[The speed with which key House Dems have lined up against Rep
Tlaib – over a misrepresented comment challenging
progressives-except-on-Palestine – exemplifies both Dems’
commitment to Israeli impunity & their deep undercurrent of
anti-Palestinianism.]
[[link removed]]

RASHIDA TLAIB’S HISTORIC FACE-OFF WITH ISRAEL LOBBY OVER
‘APARTHEID’  
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Philip Weiss
September 23, 2022
Mondoweiss
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*
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_ The speed with which key House Dems have lined up against Rep Tlaib
– over a misrepresented comment challenging
progressives-except-on-Palestine – exemplifies both Dems’
commitment to Israeli impunity & their deep undercurrent of
anti-Palestinianism. _

IfNotNow members bring a challah to Rashida Tlaib after her apartheid
comment,

 

Rashida Tlaib’s comment that “you cannot claim to hold
progressive values yet back Israel’s apartheid government” 
[[link removed]]is
turning into a defining moment in the progressive wing of the
Democratic Party.

Leading Jewish groups have attacked Tlaib
[[link removed]] for
supposedly calling for Israel’s destruction. Jonathan Greenblatt of
the ADL has said that she is an antisemite. And the rightwing lobby
group the Democratic Majority for Israel has helped rally a large
number of Democratic House members to condemn her comments, with Rep.
Ritchie Torres leading the parade, and and Debbie Wasserman Schultz
[[link removed]] in
tow.

Plainly Tlaib hit a nerve. It is obviously very important to the
Israel lobby to maintain the claim that you can be progressive and
support Israel. Being truthful about Israeli apartheid undermines this
effort.

Nearly all the Dems who attacked Tlaib didn’t even mention the
apartheid part of her comment. They don’t want to address it. They
don’t want to engage with what Israel actually does and how
Palestinians live. They just want to say you can support Israel and be
progressive, a statement which is not explained or defended in any way
beyond itself.

Liberal Zionists are divided. Americans for Peace Now supported
Tlaib. APN
[[link removed]]:

No part of what @RepRashida [[link removed]] said is
antisemitic. Weaponizing accusations of antisemitism cheapens the real
fight against antisemitism and does nothing to make Jews safer.

While J Street got into the pile-on 
[[link removed]]on
Tlaib and carefully avoided the apartheid word.

We agree with Rep. Nadler. It should be absolutely clear that one can
hold progressive values, strongly support the State of Israel, and
also criticize policies of the Israeli government. Any litmus test
that implies otherwise is harmful and wrong.

J Street references Rep. Jerry Nadler’s tweet condemning Tlaib 
[[link removed]]but
not mentioning apartheid:

I fundamentally reject the notion that one cannot support Israel’s
right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state and be a progressive.

Apparently being a Jewish state means being an apartheid state.

IFNOTNOW MEMBERS BRING A CHALLAH TO RASHIDA TLAIB AFTER HER APARTHEID
COMMENT. SEPT. 22, 2022.

The good news is that Israel is figuring more and more in mainstream
political debate
[[link removed]], with
the Democratic and Jewish establishment seeking to bar the use of the
word apartheid, using their big weapon, antisemitism charges.

When in fact there is broad agreement among human rights groups that
Israel’s discrimination against and persecution of Palestinians is
apartheid. “It is a simple fact,” Beth Miller of Jewish Voice for
Peace Action writes. Miller:

“The only Palestinian American member of Congress can’t open her
mouth without a coordinated campaign of slander and attacks with the
intent of smearing her, twisting her words, and obscuring the
undeniable reality that Israel is committing the crime of brutal
apartheid over Palestinians.”

The “smear” is surely a reference to ADL ceo
Jonathan Greenblatt’s vicious attack
[[link removed]]:

In one sentence, @RepRashida simultaneously tells American Jews that
they need to pass an anti-Zionist litmus test to participate in
progressive spaces even as she doubles down on her #antisemitism by
slandering Israel as an apartheid state.

“There’s absolutely zero mention from Tlaib anywhere in her short
speech of ‘an anti-Zionist litmus test.’ Greenblatt simply made
that up along with his suggestion that Tlaib was singling out American
Jews,” EI’s Michael Brown says
[[link removed]].

“In one sentence @JGreenblattADL
[[link removed]] conflates American Jews with
Zionists, itself an anti-Semitic canard, while simultaneously
defaming @RashidaTlaib [[link removed]] as
anti-Semitic for stating what’s demonstrably provable,” writes
Scott Roth, our publisher
[[link removed]].

We got a foretaste of this a year ago when Rashida Tlaib quoted human
rights reports that characterized Israel as an apartheid state, and
her colleague Ted Deutch rose on the House floor to condemn her for
“antisemitism.” Deutch said that Tlaib “had besmirched our
ally” and called for the destruction of Israel.

Many leftwingers have come to Rashida Tlaib’s side this time, but
not in the Congress. Rep. Andy Levin campaigned with Tlaib this summer
in Michigan but has not stood up for her under fire. Jake Tapper of
CNN is carrying the water
[[link removed]] for
Tlaib’s attackers. Tapper can’t get into the apartheid reports.

But there are now two or three databases listing experts and
organizations who 
[[link removed]]say
it’s apartheid.

Sixty percent of Middle East scholars say so. Two third of
Palestinians say it’s apartheid, per polling. Human Rights Watch
says so– in its “threshhold crossed” report of last year.
B’Tselem agrees, describing “a regime of apartheid from the river
to the sea.” Amnesty International, Al Haq
[[link removed]] and Yesh
Din
[[link removed]] call
it apartheid.

South Africa says so
[[link removed]]. So did
Desmond Tutu. So have Jimmy Carter and Noam Chomsky. And Betty
McCollum
[[link removed]],
starting in 2018.

One database quotes Tlaib: “I am tired of people functioning from a
place of fear rather than doing what’s right because of the bullying
by pro-Israel lobbyists. This is apartheid, plain and simple.”

Jim Zogby says something similar
[[link removed]]: “The ADL
has long applied a pro-Israel litmus test to Arab Americans &
supporters of Palestinian rights. We were smeared, blacklisted, &
excluded from politics & coalitions & they still do. They did great
damage. Now they want to play victim. Hands off Rashida.”

“The speed with which key House Dems have lined up against Rep Tlaib
– over a maliciously misrepresented comment challenging
progressives-except-on-Palestine – exemplifies both Dems’
commitment to Israeli impunity & their deep undercurrent of
anti-Palestinianism,” Lara Friedman writes
[[link removed]].

JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE FLYER ON RASHIDA TLAIB’S STATEMENT, SEPT. 21,
2022.

The young Jewish group IfNotNow is supplying Tlaib with a lot of
support. It brought her a challah for the Jewish new year
[[link removed]]. Just
as important, IfNotNow offers strong evidence for the conviction that
Israel practices apartheid:

Now, Rashida is under attack from establishment politicians and Jewish
organizations who refuse to recognize that supporting equality and
human rights for all people means opposing apartheid, a system of
inequality and displacement that oppresses millions of Palestinians.

But the tide is turning, and growing numbers of Jews and allies have
Rashida’s back.

Elias Newman, communications person for the 
[[link removed]]group,
also offers evidence:

Attacks on Rashida are so frequent, it’s easy to forgot that she was
banned from visiting her own grandmother in the West Bank unless she
swore not to engage in nonviolent protest there. I’ve never had to
swear not to protest during my visits — this is why we call it
apartheid.

And here is strong support in JVP’s statement:

It is undeniable and irrefutable that Israel is an apartheid state. It
has been documented and proven time and again by the world’s leading
human rights organizations, as well as Palestinian and Israeli human
rights groups. Indeed, Palestinians have been telling the world of
Israeli apartheid for decades. 

It is also undeniable and irrefutable that the progressive values of
freedom and justice for all, and the goals of breaking down the
systems that oppress us, are at odds with apartheid. 

In other words: you cannot claim to be a progressive, while still
supporting and defending Israeli apartheid rule over Palestinians. 

The attacks against Congresswoman Tlaib are transparent attempts to
smear her by weaponizing false claims of antisemitism against the only
Palestinian member of Congress. 

Peter Beinart calls out Jerry Nadler
[[link removed]] on the
hypocrisy of his attack on Rashida Tlaib:

At the heart of your fight against Trumpism is your belief that the US
should be a country based on equality under the law, irrespective of
race, religion or ethnicity. Why is that the wrong principle for
Israel-Palestine?

Ben Lorber also points out the obvious contradiction 
[[link removed]]here. He
says that the progressive consensus is changing on Israel, and get
used to it:

Look, if you consider yourself part of the ‘progressive movement’
but you’re uncomfortable with challenging head-on Israel’s
institutionalized, systemic anti-Palestinian racism, you’re going to
increasingly be challenged on that. No matter if you’re Jewish,
Christian, whatever.

I’d point out that the official wave against Rashida Tlaib is a
demonstration of the power of the Israel lobby inside the Democratic
Party. It still can bring millions of dollars to bear on political
races, and with that in mind, Joe Biden has told the Democratic
leadership to absolutely hold the line on criticism of Israel.

_Can you support Mondoweiss’s continued hard-hitting and impactful
stories by making a gift to support the interviews and analysis
happening nowhere else?  _

_THIS MOVEMENT NEEDS A NEWSROOM THAT CAN COVER ALL OF PALESTINE AND
THE GLOBAL PALESTINIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT.  The Israeli government and
its economic, cultural, and political backers here in the U.S. have
made a decades-long investment in silencing and delegitimizing
Palestinian voices._

_We’re building a powerful challenge to those mainstream norms, and
proving that listening to Palestinians is essential for moving the
needle.  Become a donor today and support our critical
work.  Donate today → [[link removed]]_

* Rashida Tlaib
[[link removed]]
* Israeli apartheid
[[link removed]]
* Democratic Party
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