Weaponizing Anti-Semitism as a tool to protect Israel’s war crimes
Pro-Israel activists who have been insulating Israel from criticism of its human rights violations and military war crimes continue to come up with new laws to discourage criticism of Israel’s government. In 2015, they launched the anti-BDS laws state by state adopting them in 28 states to punish anyone who supports boycotting Israel’s racist occupation and illegal settlements. Now they are weaponizing “anti-Semitism” as a means of punishing anyone who criticizes Israel’s government.
By Ray Hanania
Early in 2014, lobbyists for the Government of Israel launched a campaign to get America’s 50 states to pass laws that restrict the free speech rights guaranteed to Americans in the U.S Constitution.
The lobbyists, working with various pro-Israel PACs under the umbrella of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) began seeding donations into the campaigns of local legislators, and appealing to those who were Jewish.
In April 2015, Tennessee became the first U.S. State to compromise the U.S. Constitution by passing a law that prohibits state contracts with companies, including nonprofits, that boycott Israel or its illegal settlements. Contractors must sign a certified letter confirming they are not and will not, for the duration of their contract, engage in a boycott of Israel.
That same year, two more states, South Carolina and Illinois adopted similar restrictions on the U.S. Constitution, and as of January 2020, 28 states have adopted similar laws.
It was a great lesson for advocates of the foreign country of Israel that they could insinuate themselves into American politics, thwart the U.S. Constitution and push through laws that silenced human rights organizations, activists and any American who questioned Israel violations.
In addition to campaign donations, supporters of the move were also given free trips to Israel ushered by pro-Israel propagandists to reinforce Israel’s “big lie” that they are a Democracy and they do not discriminate against Muslims and Christians.
Earlier this year, Israel’s architects of the suppression of the U.S. Constitution launched a campaign to label anyone who criticized Israel as being an anti-Semite, which would put those individuals in the crosshairs of law enforcement tasked with cracking down on “hate crimes” law violations.
If criticism of Israel could be defined in the context of a “hate law,” Israel’s government could silence its critics even more.
Legislation was introduced at a local level, at a meeting of the Montgomery County Council in Maryland. The Montgomery County is one of the most populous counties in the state and would send a powerful message that Israel’s Government can strike at anyone no matter if they are civilians living under brutal military oppression in the occupied West Bank, or if they are American citizens living under the “protection” of one of the world’s most powerful Constitutions.
The “Criticism of Israel is Anti-Semitism” resolution was to have been discussed at the council’s meeting on Tuesday July 26 embracing the would oppressive and twisted language that was adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) which redefined anti-Semitism as including criticism of Israel.
Founded in Germany in 1998, the IHRA defined anti-Semitism in a substantive manner describing the core of this kind of hatred as being based on the hatred of Jews.
The definiton of Anti-Semitism by the IHRA states, “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
That is factual in its core substance and something anyone can embrace, including those who speak out against the same kind of hatred directed at Muslims, at Christians and also many other individuals of various race, religion or ethnicity.
The principle of hatred and hate crimes is important to focus public discourse away from exploiting stereotypes and making hate judgments based on wide-ranging aspects of any group.
But, the IHRA went one step further, including in its definition four aspects that combine “Jews as a people” with the actions of a “government” that runs the State of Israel, which is defined as a “Jewish State” even though 20 percent of its population is non-Jewish Christian and Muslim.
The four points are:
1 – Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
Response: Criticizing Israel for exploiting the Holocaust as a defense of its own persecution of non-Jews under its military control is NOT a form of anti-Semitism.
2 – Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
Response: Criticizing Israel’s government for its racist apartheid policies is NOT a form of anti-Semitism.
3 – Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
Response: Criticizing Israel’s government for its racist apartheid policies is NOT a form of anti-Semitism.
4 – Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
Response: Demanding that Israel’s Government adhere to the standards and policies of human rights and civil rights is NOT anti-Semitism.
What the IHRA has done, and what the Montgomery County Council would have done also, was to shield a government elected by people, Jews, Christians and Muslims, from being held accountable for its decisions and its actions.
Worse is that the expansion of the fundamental core of anti-Semitism to include “government” actions would undermine the fight not only against the hatred of Jews, true anti-Semitism, to include heated political debate and discourse.
But like the unConstitutional BDS laws that can be overturned one by one — several have — the conflation of “criticism of Israel” with the “hatred of Jews” is combines a fundamental human right to criticize the elected leaders of a political government with a heinous act of hatred.
The two are separate and should remain separate.
Israel’s Government has acted in the most despicable of manners in its abuse of Christians and Muslims living in the occupied territories, has stolen civilian lands for the sole purpose of building Jewish-only settlements, refuses to be accountable when it kills alleged “suspects” without ever having to prove the victims as being guilty of any crimes, and treats non-Jews as second-class citizens in their own country.
Those facts are not anti-Semitism. Those facts are reprehensible conduct of a political system that deserves to be criticized every single minute of its actions.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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