism – Michael West

Israel

Jewish Students Opposing Gaza Genocide, a Powerful Antidote to Antisemitism – CounterPunch.org

The many Jewish students in the campus encampments, along with other Jews protesting the Gaza phase of the Palestinian Genocide, deserve the highest praise for many reasons.  One reason is that by their deeds they are countering what might otherwise turn into a wave of antisemitism.

Source: Jewish Students Opposing Gaza Genocide, a Powerful Antidote to Antisemitism – CounterPunch.org

Israel

Antisemitism and Antizionism: A Dangerous Conflation

Antisemitism is making the headlines. The Israeli Prime Minister describes as antisemitic the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and even American students who are calling for a ceasefire. What Israel is doing does in fact provoke antisemitic acts against synagogues, Jewish schools and even individual Jews. It is therefore important to understand what antisemitism is, what it is not, and how it can be distinguished from anti-Zionism.

Source: Antisemitism and Antizionism: A Dangerous Conflation

Israel

 Why is the Morning Star’s Communist Party of Britain Justifying Zionism’s ‘Anti-Semitism’ Narrative?

‘Anti-Semitism’ has been the weapon that Zionism has deployed to defend genocide in Gaza. It is not out of choice but necessity. Any manifestation of support for the Palestinians is deemed anti-Semitic for one simple reason. It is impossible to defend mass executions, starvation of a population, destruction of hospitals and mass murder of children unless you attack your critics. It is as if protesters against Apartheid in South Africa had been motivated by hatred of White people.

Source: Tony Greenstein’s Blog

Israel

Jewish Groups Decry House Passage of Bill Defining Criticism of Israel as ‘Antisemitism’ | Common Dreams

Protesters with signs including one reading "anti-Zionism does not equal antisemitism."

warnings from Jewish-led groups that the measure speciously conflates legitimate criticism of the Israeli government with bigotry against Jewish people.

Source: Jewish Groups Decry House Passage of Bill Defining Criticism of Israel as ‘Antisemitism’ | Common Dreams

Israel, Israel Crimes

Bernie Sanders to Netanyahu: ‘It Is Not Antisemitic to Hold You Accountable’ | Common Dreams

Sen. Bernie Sanders

“Please, do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government,” said the Vermont senator to Israel’s prime minister.

Source: Bernie Sanders to Netanyahu: ‘It Is Not Antisemitic to Hold You Accountable’ | Common Dreams

Israel

Why They’re Calling Student Protesters Antisemites

Backers of Israel’s war have lost the battle for hearts and minds, so they’ve ginned up a controversy over student protests — they want us talking about anything other than the genocide in Gaza.

Source: Why They’re Calling Student Protesters Antisemites

Israel

“No Other Land”: Israeli Director Slams Claims of Antisemitism for Apartheid Comment at Berlinale | Democracy Now!

We continue our conversation with Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham about the award-winning new documentary No Other Land, which he co-directed with Palestinian activist Basel Adra, about land dispossession in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank. While accepting the audience award for best documentary at the Berlinale, Abraham said Israel was practicing apartheid, a comment for which he later received death threats. “You have German politicians who are not Jewish who labeled me as an antisemite. For what? For calling for a ceasefire? For calling for equality between Israelis and Palestinians? For using the word ‘apartheid,’ which should be common sense to describe these parallel systems of inequality?” says Abraham, who calls for an end to the “apartheid reality” in Israel and Palestine. “If there is no full political equality and really full freedom to everybody who lives in this land, then there can be no future here. We are going to continue to fight to change this.”

Source: “No Other Land”: Israeli Director Slams Claims of Antisemitism for Apartheid Comment at Berlinale | Democracy Now!

Israel

When Criticizing Israel Wasn’t Anti-Semitic

Politics and AIPAC in 20 years

At a conference in Berlin about anti-semitism in 2004, then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the following: “It is not antisemitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel.” 

Nearly 20 years later, on Dec. 5, 2023 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution by 311 to 14 votes equating criticism of Israel with anti-semitism. 

The resolution says: “Resolved, That the House of Representatives … clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”

Source: When Criticizing Israel Wasn’t Anti-Semitic

Israel

“Anti-Zionism Is Not Antisemitism”: Palestinian Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian on Hebrew Univ. Suspension | Democracy Now!

Hebrew University in Jerusalem has suspended an internationally renowned Palestinian professor for saying that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a feminist scholar whose work focuses on the impacts of militarization, surveillance and violence on the lives of Palestinian women and children. She made the remarks in an interview on Israel’s Channel 12 on Monday, where she also said it was time to “abolish Zionism.” Shalhoub-Kevorkian has been under pressure to resign from her position at Hebrew University’s Faculty of Law Institute of Criminology and at the School of Social Work and Public Welfare since October, when she signed a petition of over 1,000 academics calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This comes as no universities have been left standing in the Gaza Strip, and nearly 5,000 university students and staff have been killed during Israel’s assault. “I am calling for abolishing Zionism because I see it as very violent towards the people and as causing criminality,” says Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who discusses the atmosphere of silencing and reprisals against those who criticize Israel’s policies toward Palestinians. “Anti-Zionism is to refuse to accept continued dispossession, is to refuse to accept this ideology of supremacy, is to refuse to accept the securitized ideas of one group against the other.”

Source: “Anti-Zionism Is Not Antisemitism”: Palestinian Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian on Hebrew Univ. Suspension | Democracy Now!

Israel

Why Israel’s Violence Gets So Much Notice (It’s Not Antisemitism)

A picture taken from position in southern Israel on January 18, 2024, shows damaged or levelled buildings in the Gaza Strip amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel ignores it’s own past actions in this continuing war and calls the world’s attention to it as Antisemitism. Israel has a history of breaking truce agreements and starting wars on a presumption or an excuse as they did in 1967.

This question held more power during Israel’s past attacks on Gaza — e.g., Operation Cast Lead from 2008-2009, Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, and Operation Protective Edge in 2014, when Palestinian casualties measured in the thousands rather than the tens of thousands. The current war, Operation Swords of Iron, is in fact one of the grimmest things currently happening on Earth.

Source: Why Israel’s Violence Gets So Much Notice (It’s Not Antisemitism)

Israel

Jews against Zionism- Rabbis against Israel

THE FACT IS ALL JEWS DON’T SUPPORT ISRAEL. RABBIS AS FAR BACK AS THE 1900s REJECTED ZIONISM AND WARNED OF ITS HERETICAL DANGER. “There is no way to justify Zionism and Israel in Judaism” SO, WHY ARE THE MOST DEVOUT JEWS SUCH A THREAT TO ZIONIST. THEY ARE LIKE PALESTINIANS. THEY NEVER HAD AN ARMY OR A GUN AND TOGETHER LIVED IN PEACE WITH PALESTINIANS UNTIL ISRAEL WAS CREATED BY A HERETICAL FORCE THAT HAS COMMITTED CRIMES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL LAW AND AGAINST GOD’S COMMANDMENTS GIVE TO THE JEWS

Why do the most observant Jews in the world reject Israel and call for justice for Palestinians? Listen to this fascinating conversation with a leading Neturei Karta Rabbi, Rabbi David Feldman.

Israel

Australia’s Elites Are Censoring Criticism of Israel by Calling It Antisemitic

Institutional donors and people with money are calling any criticism of Israel, antisemitism, an argument lost anywhere else on the planet except in Israel. How backward they are. Louise Adler pointed out “The Arts” has always been political and will always continue to be. But Australian zionists want it censored

In Australia, the political, media, and arts establishment is weaponizing accusations of antisemitism to silence critics of Israel’s war on Gaza. It’s tantamount to blackmail, and the goal is to delegitimize solidarity with Palestine.

Source: Australia’s Elites Are Censoring Criticism of Israel by Calling It Antisemitic

Israel

A fizzled campaign to muzzle free speech – Pearls and Irritations

Israel Palestine.Flags

Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, is a scourge and Australia has not been immune to it. Traditional antisemitism is not hard to identify or call out whether it is in graffiti, slogans or slurs. However, when it comes to debate over Israel and Palestine, what is or is not antisemitic is a highly political issue.

The Executive Council of Australia Jewry, the Zionist Federation of Australia, and the private Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council act as a lobby and take an aggressive, if not belligerent, stance against strong criticism of Israel or Zionism, claiming that it is by and large antisemitic except when conducted within very narrow parameters (theirs). Anything supporting the rights of Palestinians is usually condemned. They largely echo the Israeli government. However they cannot claim to speak for all Jews, nor should they seek to police debate about Israel and Palestine in Australia.

Source: A fizzled campaign to muzzle free speech – Pearls and Irritations

Israel, Uncategorized

Distorting the definition of antisemitism to shield Israel from all criticism | +972 Magazine

Pro-Israel demonstrators in Times Square, New York City on October 18, 2015. (Amir Levy/Flash90)

There is a growing tendency among both Jews and non-Jews to label those with whom they have profound political differences, especially on the subject of Israel-Palestine, as antisemitic. The accusation is a severe one: in most countries in the West, antisemitism is considered a taboo, and the identification of a person or organization with antisemitism often renders them illegitimate in the public arena.

via Distorting the definition of antisemitism to shield Israel from all criticism | +972 Magazine