As Israel embarked on the first steps of its long-promised invasion of Rafah, Biden delivered a chilling speech scapegoating Hamas militants and pro-Palestine protesters for antisemitism in the U.S. on Tuesday, vowing a crackdown on demonstrators seeking to end Israel’s atrocities in Gaza. During remarks at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony…
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Gaza solidarity protests continue at college campuses across the nation — as does the police crackdown. This comes as more than 50 chapters of the American Association of University Professors have issued a statement condemning the violent arrests by police at campus protests. At Dartmouth College last week, police body-slammed professor and former chair of Jewish studies Annelise Orleck to the…
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Shaima Dallali, ousted as NUS president in 2022, said to have accepted ‘substantial’ settlement before tribunal
A former president of the National Union of Students is said to have accepted a “substantial” settlement to end her legal action against the union following her dismissal over allegations of antisemitism.
Shaima Dallali was ousted as NUS UK president in November 2022 after an investigation claimed she had made “significant breaches” of the union’s antisemitism policies. But shortly before Dallali’s legal challenge was to be heard by an employment tribunal, the NUS and Dallali’s lawyers said a settlement had been agreed.
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Gaza solidarity protests continue at college campuses across the nation — as does the police crackdown. This comes as more than 50 chapters of the American Association of University Professors have issued a statement condemning the violent arrests by police at campus protests. At Dartmouth College last week, police body-slammed professor and former chair of Jewish studies Annelise Orleck to the ground as she tried to protect her students. She was charged with criminal trespass and temporarily banned from portions of Dartmouth’s campus. She joins us to describe her ordeal and respond to claims conflating the protests’ anti-Zionist message with antisemitism. “People have to be able to talk about Palestine without being attacked by police,” says Orleck, who commends the students leading protests around the country. “Their bravery is tremendous and is inspiring. And they really feel like this is the moral issue of their time, that there’s a genocide going on and that they can’t ignore it.”
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In a satirical Instagram post, musical theater composer Daniel Maté lamented that Jewish dissenters’ efforts to “increase antisemitism” by denouncing Israel’s abuses of Palestinians were “not really working.” Rather, he joked, they were sparking favorable impressions of Jews from the broader pro-Palestine solidarity movement. He then facetiously suggested a new tactic — to find Jewish billionaires…
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House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve legislation directing the U.S. Department of Education to consider a dubious definition of antisemitism, despite warnings from Jewish-led groups that the measure speciously conflates legitimate criticism of the Israeli government with bigotry against Jewish people. House members approved the Antisemitism Awareness Act — bipartisan…
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Janine Jackson interviewed Sam, representative from National Students for Justice in Palestine, for the April 26, 2024, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
Janine Jackson: There is a long and growing list of US college campuses where encampments and other forms of protests are going on, in efforts to get college administrations to divest their deep and powerful resources from weapons manufacturers, and other ways and means of enabling Israel’s war on Palestinians, assaults that have killed some 34,000 people just since the Hamas attack of October 7.
One key group on campuses has been SJP, Students for Justice in Palestine. It’s not a new, hastily formed group; they’ve been around and on the ground for decades.
We’re joined now by Sam, a representative of National Students for Justice in Palestine. Welcome to CounterSpin.
Sam: Thank you for having me.
Middle East Eye (4/8/24)
JJ: I can only imagine what a time this is for you, but certainly a time when the need for your group is crystal clear. Individuals who want to speak up about the genocide in Palestine are helped by the knowledge that there are other people with them, behind them, but also that there are organizations that exist to support them and their right to speak out. I wonder, is that maybe especially true for students, whose rights exist on paper, but are not always acknowledged in reality?
S: Yes and no. I think a lot of people definitely want to support students, because what we’re doing is very visible, and also I think people are more willing to assume good faith from 20-year-olds. At the same time, also, free speech on college campuses, especially private campuses, the First Amendment doesn’t apply. So if you’re on a campus, that means that it is sometimes harder to speak out, especially because we’re seeing students getting suspended, and when they get suspended, they get banned from campus, they get evicted from their student housing, sometimes they lose access to healthcare. And, basically, the schools control a lot more of students’ lives than any institution does for adults in the workforce, for example.
JJ: Right. So what are you doing day to day? You’re at National SJP, and folks should know that there are hundreds of entities on campuses, but what are you doing? How do you see your job right now?
S: SJP is a network of chapters that work together. It’s not like they’re branches, where we are giving them orders; they have full autonomy to do what they want within this network.
So what we’re doing is what we’ve been trying to do for our entire existence, which is act as a hub, act as a resource center, provide resources to students, connect them with each other, offer advice, offer financial support when we can. One thing we’re really trying to do is pull everything together, basically present a consistent narrative to the public around this movement.
New York Times (4/29/24)
JJ: Speaking of narrative, the claim that anyone voicing anti-genocide or pro-Palestinian ideas is antisemitic is apparently convincing for some people whose view of the world comes through the TV or the newspaper. But it’s an idea that is blown apart by any visit to a student protest. It’s just not a true thing to say. And I wonder what you would say about narratives. It’s obviously about work, supporting people, but on the narrative space, what are you trying to shift?
S: I mean, I’m Jewish. I’m fairly observant. I was at a Seder last night. When people say the pro-Palestinian movement is antisemitic, they’re lying. I’m just flat-out saying I think a lot of people, on some level, know that this isn’t about Jews. This isn’t about Judaism. It’s about the fact that Israel is committing a genocide in our people’s name. And if you support it, that is going to lead people to make a bunch of bad inferences about you, because you’re vocally supporting a genocide.
This weaponization is meant to shift focus away from Gaza, away from Palestine, the people who are being massacred, the people whose bodies they found in a mass grave at a hospital yesterday. The point is to distract from the fact that there is no moral case to defend what Israel was doing. So the only thing that Zionists have going for them is just smears, attacking the movement, tone-policing, demanding we take stances that they’re never asked to take. No one ever asks pro-Israel protestors, “Do you condemn the Israeli government,” because Israel is seen as a legitimate entity.
First of all, I want to clarify, this is about Palestine. I don’t want to get too far into talking about how the genocide, the Zionist backlash to the movement, affects me as a Jewish person, because I have a roof over my head. There’s not going to be a bomb dropping into my home.
The narrative that we’re really trying to put out is this, what we’re calling the Popular University for Gaza, and it’s an overarching campaign narrative over this. Basically, the idea is that everything that’s happening is laying bare the fact that universities do not care about their students, or their staff, or their faculty, who are the people who make the university a university, and not just an investment firm. They care about their investments and profit and their reputation and, essentially, managing social change.
Columbia University Press Blog (2/27/19)
So what we’re doing is, as students, making encampments, taking up space on their campuses. And a crucial part of these encampments is the programming in them. It’s drawing on the traditions of Freedom Schools in the ’60s and in the South, and also the Popular University for Palestine, which was a movement, I think it’s still ongoing, in Palestine, basically educators teaching for liberation, teaching about the history of Palestinian figures, about resistance, about colonialism.
But the idea is that students are inserting themselves, forcibly disrupting the university’s normal business; and threatening the university’s reputation is a big part of it, and just rejecting their legitimacy, establishing the Popular University for teaching, where scholarship is done for the benefit of the people, not for preserving hegemony.
With this whole thing, we’re trying to emphasize, basically, that our universities, they have built all these reputations and all these super great things about them, but they don’t care about the people in them. So we’re going to take the structures that make up them, which are the people within them, and essentially turn them toward liberation, and against imperialism, against the ruling class.
Reuters (4/29/24)
JJ: Well, thank you very much. I want to say it’s very refreshing, and refreshing is not enough. A lot of folks are drawing inspiration from hearing people say, “The New York Times is saying I’m antisemitic. Maybe I should shut up, you know? Media are saying I’m disruptive. Oh, maybe I should quiet down.” I don’t see any evidence of shutting up or quieting down, despite, really, the full narrative power, along with other kinds of power, being brought against protesters. It doesn’t seem to be shutting people up.
S: No, because that’s the thing, is students have had enough, students are perfectly willing now to risk suspension, risk expulsion, because they know that, essentially, the university’s prestige has been shattered. Even me, I’m currently in school, I’m a grad student. I’ve realized, so far I’ve been OK, but even if I did get expelled, or forced to drop out of my program, that’s a risk I’m willing to take. That’s a tiny sacrifice compared to what people in Palestine are going through. We are willing to sacrifice our futures in a system that increasingly doesn’t give us a future anyway. I think that’s another big part of it, is the feeling that, basically, even if you get a degree, you’re still going to be living precariously for a decade.
And another thing is, also, that today’s college seniors graduated from high school in the spring of 2020. They never really had a normal college experience. Their freshman year was online, so they never developed the bonds with that university, traditional attachment to the university. And also, the universities, the way they handled Covid generally has been terrible, and just seeing them completely disregard their students during the pandemic, I think, has really radicalized a lot of students. Basically, they’re willing to defy the institution.
This is first and foremost about Gaza. It’s about the genocide, it’s about Palestine. It’s not about standing with Columbia students. They have repeatedly asked: Don’t center them; center Gaza. And, basically, we reject the university system as the arbiter of our futures, the arbiter of right and wrong. And we’re going to make our own learning spaces until they listen to us and stop investing our tuition dollars in genocide.
So yeah, free Palestine.
JJ: We’ve been speaking with Sam from Students for Justice in Palestine, NationalSJP.org. Thank you so much, Sam, for joining us this week on CounterSpin.
S: Yeah, thanks for having me.
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Jewish U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a scathing statement Thursday pushing back against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s characterization of burgeoning protests on American university campuses as “antisemitic,” declaring, “It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable for your actions.” “No, Mr. Netanyahu. It is not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that in a little over six…
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Speaking to BBC News, Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) chief Gideon Falter branded people protesting Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine “lawless mobs”.
And in a statement, Gideon Falter appeared to suggest protestors and those opposed to Israel’s conduct were “racists, extremists, and terrorist sympathisers”. He’s also said that “central London is a ‘no-go zone’ for Jews”.
But a group of Holocaust survivors challenged such an account:
Our group was ‘openly Jewish’ in that we all wore placards saying that, as descendants of Holocaust survivors, we oppose the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Every major pro-Palestine demonstration in London has included a large Jewish bloc which has received nothing but support and warmth from their fellow demonstrators.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) found it “plausible” Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. And Israel has now killed over 14,500 children.
CAA openly equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism on its website. It brands former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as antisemitic for part of a clarification he attempted to issue to the party’s adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Specifically, CAA said the following amendment was antisemitic:
It cannot be considered racist to treat Israel like any other state or assess its conduct against the standards of international law. Nor should it be regarded as antisemitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist because of their discriminatory impact, or to support another settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
In 1948 Israel established itself through colonising 78% of Palestine. It has occupied the rest of the nation since 1967, as well as Syria’s Golan Heights.
Corbyn sought to protect the right of free speech on colonisation, which the IHRA text questioned.
A parliamentary report in 2015, meanwhile, stated:
it is important that the (CAA) leadership do not conflate concerns about activity legitimately protesting Israel’s actions with antisemitism, as we have seen has been the case on some occasions
A Met officer earlier in April prevented CAA chief Gideon Falter from moving through the anti-genocide and anti-occupation crowd at a London protest because he looked “openly Jewish”.
The notion is bizarre given openly Jewish people attend the marches consistently. The Black Jewish Alliance, part of the Jewish bloc at the London protests, has described the demonstrators as part of an “eclectic and diverse movement of concerned citizens”.
Israel’s apologists would rather smear people than politically engage in constructive discourse. We must uphold freedom of expression over colonialism in the face of those who want to silence us.
Featured image via Sky News – YouTube
By James Wright
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Academia has always been a political battleground. In recent years, those battles have been fought over issues of free speech, academic freedom and racial justice. As the world enters the sixth month of Israel’s current assault on the Palestinian people, scholars who advocate for Palestinian liberation, human rights and decolonization continue to find themselves in the crosshairs of right-wing…
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Commentator Paul Mason, who is trying to become a Labour MP, slandered an audience member as antisemitic during a Q&A discussion at an event entitled ‘Is it worth voting Labour in 2024?’
The audience member said:
I can’t believe that there hasn’t been any mention here of the Labour Files, like you know the way that Jeremy Corbyn was outed and obliterated through the media because of Keir Starmer and his Israeli sponsors and the fact that so many in the Labour Party are supported and funded by Israel. How can anyone even consider voting Labour, they don’t stand for the people.
The audience member’s comment is grounded in evidence.
The Labour Files – an investigation by Al Jazeera – documented Israel putting up a £1m bounty for insiders to sabotage former anti-imperialist and left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The undercover work also revealed that Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) works “really closely” with the Israeli embassy. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is an LFI vice chair.
Pro-Israel lobbyists, meanwhile, have funded two fifths of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet, including Starmer himself.
On top of this, the mainstream media has been complicit in the smear campaign that democratic movements are antisemitic. A Media Reform Coalition case study found coverage of Corbyn’s Labour and antisemitism to be a “disinformation paradigm”.
In addition, Starmer helped secure Corbyn’s 2019 electoral defeat through pushing a re-run of the Brexit referendum, a policy elites used to guarantee Corbyn’s Labour lost.
In response at the event in Kilburn, Paul Mason said:
See, why didn’t you just say Jew? Why didn’t you just say Jew? Because…why didn’t you just say “He’s a Jewish agent”? Why didn’t you just say it because that’s what you mean isn’t it. And I’ll say to you, anybody in this room who wants to be part of a left where you go around saying ‘Starmer’s an Israeli agent’ if you want to do that, fine
Mason’s credibility was brought into question in 2022 when leaked emails revealed him plotting with an intelligence contractor to take down independent media sites.
After the event, Paul Mason misrepresented what the audience member said to hundreds of thousands of followers. And on social media, people called him out:
Paul Mason lied.
He is willing to defame ordinary people to get media slots, and ideally, a constituency.
We simply don’t need people like this in politics (or journalism for that matter). If you speak at an event with him he could lie about you too. https://t.co/qakTrjyxsh
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) March 26, 2024
This is Paul Mason's unhinged response to the audience member https://t.co/PZ4AtSgd53 pic.twitter.com/rqgQZqUKl7
— j (@jrc1921) March 26, 2024
Others pointed out that Mason equating pro-Israel with ‘Jewish’ is itself antisemitic, because it is holding Jewish people collectively responsible for Israel’s actions:
These dispatches from the front line of, er, Paul Mason trying to get a Labour candidacy are the distilled essence of desperation, as rude reality keeps crashing in and people *dissent*.
The conflation of Israel with Jewry, an antisemitic canard, is the cherry on top, really. pic.twitter.com/DBG87KGZj5— simon maginn (@simonmaginn) March 25, 2024
Mason went on to claim that Starmer’s Labour is “anti-racist”, despite its support for Israel’s genocidal and colonial assault against Palestinian people. Israel has now killed over 32,000 Palestinians including 13,000 children in under six months. The state has displaced 85% of the population of Gaza.
Moreover, his claims of Starmer’s party being “anti-racist” are at odds with Martin Forde KC. The author of the notorious Forde Report claimed in 2023 that:
Anti-black racism and Islamophobia is not taken as seriously as antisemitism within the Labour party, that’s the perception that has come through [from his report]… My slight anxiety is that in terms of hierarchy, and genuine underlying concerns about wider racial issues, it’s not in my view a sufficient response to say that was then, this is now.
Mason has been caught trying to suppress discussion that exposes the UK political establishment through bogus antisemitism allegations. The commentator becoming an MP is the opposite of what we need.
Featured image via Penguin Books UK- YouTube
By James Wright
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As worldwide protest escalates over Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, academic freedom and free speech are under all-out attack on university campuses in the United States, not just from university administrations and pro-Israeli groups, but now directly from the highest levels of the Israeli state. In a story that has been largely ignored in the Western press, the Israeli news website…
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A group of dermatologists recently sought to end their profession’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs en masse, exposing the degree to which the wider reactionary backlash against anti-racist efforts has found converts within the medical specialty. The anti-DEI proposition was heard at a dermatology conference held in San Diego this month: the annual gathering of the American Academy…
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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…
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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.”
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An interview with Collectif Golem, a left-wing Jewish group in France fighting antisemitism and the far right.
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Super Bowl LVII in 2023 was the most-watched U.S. telecast in history, and with well over 100 million people expected to tune in on Feb. 11, Super Bowl Sunday will provide one of the biggest platforms on Earth for pro-Israel groups to attempt to justify Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza. The Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism, which is owned by Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the NFL’s…
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On January 31, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 30, codifying the definition of antisemitism, as formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), into state law. According to the legislation, law enforcement agencies in the state must consider the definition in the course of their enforcement. As the definition explicitly references criticism of Israel…
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Today, I submitted my resignation as director of the Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). Although it might at first appear that this choice was driven by the ever-intensifying political attacks against gender studies in Florida, these attacks are precisely why I would have wanted to remain as director. As a genderqueer scholar…
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Right-wing lawmakers in Georgia are advancing two bills that would erode free speech and protest rights in the state. HB 30 would categorize criticism of Israel as antisemitic hate speech and SB 359 would significantly expand the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, enhancing sentencing based on “political beliefs.” “Don’t sleep on this red clay fascism y’all,”…
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The new documentary Israelism examines the growing generational divide among Jewish Americans on the question of Palestine, with many younger Jews increasingly critical of Israel and less supportive of Zionism. Simone Zimmerman, one of the protagonists of the film and a co-founder of the group IfNotNow, says she grew up being told that supporting Israel was central to her Jewish identity…
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New reporting reveals that workers for Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League, or ADL, have been internally wrestling with the group’s vehemently pro-Israel views, as public stances from the group are threatening to undermine the ADL’s own work on extremism and antisemitism, some staff are saying. As Israeli forces have waged a relentless bombing campaign against Gaza in recent months…
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In 1962, James Baldwin wrote “A Letter to My Nephew.” The letter communicates Baldwin’s anger, his frustration, his commitment to radical change, and his indefatigable love for his nephew. His critique of white people, who he refers to as his “countrymen,” is piercing and demanding. Indeed, at one point he writes, “To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger. In this case…
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The United States Congress received international attention in December for their heated cross-examinations of university presidents on the topic of campus antisemitism. The spectacle fueled the weaponization of antisemitism by conservatives, breathing new life into a consolidated right wing, robust enough to take on liberal higher education. Nivedita Majumdar is a professor of English at John Jay…
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On 20 December 2023 Jakob Guhl posted in Index on Censorship a piece stating that German authorities are increasingly silencing pro-Palestine activism in an effort to stamp out anything they fear could be seen as antisemitic. He makes some excellent points (which apply also outside Germany):
..The seemingly isolated incidents highlighted in this article are piling up and the curtailing of civic space is starting to be noticed internationally: Civicus, which ranks countries by freedom of expression rights, recently downgraded Germany in a review from “open” to “restricted” due to repression of pro-Palestinian voices, as well as of climate activists…
There are long-standing disagreements around where to draw the line between legitimate criticism of Israel and attacks on Israel that single it out because it is a Jewish state, are expressed in antisemitic ways or are motivated by antisemitic views. For example, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism acknowledges that “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic” but identifies seven examples of when attacks on Israel may be antisemitic (taking into account the overall context). For example, it could be antisemitic to reference classic antisemitic tropes such as the blood libel conspiracy myth to describe Israel, deny the Jewish people’s right to self-determination or blame Jews collectively for the actions of Israel, according to IHRA.
While Germany has adopted IHRA, much looser standards seem to be applied by authorities and commentators committed to tackling Israel-related antisemitism. Calls for a binational state, advocacy for the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) or accusations that Israel is committing Apartheid are regularly identified as antisemitic. There is a strong sense that given its historical responsibility, it is not Germany’s place to judge, or let anyone else judge, Israel even as its offensive in Gaza has resulted in one of the highest rates of death in armed conflict since the beginning of the 21st century, and disproportionately affects civilians. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/01/18/israel-and-apartheid-israeli-human-rights-group-stirs-debate/]..
The debates since 7 October have created an atmosphere in which pro-Palestinian voices are more and more stigmatised. Pro-Palestinian protests have repeatedly been banned by local authorities. Their dystopian rationale for these bans revolves around the idea that, based on assessments of previous marches, crimes are likely to be committed by protesters. The practice is not new: in the past, German police have even banned protests commemorating the ”Nakba” (Arabic for “catastrophe”), the collective mass expulsion and displacement of around 700,000 Palestinians from their homes during the 1947-49 wars following the adoption of the Partition Plan for Palestine by the United Nations. In reaction to pro-Palestine protests since 7 October, the antisemitism commissioner of North Rhine Westphalia and former federal justice minister even suggested the police should pay closer attention to the nationality of pro-Palestine protest organisers as protests organised by non-Germans could be banned more easily.
Furthermore, pro-Palestinian political symbols are being falsely associated with Hamas or other pro-terrorist organisations. In early November, the Federal Interior Ministry banned the chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” as a symbol of both Hamas and Samidoun, a support network for the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine which has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the European Union.
While one plausible interpretation of the “From the River to the Sea” slogan is that it is a call for the destruction of Israel, it is equally plausible to understand it as a call for a binational state with full equality of all citizens. Without context, the slogan cannot automatically be identified as antisemitic, though it is of course entirely legitimate to criticise this ambivalence. As has been extensively documented, the slogan does not originate with nor is exclusively used by Hamas.
Apart from being based on misinformation, banning “From the River to the Sea” has also created the ludicrous situation that the German police force is asked to make assessments on whether holding a “From the River we do see nothing like equality” placard is an expression of support for terrorism. A former advisor to Angela Merkel even called for the German citizenship of a previously stateless Palestinian woman to be revoked who posted a similar slogan (“From the River to the Sea #FreePalestine”) on her Instagram.
In some cases, these dynamics venture into the absurd. On 14 October, the activist Iris Hefets was temporarily detained in Berlin for holding a placard that read: “As a Jew & an Israeli Stop the Genocide in Gaza.”
These illiberal and ill-conceived measures are not limited to protests. In response to the 7 October attacks, authorities in Berlin allowed schools to ban students from wearing keffiyeh scarves to not “endanger school peace”.
Curtailing civic spaces
While these trends have been accelerated since 7 October, they predate it. In 2019, the German Bundestag passed a resolution that condemned the BDS movement as antisemitic. It referenced the aforementioned IHRA definition of antisemitism (which does not comment on boycotts), compared the BDS campaign to the Nazi boycotts of Jewish business and called on authorities to no longer fund groups or individuals that support BDS.
BDS calls for the boycott of Israeli goods, divestment from companies involved in the occupation of Arab territories and sanctions to force the Israeli government to comply with international law and respect the rights of Palestinians, including the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Inspired by the boycott campaign against Apartheid South Africa, BDS has attracted many supporters, but critics have claimed that BDS singles out Israel and delegitimises its existence. Accusations of antisemitism within the movement should of course be taken seriously: BDS supporters have previously been accused of employing antisemitic rhetoric about malign Jewish influence and intimidating Jewish students on campus. However, many of BDS’ core demands are clearly not antisemitic. Since the BDS lacks a central leadership that would issue official stances, it is difficult to make blanket statements about the movement in its entirety.
The 2019 resolution is now being cited to shut down cultural events. A planned exhibition in Essen on Afrofuturism was cancelled over social media posts that, according to the museum, “do not acknowledge the terroristic attack of the Hamas and consider the Israeli military operation in Gaza a genocide” and expressed support for BDS. The Frankfurt book fair “indefinitely postponed” a literary prize for the Palestinian author Adania Shibli, after one member of the jury resigned due to supposed anti-Israel and antisemitic themes in her book. Shibli has since been accused by the left-wing Taz newspaper of being an “engaged BDS supporter” for having signed one BDS letter in 2007 and a 2019 letter that criticised the city of Dortmund for revoking another literary price for an author that supports BDS. A presentation by the award-winning Forensic Architecture research group at Goldsmiths (University of London), which has analysed human rights abuses in Syria, Venezuela and Palestine as well as Neo-Nazi murders in Germany, was likewise cancelled by the University of Aachen which cited the group’s founder Eyal Weizman’s support for BDS.
The curtailing of civic space increasingly affects voices that have stood up for human rights at great personal risk. The Syrian opposition activist Wafa Ali Mustafa was detained by Berlin police near a pro-Palestine protest, reportedly for wearing a keffiyeh scarf. Similarly, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, which is associated with the centre-left Green Party, pulled out of the Hannah Arendt prize ceremony, which was due to be awarded to the renowned Russian dissident, philosopher and human rights advocate Masha Gessen. Despite acknowledging differences between the two, Gessen had compared Gaza to the Jewish ghettoes in Nazi-occupied Europe in an article about the politics of memory in Germany, the Soviet Union, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary and Israel.
Conversation stoppers
Alarm bells should ring as one of Europe’s major liberal democracies has taken an authoritarian turn in the aftermath of 7 October. Germany’s noble commitment to its historical responsibility in the face of rising antisemitism is morphing into a suppression of voices advocating for Palestinian political self-determination and human rights.
In this distorted reality, civic spaces are eroded, cultural symbols banned, political symbols falsely conflated with support for terrorism and events are shut down. So far, there has been little pushback or critical debate about these worrying developments. To the contrary: politicians, foundations, cultural institutions and media outlets seem to be closing ranks under the shadow of the 2019 BDS resolution and a skewed interpretation of the IHRA definition.
Following the appalling violence committed by Hamas on 7 October, and the scale of civilian suffering in Gaza due to the subsequent Israeli military offensive, polarisation and tension between communities have been on the rise. In this context, it is crucial to be able to have passionate, empathetic, controversial and nuanced discussions about the conflict, its history, the present impasse, potential ways forward and its impact on Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities abroad. With the voices of activists, authors and even internationally renowned human rights advocates being increasingly isolated, these vital exchanges are prevented from taking place.
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.
20 December 2023. Less than a week to go till Christmas.
Just under a week since the Jewish festival of Chanukkah ended.
And over two months since the October 7 massacre by Hamas in Israel, setting off an intense war between Israel and Gaza.
It’s all a bit depressing, bittersweet and well… unsettling, isn’t it?
It’s a special, reflective and sacred time of year for many, yet it’s all come together in a horrible blur of hate…
Speaking to a Jewish friend yesterday, I discovered how in a predominantly Jewish area of London, annual Chanukkah celebrations have been somewhat “dimmed” this year.
Muswell Hill in North London… The Chanukkiah (9-candle menorah for Chanukkah)was lit, prayers were said and greetings of solidarity shared.
And then… it was taken away. Leaving just a solitary Christmas tree.
The reason? I can only imagine fear or vandalism since the offset of the recent round of conflict in the Middle East.
Right now, the Jewish community are scared. And quite understandably.
Antisemitism is increasingly on the rise, nationally and globally.
Here in the UK, the Community Security Trust (CST) recorded 600 anti-Jewish hate incidents in the UK between 7 and 24 October (2023). This is the highest ever total reported to CST across a 17-day period.
Along with recent spikes in hate crime, when Chanukkah arrived (the often misunderstood and appropriated Jewish festival unrelated to Christmas), we then saw the desecration of chanukkiyot.
In North London for example, a publicly-erected chanukkiah was vandalised. This was merely days after it has been plastered with a “Free Palestine” sticker and one its bulbs smashed.
Given the climate of antisemitism, it’s more than understandable if Jewish leaders decided to remove the chanukkiah after the gathering to prevent abuse.
Yet, I couldn’t help feel that if the chanukkiah had been removed for such reasons, that this wasn’t the way forward. Or at least, it’s not a long-term solution to antisemitism.
Whilst distressing as it is to see desecrated holy sites and symbols, greater protection is needed in the short term, along with education and ardent strides to strengthen community cohesion in the long-term.
To my mind, this decision gave in to hate – showing that Jews can and will be invisible. When instead, we must foster an environment where the Jewish community feel confident, safe and proud in their identity. Like everyone should.
Speaking to my Jewish friend who’d attended, the feeling was mutual:
“I felt such dismay and sadness… It’s a crying shame that the Jewish community has to resort to hiding the Menorah for fear of antisemitic vandalism.
It is symbolic of the feeling that we have to be invisible in order to survive. That violence and the mob can call the shots in this way, is not just bad for Jews it’s clearly bad for our society as a whole.”
Compare this to other cities, and the message really hit home.
Earlier in December, I travelled to Berlin for a workshop on antisemitism. It was my second visit in recent months related to antisemitism, a period which has led to a lot of learning, revelations and reflection.
In Berlin, my seasonal experience was somewhat different to my friend’s in Muswell Hill.
In the German capital, I visited the chanukkiah located at the Brandenburg Gate.
In this historic square, the chanukkiah stood bright and proud, quite tragically yet beautifully next to the gate (and a nearby Christmas tree).
And this is no ordinary piece of historic architecture, it was once a symbol of the era of Nazi Germany (albeit built much earlier).
I didn’t have the words to express the bittersweet juxtaposition of the two images.
Jewish pride in a nation that saw the death of six million Jews (amongst others) not even a century ago… A tragic past, yet a future of efforts to embrace the Jewish world and stand against hate.
Things were and are moving forward (although antisemitism is a problem in Germany, just as in the UK and globally).
Back in the UK, communities are coming together. Yet, the chanukkiah in Muswell Hill was out of sight, whilst the Christmas tree remained. Life seemingly carried on.
But it hasn’t… Over in Trafalgar Square, the annual erection of the chanukkiah had taken place, but celebrations were markedly quieter (I discussed this with the same Jewish friend).
This also followed on the U-turn of the decision by Havering Council this year to not display Chanukkah candles outside its town hall in an attempt to avoid “inflaming community tensions”.
With this decision reversed following a united outburst of criticism from Jews, Muslims and likeminded citizens, there was and is hope.
Yet, back in Muswell Hill, a single Christmas tree remained, without the chanukkiah (a visible Jewish symbol).
I couldn’t help but feel sad. Not just for this, but for the wider image: the overwhelming sense of injustice and historical persecution of the Jewish community.
All the more poignant it is as, regardless of its origins, the festive tree is a symbol of Christmas globally (although not present in all Christian traditions).
This is a faith which marks a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus – a Jewish man from Judea.
A symbol of the Christian world. A world that long persecuted the Jewish community on religious grounds in the form of anti-Judaism – medieval theologically-driven antisemitism in the Christian-Western world.
It’s worth noting that the contemporary term “antisemitism” incorporates the now wide spectrum of prejudice, including also in the Muslim world (such as Christian anti-Judaism, Islamist antisemitism, Far-Left political and neo-Nazi Far-Right ideology).
This term was born later – deriving from 19th century references to “racial inferiority” of the Jewish people, prevalent with Nazis and neo-Nazis alike.
So, with the founding figure of Christianity (and a Prophet in Islam) a Jew himself, we’ve long seen two sides of the same coin.
One the one hand, there’s a shared history – an opportunity to embrace solidarity as members of the Abrahamic family in a multicultural, multifaith society.
Yet on the other, we’re reminded of a deep history of persecution – of lies and tropes used to “otherise” both Jews and people of other faiths (including Muslims alike).
It hurts to continuously see my Jewish friends and colleagues facing abuse, simply for being Jewish.
And at this time of year, it’s all the more tragic.
Why? Because Jesus’ message (whether his existence is historically proven or not) is one of love, unity and anti-corruption. It’s NOT one of division, appropriation, replacement and conflict.
Quite honestly, what would he think if he were to look at the state of the Earth now?
A Holy Land at war. The symbols of his traditional faith removed from the public sphere. Yet (quite rightly) the symbol of Western Christianity (the tree) stands firm on our soul.
A symbol of an institution that in fact persecuted Jews for centuries exactly because they weren’t Christian.
Historically, Jews were painted as devilish and corrupt for “rejecting Christ”.
This led to the vicious blood libel myth which portrayed Jews as “bloodthirsty” heretics who sought to “replicate the holy rites of Easter at Passover with the blood of Christian children”.
Obviously complete nonsense. Yet it’s stuck – replicating itself across the political spectrum.
Otherised and rejected, the Jewish community in Europe were also denied to the right to work as they wished and to own land, turning to money-lending to earn a living.
With usury seen as a sin by the Christian Church, Jews were therefore further demonised as “greedy, powerful and dominant”.
And so grew the myths around power and money, bearing fruit to the antisemitic conspiracy theories of today (depicting Jews as communists, capitalists, leaders of the “New World Order” and everything in between).
Having recently completed several trainings in antisemitism (blogs to follow), including in the medieval Christian world, I concluded and finally understood just how embedded antisemitism is in our society.
After all, we’re a society built on Christian history – whether many recognise this fact or not. (This acknowledgment of “Cultural Christianity” is forming part of my re-embracing of my Christian heritage/identity as British-Islam convert to Islam).
Yet history is often used, forgotten and abused in the name of hate, otherisation and exclusion.
The term “Judeo-Christian” for example is often used to imply a united world in a disingenuous move against people of other faiths. It’s a buzz-word for xenophobes preaching anti-refugee and anti-Muslim hate.
It attempts to paint a picture of a historically Jewish-friendly Europe that is markedly different to the “alien” and “Eastern” faith of Islam (the last Abrahamic faith).
Well… ask a British Jew and they’ll tell you a different story. One of historical persecution within Medieval Europe, of expulsion and rejection.
And this “othering” continues today in the form of rampant antisemitism.
Of course, all three faiths originate from the Middle East. And they all share a number of key figures such as Moses, Abraham and Jesus (in various forms).
Time and time again, history is used, abused and misrepresented for one’s own gain. To build narratives, to “disprove” lived experiences and to conveniently paint “black and white” binaries of “good vs. bad”, “right and wrong” and “us vs. them”.
Well, that’s not how the world works.
We’re a diverse planet. Reality is nuanced. And experiences are unique, varied, personal and collective.
As we witness the coming of Christmas as a global community, we’re seeing a clear reminder to look forward – acknowledging the past, living with the present and working towards a better future.
Through Jesus. And I say this as a Muslim (former Christian) ally to the Jewish community.
The name in itself carries so much variance yet commonality.
Jesus, Issa, Christ, Joshua, Yeshua, Jesús…
The name comes with many translations and variations, each with their own religious and cultural connotations.
And an opportunity for unity or division…
Divine Son of God (Christian teachings), a (historically unverified) Jewish man (Judaism), a Prophet of God (Islam).
Traceable in all three Abrahamic faiths in very different ways, his teachings are presented as a narrative of love, peace and spirituality.
This was at the time starkly opposed to religious dogma – whether one believes in his teachings or even existence from both a spiritual and historical perspective.
Yet here we are… At the end of 2023 and amid a war in the Holy Land.
And again, we’re hearing that time old seasonal line “remember that Jesus was Palestinian” and “Jesus was Muslim” from the Pro-Palestinian (often portrayed as Muslim) crowd.
Well, no… Jesus wasn’t Palestinian in so many words.
Jesus was Jewish. Born in Galilee, he preached in Judea and was later crucified in Jerusalem.
This area was a Roman province (colony) under Roman rule.
Jesus of Nazareth identified as a Jewish man.
“Palestinian” simply wasn’t a word that he would have identified with or that represents his authentic person.
And similarly, neither was “Christian”.
The term “Palestinian” derives from the land of the “Philistines” – a Greek word adopted by the occupying Romans in the 2nd century through the term “Syria Palaestina”.
Jesus’ followers were Jewish, with the term and official formation of a “Christian Church” not taking place till much later during the Roman leadership in the 3rd century.
Crucially, whilst may sound like semantical games it’s important. Mis-appropriation of history and one’s identity isn’t the way forward to peace, unity and cohesion.
Likewise, if we look at the term “Muslim” that gets flung around Twitter…
That’s a bit more complicated.
In simple terms, a “muslim” refers to a person who “submits to the one Single God”. That’s it.
And so, if we break it down, anyone can be a “muslim”.
Yep, no Arabic, no Qur’an, nothing except a connection with God and good deeds.
A message that is repeated in the Qur’an to remind us of our moral duty.
This is crucially one of the reasons why it’s incredibly unhelpful and disingenuous to refer to Islamists as “non-Muslims”.
In the minds of extremists, they’re following scripture (not what’s often simply passed off as “cultural practice). This is regardless of whether we think their beliefs and teachings are legitimate or not.
In the “Muslim world”, Orthodox prevailing traditions however are rather prescriptive.
In this tradition, a “Muslim” is portrayed as a person who follows the religion of “Islam”, who makes the “declaration of faith” and believes in the Qur’an and so on.
In such traditional teachings, there “one Truth” and one God, with the Prophets Moses (Musa), Abraham (Ibrahim) and Jesus (Issa) as “Muslim”.
However, as we all know, the religion of 1.9 billion followers known as “Muslims”, was not formed till centuries later. A religious intuition that certainly Jesus wouldn’t have known.
So of course, shouting “Jesus was Muslim” across Twitter, is the most unnuanced act of religious and cultural appropriation – especially in the current climate of conflict and rising hate.
Yes, he was a monotheist (a “muslim”) but Islam as a faith institution wasn’t born yet.
And “reshaping” Jesus (a Jewish teacher) amid the current climate of conflict and hate, this is not a sensitive, kind or even wise move.
We all share so much in common – and we must reflect and build on that. Whilst of course respecting the differences, variances and beliefs of others.
For whether we believe Jesus is a peaceful Jewish man from Judea, the Divine Son of God or part of wider Islamic tradition, what we should all be agreeing on is this:
The Jewish community deserve respect, representation and security.
Religious communities should stand together in solidarity
The world deserves peace (including both Israelis and Palestinians – whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Samaritan, Druze etc.)
So, as one of the biggest days in the Christian calendar approaches (days altering between different strands of Christianity of course – diversity again”), we therefore need to stand together against hate, in pride of diversity.
We need to acknowledge and respect the contribution of the Jewish world, educate ourselves about their collective trauma (both pre- and post-Holocaust in European and global contexts) and commit to respecting the Jewish community’s right to freedom of belief, safety and to quite simply flourish!
Likewise, the same rights that must be afforded to all people: Palestinians, Europeans, Americans, all over!
Because no matter we’re all spending (or not spending!) Christmas, we’re all human.
And humanity was exactly Jesus’ message.
So, whether you’re celebrating the Son of God, enjoying a cultural festival, making the most of a day off work or having a Chinese takeaway as you Netflix and chill (a very American-Jewish tradition at Christmas!), keep safe, keep sane and consider this as a New Year’s Resolution:
We must all commit to standing up against hate. To calling out antisemitism, anti-Muslim hate and all other forms of discrimination.
We can all reach out to neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances to check on their wellbeing, to build friendships and form alliances.
And we should all agree: we are stronger together.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year to all!
Peace, salam, shalom!
This post was originally published on Voice of Salam.
