While the aims of many pro-Palestinian campaigners are admirable, the left must look at the wider context of Israel and Palestine today
While the aims of many pro-Palestinian campaigners are admirable, the left must look at the wider context of Israel and Palestine today
Peace negotiations have failed and violence on the Gaza strip has resumed once again. As this happens the left and the wider pro-Palestinian movement needs to think hard about how the next intensification of campaigning can avoid contributing to a rise in anti-semitic sentiment.
Many will read that paragraph and immediately react with hostility. A recurrent feature of the last few weeks has been the forceful claims by the pro-Palestinian left that it is not anti-semitic to criticise Israel’s actions in Gaza. Some commentators have also been conscientious in combining their critique of Israel with strong condemnations of those who have used the situation to make overtly anti-semitic attacks.
However, to believe that such arguments and qualifications means the left is now excused of any culpability is to engage in a denial for which the left itself regularly criticises others.
Left-leaning thinkers and movements have argued for many years that racism and sexism need not be overt to exist. Racist and sexist values are so deeply ingrained into much of our thinking and behaviour that it is quite possible for someone to unintentionally exclude or denigrate black people or women even while actively proclaiming themselves an anti-racist or feminist.
Unfortunately the left is at risk of becoming the bastion of unintentional anti-semitism just as individuals and organisations across the political spectrum purvey unintentional racism and sexism.
The way many rushed to the defence of the cultural venues which took decisions leading to the cancellation of events with Israeli links is a case in point. I have no doubt that the trustees and staff of those venues along with their supporters are deeply hostile to anti-semitism and are as troubled as anyone by the recent upsurge in anti-Semitic activity. It is also to the credit of one of those venues that they have now rescinded the decision to require the organisers of the event to cut their links with Israel.
However, to support an organisation that makes such demands and then claim you are not acting in a way that will leave many Jews feeling deeply uncomfortable is to reveal an ignorance of how central Israel is to the identity, culture and religion of the Jewish people.
Imagine if a venue decided it would not allow a Catholic cultural event to go ahead unless the organisers cut their links to the Vatican because of the poor record of the church on challenging paedophilia within its ranks. No doubt many would feel an immediate pang of sympathy with the venue. After all the history of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is truly shocking and has created enormous misery.
But we would soon recognise that such a demand is impossible for a Catholic organisation to meet given the absolutely central role the Vatican plays in Catholic identity and practice. If the theatre’s boycott were to catch on, we would be in a situation where a well-meaning protest against sexual abuse had rapidly turned in to an effective exclusion of Catholic people and organisations from the cultural life of the country. No-one will have deliberately set out to be anti-Catholic but that will have been the outcome.
The situation is no different for Jews yet demands for a much wider boycott of Israel and Israeli goods is now a staple of the pro-Palestinian movement. Whether intentional or not, the idea that Jews and Jewish organisations could be excluded from the economic, cultural and wider public life of the country because of their inevitably close links to Israel should cause grave concern to anyone who knows the long and violent history of anti-Jewish prejudice which regularly used boycotts as a tool of oppression.
And as recent events have shown, those demanding a boycott could well end up preventing Jews having access to the products (as well as wider cultural and religious institutions in Israel) which are central to the practice of their culture and faith.
Similar concerns should also extend to the political goals of pro-Palestinian campaigners. The ultimate aim of much of the movement and its left-wing supporters is admirable: a long-term negotiated settlement leading to peaceful two-state co-existence. However, under current political circumstances that would require the Israeli Government, its citizens and the Jewish people around the world to accept negotiations with Hamas: an organisation whose founding document quotes the notorious anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as though it were genuine, claims Jews run a secret global conspiracy to control the world through organisations such as the Freemasons and blames the Jewish people for instigating both world wars for their own material gain.
Hamas spokespeople have distanced themselves from the Charter since its publication in 1988 but frankly this is not good enough. Any right-thinking person would expect an organisation to make every effort to formally reject such a pernicious document if it were really serious about avoiding anti-semitism. Because Hamas has taken no such action, Israel is being asked to seek friendly relations with a body which is founded upon and promotes ideas which only seventy years ago led directly to the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children.
To dismiss or ignore such concerns, as many in the pro-Palestinian movement do, is again to fail to think through the implications of their own demands for the justifiable fears of Jewish people. If the Hamas Charter had included numerous references to the inferiority of black people, one cannot help but wonder if the left would be quite so willing to close their ears to the complaints.
Claims of unintentional racism and sexism have been used in the past to silence debate and have, on occasion, reached absurd levels leading to accusations of racist or sexist behavior where none exists. No reasonable person would want a situation where awareness of unintentional anti-semitism made it impossible to criticise Israel because it undoubtedly does need criticising. However, it is very important for the pro-Palestinian movement and its supporters on the left to be clear that just because you distance yourself from those using the Gaza conflict to make overt attacks on Jews, you are not excused from thinking far more deeply about the consequences of your actions and demands for the well-being and liberty of the Jewish people.
Adam Lent is on Twitter here
81 Responses to “The Left must confront its unintentional anti-Semitism”
Leon Wolfeson
The IRA were not in command of the areas in question, whereas Hamas are – as they, I remind you, seized control of Gaza not that long after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal. The comparative figures are for urban fighting against irregular forces, by which…well, the IDF have a pretty *low* body count.
Moreover, there is very much dispute dispute over how many militants are killed. Some of the reporting mechanisms used for the press figures are Palestian propaganda chanels, and others come from B’Tselem, who have been caught out falsifying data before (i.e. listing deaths of known militants as non-combatants)
The reality is that if your view was accepted, Israel could do nothing against Hamas, who deliberately use Human shields and other terror tactics to reduce their exposure, and whose refusal to accept basics like accepting the right of Israel to exist have allowed the extremists on both sides to repeatedly torpedo the peace process.
Look at what they’re doing in Gaza right now – shooting people suspected of collaboration with Israel in the street. That’s the sort of people they are, and they refuse to accept Israel’s existence. I remind you that the diplomatic breakthrough with Fatah which lead to the current situation was precisely because they did recognise Israel!
It sounds like you need to read more widely into the conflict. For reference, I am active in the peace movement, support Peace Now, and am a Labor Zionist. I believe in a 2-state solution (*because* of my Zionism), but at present talking to Hamas is essentially a strategy of weakness….you can talk to Fatah, corrupt and nasty as they are, but Hamas is a horse of a different colour.
Hamas has repeatedly attacked Israel’s coastal regions, they fired rockets at Ben Gurion airport, they were digging terror tunnels (for attacks in late September, at the time of the Jewish New Year) and they kidnapped and murdered kids… They’ve united Israel against them in a way which is frankly *amazing* for anywhere, let alone Israel.
Haaretz is a strongly left wing Israeli paper, here’s an article from them on the polling;
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.611987
Guest
YOU are the one posting abuse. Calling me an anti-semite, when I am not, and accusing me of being a right-wing scumbag. And you wonder why I get angry with you, after telling you that you are making things up about me?
In other discussions, I had respect for you and your opinions. But right now you’ve turned into a massive dickhead, incapable of being polite or having a discussion.
Gary Scott
Ah, you reveal yourself. You state yourself to be a Zionist. You will not see any other point of view so I will make no further comment. No need to reply.
Kryten2k35
Criticising the Israeli government is not anti-semitic, and yet that very thread showed one guy getting all upset and throwing around the anti-semite card simply because I called it.
I mean, I fucking called it. I said Jews take criticism of Israel as Anti-Semitic, and lo’behold, a Jew called me an anti-semite for having said so.
Leon Wolfeson
I have never lied or concealed what I am. You’re an fanatic and an anti-Semite, it seems.
You scream the totalitarian line that I must be silent, because I am a Jew and Zionist. As I’ve said, I am a Labour Zionist and pro-peace, but you don’t care, you just automatically scream hate because you see a word.
Thanks for that, as you attribute YOUR sins – not being able to see other points of view – to me, as you show your true colours.