February 17, 2013

White supremacy bad, Jewish supremacy good?

Here's Ben White at al Jazeera pointing out the sheer hypocrisy of Israel advocates' shrieks of antisemitism whenever Israel is criticised:
...during the furore over an event at Brooklyn College about the boycott of Israel, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) compared the talk to the sociology department co-sponsoring an event with "members of the Ku Klux Klan who were going to talk about why America must remain a white-dominated country and how non-white people were ruining the country". 
Here, the ADL associates the demographics-obsessed racism of the KKK with a non-violent movement of solidarity with a people struggling for their basic rights. However, the KKK comparison is relevant - for understanding Israeli laws and government policies. Consider the following examples: 
  • "We are the majority in this country and we have the right to preserve our image... Every state has the full right to preserve its character" - Labour and Social Affairs Minister Shlomo Benizri, 2002. 
  • Palestinian citizens are the real "demographic problem" - Then-Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, 2003. 
  • "Prevent[ing] the spread" of Palestinian citizens is "a national duty" - Housing Minister Ariel Atias, 2009. 
  • "We want to Judaise the Wadi Ara area... The state wants to put this place in order so that the Arabs won't rear their heads" - Nissim Dahan, state-appointed local council head, 2008. 
  • "It is a national interest to encourage Jews to move to" places where "the Arab population is on the rise" - Chair of Knesset Lobby for Housing Solutions for Young Couples, 2010. 
  • It is "a matter of concern when the non-Jewish population rises a lot faster than the Jewish population" - Then-Mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, 1998. 
  • Non-Jewish "illegal infiltrators flooding the country" could grow to a number "that threatens our existence as a Jewish and democratic state" - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, 2012. 
Remember that these kinds of remarks do not come from a fringe hate group in Israel, but by the highest level officials. Yet the ADL, and every other pro-Israel group in the West - including self-professed "liberals" - fail to see the inconsistency in calling a KKK member's demand for America to "remain a white-dominated country" abhorrent, while Israel "remaining a Jewish country" is a "red line", consensus issue. 
Of course, apart from failing to condemn Israel's racism they also give a free pass to antisemitism when it comes from their own side.

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