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ACTION ALERT: NYT Misrepresents Zionism's Opponents as Anti-Jewish Bigots Jim Naureckas ([link removed])


"Is Anti-Zionism Always Antisemitic?" a New York Times article (12/10/23 ([link removed]) ) by Jonathan Weisman ([link removed]) asked. Trying to pinpoint the moment when "anti-Zionism crosses from political belief to bigotry," Weisman suggested there were different kinds of anti-Zionism based on different visions of what Zionism means. But his effort to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable critics of Israel painted principled supporters of equal rights as antisemitic bigots.

Weisman offered one definition of Zionism—the way it was "once clearly understood"—as "the belief that Jews, who have endured persecution for millenniums, needed refuge and self-determination in the land of their ancestors." To oppose this kind of Zionism "suggests the elimination of Israel as the sovereign homeland of the Jews"—which he said to many Jews "is indistinguishable from hatred of Jews generally, or antisemitism." Their argument is:

Around half the world’s Jews live in Israel, and destroying it, or ending its status as a refuge where they are assured of governing themselves, would imperil a people who have faced annihilation time and again.

On the other hand, wrote Weisman, "some critics of Israel say they equate Zionism with a continuing project of expanding the Jewish state." This kind of anti-Zionism merely opposes "an Israeli government bent on settling ever more parts of the West Bank," land that could serve as "a separate state for the Palestinian people."

These two views of Zionism seemed to represent the poles of acceptable and unacceptable anti-Zionism. The piece quoted Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) explaining ([link removed]) that "some anti-Zionism'' isn't "used to cloak hatred of Jews"; Nadler stressed, though, that "MOST anti-Zionism—the type that calls for Israel’s destruction, denying its right to exist ([link removed]) —is antisemitic."

The Nexus Task Force, a group associated with the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, has a definition of antisemitism ([link removed]) that is more tolerant of criticism of Israel than that of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance ([link removed]) , also cited by the Times. But it still insists, Weisman wrote, "that it is antisemitic to reject the right of Jews alone to define themselves as a people and exercise self-determination."


** Not 'self-determination'
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NYT: Is Anti-Zionism Always Antisemitic? A Fraught Question for the Moment.

Jonathan Weisman (New York Times, 12/10/23 ([link removed]) ): "Virulent anti-Zionism and virulent antisemitism ultimately intersect, at a very bad address for the Jews."

The phrase "self-determination" is doing a lot of work here. In international relations, it is generally used to mean that the residents of a geographical area inhabited by a distinct group have a right to decide whether or not they want that area to remain part of a larger entity. It's a right that seems to come and go ([link removed]) depending on political allegiances: When Albanians in Kosovo wanted to secede from Serbia, their right to do so was enforced with NATO bombs. If ethnic Russians who wanted to split off from Ukraine got help from Moscow, though, that wasn't self-determination but a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty.

To call Zionism a belief in Jewish "self-determination," however, perverts the concept to include moving to a geographic region and forcibly expelling ([link removed]) many of the people who already live there, in order to create a situation where members of your group can have a "sovereign homeland" where they "are assured of governing themselves."

Ensuring the dominance of a particular ethnic group through forced migration is not usually called "self-determination," but rather "ethnic cleansing ([link removed]) ." This is the older version of Zionism that Weisman seems to suggest can only be opposed by antisemites.

It's true that there is another vision of Zionism, unsatisfied with expelling the indigenous residents to the fringes of Israel/Palestine, that insists on incorporating those fringes. Ever since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has occupied the remaining parts of what was the League of Nations' Palestine Mandate ([link removed]) , where many refugees from the establishment of Israel were forced to live.

But because Zionism requires a Jewish state, the people who lived in those occupied territories could not be treated as citizens. Maintaining Israel's veneer of democracy requires the political fiction that these undesirables are not part of the country that rules them, but instead belong to non-sovereign entities—like the Palestinian National Authority and the Gaza Strip—whose raison d'etre is to provide a rationale for why the bulk of the Palestinian population isn't allowed to vote ([link removed]) in Israeli elections.

As it happens, this is precisely the strategy that white-ruled South Africa employed to pretend that white supremacy was compatible with democracy; it called the fictitious countries that the nation's Black majority supposedly belonged to "bantustans ([link removed]) ." This and other resemblances to white South Africa are why leading human rights groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel's B'Tselem call Israel an apartheid ([link removed]) state.

But both versions of Zionism involve the dismissal of one group's rights in order to create a polity dominated by another group—a project that can certainly be opposed in either iteration without signifying animosity or prejudice toward anyone. (To be sure, there are antisemites who use "Zionists" as a transparent codeword ([link removed]) for Jews. These are generally pretty easy to spot.)


** A smear that needs correction
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NYT: White House Condemns Protest at Israeli Restaurant in Philadelphia

Weisman relied on this New York Times article (12/4/23 ([link removed]) ), which gives no indication of talking to any protesters, to smear protesters as antisemitic.

There is much to take issue with in Weisman's article, but there is one point he makes that really warrants a correction. As an example of straightforward "Jew hatred," he cites "holding Jews around the world responsible for Israeli government actions"—and offers as an example that this is what "pro-Palestinian protesters did last week outside an Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia ([link removed]) ."

But the protesters at Goldie, a vegan falafel restaurant, weren't blaming "Jews around the world" for Israel's assault on Gaza; they were holding Goldie's owner, Israeli-born Michael Solomonov, responsible, because his restaurants had raised $100,000 for United Hatzalah, a medical organization that supports ([link removed]) the Israeli Defense Forces.

According to the Guardian (12/8/23 ([link removed]) ), which interviewed "protesters and current and former employees at Solomonov’s restaurants," critics both inside and outside the staff were concerned that Solomonov hosted a fundraiser for prominent pro-Israel politicians, and had "booked and paid for multiple, lavish private dinners...for IDF members preparing to deploy to fight for Israel." (The New York Times article—12/4/23 ([link removed]) —that Weisman linked to did not appear to be based on interviews with any protesters, but instead quoted numerous politicians condemning their demonstration.)

Obviously Solomonov and his critics have different views of his actions. But there is no evidence that protesters were targeting his restaurant simply because he was Jewish, and it's an irresponsible smear for Weisman to assert that they were.
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ACTION: Please tell the New York Times to correct its false claim that people protesting at a Philadelphia restaurant owned by a prominent supporter of the Israeli Defense Forces were "holding Jews around the world responsible for Israeli government actions."

CONTACT: You can send a message about factual errors to the New York Times at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your communication in the comments thread.


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