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....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.
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:
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