Image by Markus Spiske.
When you accuse people of antisemitism for being against bombing civilians, the killing of children, putting thousands, including 14-year-olds, in prison without trial; or for supporting United Nations resolutions criticizing Israel, chanting slogans that call for a secular state, demanding a ceasefire in a military operation that has killed over 11,000 people, you are undermining the meaning of the word and its power to accurately label and fight those who hate Jews for being Jewish.
When you call for governments (and, even worse, succeed) to use their coercive power to ban anti-Israel demonstrations or calls for boycotts or any other forms of pressure towards a two-state or one secular state solution, and justify that in the name of fighting antisemitism, you are undermining the meaning of the word and its power to accurately label and fight those who hate Jews for being Jewish. And you are seen to validate the twisted, sick ideas of actual antisemites.
When you call for people to be fired from their jobs or for students to be excluded from potential jobs for their support of Palestinians and justify that by calling them anti-Jewish you are creating lifelong enemies of Israel and demonstrating that you are on the side of power and against those who instinctively defend the underdog. And you are seen to validate the twisted, sick ideas of actual antisemites.
When you call the police to investigate the “antisemitic hate crime” of posters depicting bombs with Israeli flags on them falling on Gaza with the words “Never Again — Stop US (or Canadian, British, French etc.) complicity” you are opposing free speech, illustrating your authoritarian nature, supporting militarism and obfuscating on thin democratic ice.
When you slam left-wing students and their universities for shutting down right-wing provocateurs and condemn “de-platforming” but then months later demand room bookings be cancelled to prevent what you call an “anti-Jewish” speaker, who in reality is simply pro-Palestinian, you are revealing not only hypocrisy but disdain for the actual meaning of antisemitism.
When you defend and support the military might of an extreme right-wing Israel government that uses Jewish supremacist language, passes Jewish supremacist laws and whose ministers loudly proclaim all the land between the river and the sea belongs to the Jewish state of Israel, but then claim a two-state solution is still possible and that anyone who argues for one secular state is an antisemite calling for killing Jews, you are proving a blind loyalty to Israel no matter what and above all else, as well as the irrationality of your ideas.
When you insist antisemitism is the only possible motivation for someone to oppose what the self-described “Jewish state” is doing, you are, in fact, making an argument that Jews can only be judged for who they are, rather than what they are doing. This, of course, is the very definition of what the civil rights movement opposed and defined as prejudice. To do so harms Jews and every other target of racists.
Fighting all forms of racism, including antisemitism, is too important to be left in the hands of people who have proven their irrationality and ulterior motives.
It’s time to stop abuse of the word antisemitism.
The post Serial Abuse of ‘Antisemitism’ Destroys Meaning, Harms Jews appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.
