The Anti-Zionism Loophole
The Anti-Zionism Loophole
Words have meanings. Learn them.
“I’m not antisemitic, I’m just anti-Zionist.”
“I don’t hate Jews, I just hate Israel. I have Jewish friends here in the United States.”
“I am pro-Palestinian because the Jews colonized their land.”
“Jews don’t have monopoly on ‘antisemitism.’ The Palestinians are Semites too!”
If you have thought or uttered any of of the statements above, I implore you to punch yourself in the face.
Or better yet, ask yourself why you are having these thoughts and feel the need to spew them with such vitriol to strangers on the Internet.
I know, you think you’re making highly original points and teaching others about “social justice” (however that’s defined nowadays). You claim to want peace, which is clearly evident when you link Israelis with Nazis.
There’s now an entire lexicon used by millions who think just like you — a veritable dictionary that you conveniently grab onto and feel self-assured using with Jews like me. It includes terms like “genocide,” “colonialism,” and “ethnic cleansing.” And the best part? You’re free to weaponize it at your leisure, without knowing any of the relevant history of the conflict you claim to care about so much.
So why are you doing it?
It’s not because you care about Palestinians. Most of the westerners engaging in this behavior have never even been to the Middle East. If they did, they would know the reality is far more complicated than social media makes it look.
If you really cared about Palestinians, you would condemn Hamas, a government that treats its own people as completely expendable while its billionaire leaders stay in 5-star Qatari hotels far away from Gaza. You would also condemn the ongoing corruption of the PA.
If you really cared about Palestinians, you would call out their government for their policy of throwing gays off of rooftops.
If you really cared about Palestinians, you would speak out against the regular abuses that their women and girls experience.
If you really cared about Palestinians, you would not be infantilizing them by claiming that all of their problems are another nation’s fault. You would ask them what they truly believe to be their vision of a state, and not insert your own fantasies about that in their answer.
If you really cared about Palestinians, you would make a concerted effort to learn the nuances about what’s actually happening — for example, that Hamas has as much to do with Iran as Israel has to do with the West.
People who do none of the above whilst demonizing Israel are not pro-Palestinian. They are simply anti-Israel.
To those who moronically equate Zionism with white supremacy: where white supremacy exists, antisemitism follows. It’s a rule proven time and time again. If you choose to engage with Jews under this theory, you are taking on the role of white supremacist, whether you mean to or not.
Let’s define some terms:
Antisemitism: hatred of Jews.
Anti-Zionism: the belief that Jews should not have the right to self-determination and that the current Jewish state, home to approximately half of the world’s 15 million Jews (a whopping 0.2% of the global population), should not exist.
Israel: a tiny country covering one-fifth of one percent of the landmass of the Arab world where Jews have kept a consistent presence for over 3000 years, and where diaspora resulted in it becoming the national home of the Jews that it is today.
If you define yourself as an anti-Zionist, you are an antisemite. Plain and simple.
It doesn’t matter how many Jewish friends you think you have. I assure you, they are not telling you the whole truth about their own views if you openly think this way.
It doesn’t matter if you have joined Jewish Voice for Peace’s Instagram and think you’re hearing from the “good” Jews. I promise, the majority of people who belong to that organization are not actually Jewish, and ~90% of American Jews do not subscribe to their stupid ideas.
It doesn’t matter how empowered you feel as you spew the same tired hate-filled garbage that bears little relevance to the actual issue at hand. That feeling is illusory.
Recently, I wrote a collaborative article with Israeli author
about what Israel can do to improve its PR to an international audience. This was not a piece on the Israel-Hamas War. It was an article about how we can present Israel as it actually is, as opposed to how it’s being inaccurately perceived among a western audience. Predictably, the haters came out in full force. Here is one:
I made it abundantly clear in the article that I was an American collaborating with an Israeli. So, I took the pronoun “you” used repeatedly in this comment to mean “Jews.” Who will protect us from them? When a back-and-forth between us revealed that he did not realize that I am American (as in, he thought Hanan and I were both Israeli) — which indicates that he did not actually read the article before making this exhaustive comment — he quickly back-peddled. He assured me (I’m paraphrasing): “I don’t hate all Jews; I just hate Israel. I have Jewish friends here in the U.S.”
But my original interpretation of this person’s words, whether he’s fully conscious of it or not, is exactly what he meant. And we all know it.
Brilliant. Very well articulated. I’m not Jewish or Israeli but have tried to fight the lies as much as I can and I have continually come up against the same lies and bullshit as your mate in their response. Go Israel. I support you all the way.
Jill doesn't know how right she is. Below is an excerpt from an anti-Zionism manifesto that was taped to the doors of Jewish faculty in my department, by people in our own department. It was also signed by a graduate student. Not only were there no consequences, this student and his faculty mentors are in good standing, and continue to post on the department listserv regularly.
"We recognize the 75-year occupation of Palestine by the colonial settler state of Israel and the
ongoing violence that the Palestinian people have endured. We recognize that the United States
and the West have supported and funded the project of Israel since its inception, to which we
attribute the U.S.’s ongoing support. We denounce and express great worry about the genocidal
rhetoric and tactics used by Israeli officials, its repetition by mainstream Western news outlets,
and Western silence and support for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people."