{"id":82260,"date":"2020-11-22T17:05:36","date_gmt":"2020-11-22T15:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=82260"},"modified":"2020-11-22T14:03:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T12:03:47","slug":"28-05-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=82260","title":{"rendered":"Why does a ‘dismantling antisemitism’ panel have anti-Israel commentators?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Why does a ‘dismantling antisemitism’ panel have anti-Israel commentators?<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

SETH J. FRANTZMAN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\u201cWe will explore how to fight back against antisemitism and against those that seek to wield charges of antisemitism to undermine progressive movements for justice.\u201d<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Rashida Tlaib \/ (photo credit: REUTERS)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It must be a story from the Onion, the satirical newspaper, people thought as they reacted to news that a new panel on \u201cdismantling antisemitism\u201d would include leading anti-Israel commentators, some of whom had been slammed in the past for extreme anti-Israel views or even accused of making antisemitic comments. Others thought it was \u201cgaslighting,\u201d an attempt to explain to Jews who suffer antisemitism, that they actually don\u2019t understand their own experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

A photo of the panel distributed widely on social media shows images of US Congress member Rashida Tlaib, writer Peter Beinart, Barbara Ransby and Marc Lamon Hill, an activist and academic. The \u201cpanel discussion\u201d is titled \u201cdismantling antisemitism, winning justice.\u201d According to the flier it is co-sponsored by a variety of far-left groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace Action, If Not New, United Against Hate, Jewish Currents, Foundation for Middle East Peace, Arab American Institute, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, the Jewish Voice, The People\u2019s Collection for Justice and Liberation.<\/span><\/p>\n

A post by Jewish Voice for Peace on their website claims that \u201cantisemitism is used to manufacture division and fear.\u201d It asserts that antisemitism benefits politicians who rely on division and fear. \u201cWe will explore how to fight back against antisemitism and against those that seek to wield charges of antisemitism to undermine progressive movements for justice.\u201d<\/span>
\nThe current panel has been slammed as making a mockery of a discussion on antisemitism for not including a variety of Jewish voices. \u201cThis panel is a farce,\u201d one social media commentator noted. Writer and activist Hen Mazzig criticized the panel for itself being \u201cracist.\u201d He noted that if you\u2019re not Jewish and want to fight antisemitism, \u201cbut the way you do it causes major distress to hundreds of Jews, how can you still think it\u2019s allyship.\u201d Ashager Araro, an Israeli of Ethiopian background was also astounded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201csincerely asking, how would you react to a panel with the headline \u2018dismantling racism,\u2019 when the majority of the panelists are not people of color, are not scholars in the subject, and publicly displayed different levels of dog whistling\/antisemitism.\u201d Online some people changed the flier to mock it, suggesting what it would be like to have far-right white men discussing anti-black racism, or suggesting the panel enables antisemitism. The Federalist claimed the panel includes \u201cnoted antisemites.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The panelists all raise eyebrows for their previous statements on Israel and Jews. Tlaib has been accused of holding extremely hostile views toward Israel and criticized earlier this year for a tweet on the Holocaust in which she didn\u2019t mention Jews, the primary victims. Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and collaborators during the Holocaust. When she tweets about other types of racism and genocide she appears to mention the victims. Tlaib is of Palestinian background and has made much of her heritage since her election to Congress. She is not an expert on antisemitism.<\/span><\/p>\n

CNN parted ways with Hill after a 2018 speech he gave in which he suggested that it was time to offer solidarity with Palestinians beyond words, but through political action. He said that this justice requires a \u201cfree Palestine from the river to the sea.\u201d The Anti-Defamation League and others slammed the phrasing. In 2019 Hill was again criticized for a Facebook post where he called Mizrahi Jews an \u201cidentity category\u201d of \u201cPalestinian Jews\u201d identity. Mizrahi Jews are actually Jews from numerous countries in the Middle East whose existence predates most of these countries and who are not Palestinian, nor do they define as Palestinian, but are descendants of Jews. It was not clear what expertise or research Hill had done to conclude that Jews from Kurdistan, from Iran, Yemen and all over the region are connected to Palestinians, when they themselves do not define themselves as historically linked to a Palestinian identity or a \u201cPalestinian Jewish\u201d identity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ransby is an academic at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she is an expert on African-American and gender and women\u2019s studies. A search of her Twitter account shows she has rarely tweeted about antisemitism, but mentioned it several times in reference to arguing that it should not be \u201cconflated\u201d with political critique of Israel. It\u2019s not clear what expertise she has on antisemitism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beinart, apparently the only Jew on the panel which is about anti-Jewish hatred, is known for his recent embrace of a \u201cone state\u201d solution. Like Hill\u2019s argument that Palestine should be from the river to the sea, this appears to assert that Israel shouldn\u2019t exist. After critique in 2018, Hill has claimed that he only means radical change within Israel. None of the panelists have argued that other states in the world shouldn\u2019t exist, only Israel, alone among the world\u2019s countries, is a country whose existence as a state is debated regularly in some circles in the US.<\/span><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time a panel on antisemitism has been accused of having extreme anti-Israel voices dominate, some of whom have been slammed for alleged antisemitism. For instance in 2017 Linda Sarsour spoke on a panel and said antisemitism must be \u201cdismantled.\u201d The 2017 event at the New School included Democracy Now\u2019s Amy Goodman, Sarsour, Jewish Voice for Peace leader Rebecca Vilkomerson, Leo Ferguson and Lina Morales, according to an article at +972. The message at this previous panel, that appears similar to the current one, is that allegations of antisemitism are used for political gain and that antisemitism is different then other forms of racism. Arguments include theories that posit that antisemitism isn\u2019t \u201csystemic\u201d while islamophobia and racism are systemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2020 panel of three non-Jews telling Jews what is antisemitism, has received an avalanche of attention from people across the political spectrum. Bari Weiss critiqued how it portrayed antisemitism, Natan Slifkin called it \u201coutrageous and satirical.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It appears that Jews are the only minority group in the US who are frequently the subject of panels by non-Jews explaining to Jews what they suffer in terms of antisemitism. No other minority group is so often subjected to panels where they aren\u2019t allowed to participate in defining their own suffering. This comes amid attacks on Jews in the US in which Jews have been called \u201cwhite Jews\u201d and an increasingly toxic debate trying to make Jews feel uncomfortable in progressive spaces, arguing that their suffering, such as swastikas spray-painted on synagogues, is not part of the wider intersectional struggle against racism.<\/span><\/p>\n

The targeting of Jews includes arguments that Jews of color are not actually Jewish but \u201cPalestinian,\u201d and assertions that Jews from Europe are \u201cwhite\u201d and that Jews don\u2019t suffer systemic racism the way Muslims do. Groups devoted to some left leaning causes have been accused of being infiltrated by leaders who accuse Jews of being responsible for the \u201cslave trade.\u201d The same voices that tell Jews they are not welcome then turn around and claim that Jews are not permitted to define their own antisemitism and that accusations of antisemitism are used \u201cagainst\u201d progressive groups. This dovetails with a similar controversy in the United Kingdom where numerous far-left voices were accused of vile antisemitism, including a popular Facebook group where Holocaust denial was documented.<\/span><\/p>\n

The group included members from the Labour Party who were then suspended from the party. Overall the existence of these kinds of panels don\u2019t exist for other minority groups, dismissing anti-black racism, for instance, as merely a political tool. For instance discussions about how anti-black racism continues to exist within progressive circles is not dismissed, but rather these concerns are listened to and addressed. When it comes to antisemitism, panels are created with non-Jews to tell Jews what antisemitism is. In a world in the US where people have become used to critiquing all-male panels for not including women, it is interesting that the same progressives created a panel of non-Jews to tell Jews what they suffer and not include a spectrum of Jewish voices.<\/span><\/p>\n

It appears that when it comes to Israel this is the only example of a country of a people where hatred of the country is excused as not being linked to hatred of the people in it. For instance there are no panels composed of activists who say that China shouldn\u2019t exist but then claiming not to be anti-Chinese, or panels claiming that Turkey shouldn\u2019t exist as a country, but claiming to not be anti-Turkish. Only in the case of Israel is the theory put forward that objection to Israel\u2019s existence is not linked to anti-Jewish views.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was unclear if any of the panelists had reconsidered their decision to participate. Hill, approached on social media by critics on November 21, said he was open speaking with the critics, saying \u201cwe can talk today.\u201d In July, Beinart noted that Palestinians are often not included on panels discussing Palestinians and bi-nationalism. He wrote he would try not to do panels of \u201cthree or more\u201d without a Palestinian. It was not clear if this pertains to Jews, such as included more Jews on panels about antisemitism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em>
\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.
\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:
\n<\/em>webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why does a ‘dismantling antisemitism’ panel have anti-Israel commentators? SETH J. FRANTZMAN \u201cWe will explore how to fight back against antisemitism and against those that seek to wield charges of antisemitism to undermine progressive movements for justice.\u201d Rashida Tlaib \/ (photo credit: REUTERS) It must be a story from the Onion, the satirical newspaper, people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82260"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82280,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82260\/revisions\/82280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}