Jewish Group
Related: About this forum(Jewish Group) Anti-Zionism Has No Place in the Progressive Movement
Anti-Zionism ghettoizes Jews from the rest of the justice movement, putting a wall around us that separates us from other marginalized people. It cannot be reconciled with any movement striving for inclusivity. It denies us access to solidarity-based movements which should be fighting for equality, for historically oppressed peoples. As American Jewish students return to campus, they should prepare to be challenged academically and intellectually, and should also prepare to challenge movements that dont respect Zionism and their Jewish heritage.
Self-determination is a human right, and one that for over 2,000 years Jews longed and prayed for. Jews suffered greatly, often catastrophically, while living with the vulnerability of statelessness. We faced violence, discrimination, disenfranchisement, denaturalization, and genocide. The longing for statehood and a return to our indigenous homeland is present throughout our liturgy and texts.
The global Jewish community has long embraced Zionism as central to our liberation, and continues to do so. Eighty-one percent of American Jews between the ages of 18 and 29 consider caring about Israel to be essential or important to being Jewish. Sixty-six percent of American Jews consider Israelis to be part of their extended family. The demand that Jews discard a key element of our liberation, culture, and identity to join a social justice movement is anything but progressive. It is a radical silencing and rejection of core parts of our history and identity as an oppressed people.
Just as advocates for justice demand a better America for everyone, they can demand a better Israel. American Jews and Israelis of all ethnic backgrounds criticize Israeli policies regularly, including those that impact Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Criticism of Israeli policy is not in and of itself anti-Semitic. Debates over specific Israeli policies, and fierce criticism of the Netanyahu government, has a place on American campuses.
But the notion that Jewish self-determination is a form of racism is purely anti-Semitic. If you do not believe that self-determination is a human right, or are an anarchist anti-nation-state radical, Ill accept that there is no anti-Semitism in your anti-nationalism. That said, if you believe in the right of South Sudan, Kurdistan, and Kosovoand France, and Sweden, and Japan, and Ghanato exist, you should embrace self-determination for Jews. Academic rhetoric that applauds ethnic cleansing, terrorism, forced relocation, and the dismantling of the Jewish state should be challenged at every opportunity. Attempts to intimidate and silence Jewish students who are Zionists are civil rights violations.
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leftynyc
(26,060 posts)What happened at Univ of Michigan is only but one of the kinds of crap Jewish students who wish to study in Israel have to face and I'm glad they put their foot down on it. Even those students that aren't going to study there have to put up with what this writer did - questions about how many Palestinians they killed and garbage like that. NONE of them ask how anyone manages to pass through the Jaffa gate to see my most holy site without getting stabbed in the process. NONE of the acknowledge that we Jews risk arrest for merely closing our eyes on the Temple Mount because we'll be accused of desecrating the mount because we're infidels who want to pray there. This is what the reality is IN JERUSALEM.