hoofdletter

[hoofdletter]

I'm not deciding anything ahead of time. I'd love to see the actual data behind this graph, but from how CAM describes this category of incidents, and from the examples they provide in the report and on their own website of what, according to them, constitutes "anti-Israel / anti-Zionist antisemitism", their perception of what actually constitutes an accident being antisemitic is capturing incidents that only target the state of Israel for the horrors it is enacting on Gaza. Not for being a Jewish state. That is why I am quite certain that this data is inflated.

You seem to be the one working on assumptions here, instead. Why is it that you see criticism of the Israeli government as a personal attack on your religion and identity? Why do you assume that people criticise and protest against the state of Israel because of antisemitic double standards, and not because of the widely mediatised genocide that its government is committing?

The reason why so many people in the USA and EU have become increasingly vocal in their protest against Israel is not because they inherently hate Jewish people and thus hate Israel by extension. It is because there are far-reaching political, military, economic, and academic ties binding the USA and EU to Israel and making these players--that pretend to be morally superior--complicit in this conflict. The USA is funding Israel's genocide and uses its great power status in the UN to shield it from any repercussions. The EU hasn't broken a single tie to Israel or hit it with even remotely the same sanctions apparatus as it has done to Russia. If citizens don't act and protest, governments will look away. Just like you are choosing to look away from the atrocities Israel is committing, because you somehow conflate criticism against Israel with an attack on your Jewishness.

You don't know what I or any protester against Israel feels about those other conflicts you mentioned. So how can you assume that they don't care, and don't call for other boycotts, too? The fact is that what Israel is doing in Gaza is visible all around the world. It's a salient issue. We all see what is happening, and recognise it for what it is: a disproportionate response that goes far beyond any reasonable interpretation of self-defence. An attempt to exterminate any and all Palestinians left in the Gaza strip. And this attempt will be successful if no one takes action.

The fact that you are even calling this cruelty and its status as a genocide into question is appalling. You bring up Amnesty International, but that's not the only actor labelling this a genocide. There are international law specialists saying the exact same thing. UNSCIIP--the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories--has said that the policies and practices they've seen Israel enact in Gaza are consistent with characteristics of genocide. Anyone who listens to what Israeli leaders are saying about Gaza sees it. Yet you don't--what does that say about your biases?

In an ideal world, every international crisis would receive the same attention, but that's simply not the case. There's nothing antisemitic about that--if anything, it says more about how Western media still underreport on crises happening in the global South and Eastern countries. All of those people deserve justice. But that still doesn't justify what Israel is doing.

You can't fault people for paying attention to a genocide unfolding in front of their eyes and deciding to speak out against it. You can't fault them for putting pressure on their governments because the leaders in charge prefer to stay silent and look the other way. Framing that as antisemitism is not only disingenuous, but it also says a lot about you as a person, and what you choose to attach your identity to.

I get an iteration of this ask like once a month, and it's always some form of "why do you care so much about leftist antisemitism when neo nazis exist"

And there are two main reasons.

1. Antisemitism is still antisemitism regardless of who does it. The left isn't less harmful in their antisemitism simply because it's coming from the left.

2. I am a leftist myself and care deeply about the left. Ignoring the harm to jews it causes, it is genuinely scary seeing people on the left abandon leftist values for right wing rhetoric wrapped in a thin cover of leftism.

[hoofdletter]

The graph added above is misleading. It features inflated data that also include instances of anti-Zionism and anti-Israel actions as antisemitic. This misrepresents the share of left-wing antisemitic incidents.

It's pulled from a report by Combat Antisemitism Movement, which is a pro-Israel organisation that routinely frames anti-Israel and pro-Palestine sentiments as antisemitism. Just a quick scroll on its website and through the source linked above can tell you that.

Here are some extracts from the report misrepresenting anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiments and actions as antisemitism:

Some more examples of what CAM view as antisemitic incidents from their April round-up report:

These and similar anti-Israel actions and critiques account for 70.2% of what CAM views as antisemitic incidents:

And they account for 96.4% of what CAM represents as left-wing antisemitic incidents:

I'm not trying to downplay the very real antisemitic violence and hate that Jewish people are increasingly faced with. No one should fear for their safety because of who they are, and the appropriation of pro-Palestinian movements to promote antisemitism and incite violence is something we should be wary of and denounce universally in left-wing circles.

However, misrepresenting critique of Israel and expressed support for Palestine as antisemitism is disingenuous. There is still a distinct line between criticism of Israel for enacting a genocide on Palestine, and hatred against Jewish people for simply being Jewish. The two cannot be equated to another and lumped into the category "antisemitic incidents" in such a simplistic manner. Anti-Zionism and well-justified criticism and action against Israel for systematically violating human rights and aiming to exterminate Palestinians does not constitute antisemitism.

I get an iteration of this ask like once a month, and it's always some form of "why do you care so much about leftist antisemitism when neo nazis exist"

And there are two main reasons.

1. Antisemitism is still antisemitism regardless of who does it. The left isn't less harmful in their antisemitism simply because it's coming from the left.

2. I am a leftist myself and care deeply about the left. Ignoring the harm to jews it causes, it is genuinely scary seeing people on the left abandon leftist values for right wing rhetoric wrapped in a thin cover of leftism.