RACISM AGAINST JEWS IS NOT
ACCEPTABLE
A statement by Palestine Solidarity Committee
Palestine Solidarity Committee's mission is support independence,
security and self-determination for all the peoples of
Israel/Palestine, and to change U.S. policy in the Middle East by
educating Americans in ways that American funds and foreign policy
are used to maintain the Israeli military occupation which violates
Palestinian human rights and generates violence from both sides. We
object to the Israeli government's policies of occupation, apartheid,
and dispossession of Palestinians. In opposing these policies and US
support for them, our objections are directed at the unjust practices
of a political regime, not against the Jewish people of the world.
We reject the false identification of the State of Israel
with the Jewish people of the world. The identification of
Israeli policies with the religion of Judaism or with the Jewish
people is used to suppress dissent and to create monolithic support
for those policies among Jews and those people who wish to resist
anti-Jewish prejudice. The nation of Israel is a state like any other
state, and must be held to the same standards of human rights
universally accepted by the modern community of nations.
We also reject the false identification of Zionism with the
Jewish people of the world. The Zionist movement which founded
the State of Israel was and is a secular nationalist movement. Many
Jews, including many Israeli Jews, do not subscribe to the principles
of the Zionist movement. Jews are an ethnic group. One may be Jewish
without subscribing to the religion of Judaism, and one may be Jewish
without being a Zionist or a supporter of the State of Israel or its
policies.
Criticisms of Zionism or of the State of Israel are not the
same as criticism of the Jewish people of the world. However,
since we reject the Israeli government's identification of
"Israeli" or “Zionist” with "Jew", we must be
careful not to equate these terms ourselves, positively or
negatively. We must be rigorous in our awareness of racist terms and
stereotypes that have historically been applied to Jewish people.
“Anti-Semitic” is the common adjective for prejudice
against Jews, but the terms "anti-Semitism" and
"anti-Semitic" can be misleading. While historically
understood to refer to prejudice against Jews, the terms actually
promote an outmoded use of racial categories. Under that terminology,
Arabs are also Semitic people. Since for the moment we are focusing
on prejudice against Jews, we prefer in this context the more precise
term “anti-Jewish".
THERE ARE SEVERAL STEREOTYPES ABOUT JEWS WHICH WE MUST
BE CAREFUL TO AVOID:
• There is no foundation for the myth that Jews are more
wealthy, avaricious or obsessed with wealth than any other
individuals, peoples or ethnic groups.
The stereotypical association of Jews with wealth and avarice
arose in Europe during the Middle Ages when it was illegal for Jews
to own land or live in certain parts of European cities or to engage
in most of the economic practices necessary for survival. Because the
Christian church at that time barred Christians from lending money,
Jews were encouraged to take up this practice -- and then scorned for
doing so. The myth of Jews hoarding money thus evolved from
discrimination against Jews which allowed them only a few
occupations. While a small number of Jews at that time were engaged
in banking and finance, a vastly greater number were living in
impoverished and oppressive conditions, particularly in the ghettos
and shtetls of Eastern Europe.
• There is no evidence of a centralized international
conspiracy of Jews to control banks, media, Congress, or the world in
general.
If there is a dominant group in power in the world, it is more
likely males of various European ethnicities and religions who own
big multinational corporations, some of which are wealthier than many
countries. The myth of secret high-level conspiracies of Jews is
another malicious falsehood that began in Europe, spread to Russia
and the United States in the 1800s, and has been used repeatedly to
distract populations from the genuine concentrations of power. This
myth culminated in such fabrications as The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion, a fake document apparently circulated by
Czarist secret police to stir up racial discontent against Russian
Jews in the early twentieth century.
We find hints of this stereotype in the insistence that US
support for Israel is entirely due to the influence of the so-called
"Jewish lobby". The American-Israeli Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) is a powerful pro-Israel lobby, but it is not a
Jewish lobby: it does not lobby for the Jewish people of the world,
but for the State of Israel. Furthermore, there are several other
powerful factions that pressure the US government to support the
Israeli government, such as right-wing Christian groups (many of
which give funding to AIPAC) and the Aerospace Industry Association (AIA).
The AIA, promoting sales of weapons and equipment to Israel, donates
twice as much to political campaigns in this country as all the
pro-Israel groups combined.
• The historical persecution of Jewish people is not a
fabrication.
The notion that victims of oppression are manufacturing their own
oppression is applied to every oppressed people; it has been falsely
said about Palestinians as well. History documents over 2000 years of
persecution, expulsion, apartheid and holocaust levelled against
Jewish people by many countries in Europe and elsewhere, culminating
in the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime in Germany.
Individual and institutional prejudice against Jews has an ugly
history in this country as well. This history of persecution in no
way justifies the State of Israel's persecution of non-Jews, but the
history itself is not made up, and persons promoting justice do
themselves no service by trying to ignore or minimize it.
The State of Israel, on the other hand, has systematically invented a
history for itself, just as many nation-states have done, in which it
is simultaneously victim and victor against overwhelming odds. The
well-documented truth of the six million Jews murdered in the Nazi
Holocaust is exploited by some Israelis to justify the policy of
oppression against Palestinians. We have every reason to reject this
practice and the falsehoods of Israeli history, but we must not let
that lead us into underestimating or denigrating the appalling
worldwide history of persecution of Jewish people.
• Judaism is not an incomplete or early form of Christianity.
Judaism is a complete world religion in itself, with many basic
distinctions from Christian doctrine, tenet, and practice. The
development of theology and philosophy in Judaism has continued
unabated through the many centuries since the creation of
Christianity two thousand years ago.
Some Christians fundamentalists support Israel not because they
support freedom of religion, but because Jewish presence in Jerusalem
plays a key role in the Christian Armageddon. According to this
theology, some chosen Jews will achieve divine redemption -- but only
if they convert to Christianity. Christians who support Israeli
policies because of this are not true allies of the Jewish people,
but simply enemies of Arabs and Muslims on religious grounds.
• There is no evidence that blood rituals and human sacrifice
with Gentile victims have ever been part of Jewish religious or
ethnic practice.
The fiction of Jewish blood-sacrifice against Christians and other
non-Jews is among the most outrageous slanders, and not much in
circulation these days. This myth was just another medieval
Euro-Russian way of dehumanizing Jews and portraying them as a threat
to the very "body" of society and civilization.
Horridly fanciful as this fiction may seem, however, it has been used
through the centuries to stimulate and justify pogroms and purges
against Jewish people in many countries. The wounds from this kind of
treatment pass down through generations, and we must be aware that we
can open this wound if we are insensitive to it.
For example: sometimes reports in this country will emphasize that
"Jews are killing Christians in Bethlehem", as if it is
more heinous for Christians to be murdered by Jews than for anybody
to be murdered by anybody else. In reality, when Israeli soldiers
kill Palestinians (Muslim, Christian, agnostic . . .), they are not
doing so because they are Jewish, but because they are soldiers in
the Israeli army and carrying out Israeli policy. Many Jews around
the world abhor these killings and have spoken against the
occupation, forming groups to say "not in my name." Many
Israeli soldiers and reservists have refused to serve in the Israeli
army in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem because they believe
they are being ordered to perform war crimes in the Occupied
Territories.
Conclusion:
Palestine Solidarity Committee rejects all forms of racism,
including racism against both Arabs and Jews. Racism against Arabs is
virulent and alive in our society, but racism against Jews also still
exists and requires our diligent attention. Careless or deliberate
employment of anti-Jewish statements in our work compounds the
historical injustice against Jews, wrongly implicates an entire
ethnic group in the crimes against the Palestinians, and discredits
our struggle for justice in the Middle East.
History reminds us over and over that victims may become oppressors
when in power. As more and more people in the United States and
Israel are awakening to the truth of the displacement and apartheid
conditions under which Palestinians are being forced to live, we must
remember that our goal is self-determination for all the peoples of
Israel/Palestine, and we must be ever more careful not to mirror or
pass on persecution in our turn. As our work gains momentum, we have
increasing obligation to be vigilant in our refusal to endorse or
participate in racist behaviors or statements against Jews, Israelis,
or any people of the world.
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