I have heard it said that if you have not been called an anti-Semite, then you have not been fighting for Palestine hard enough.
To someone who has never defended Palestine or criticised Israel in any serious capacity, this of course sounds like Palestinian activists are inherently anti-Semitic.
But to those who are involved in Palestinian solidarity you will know this is a tongue in cheek observation on how nearly all criticism of Israel is branded as anti-Semitic.
But this is actually a serious issue for 2 reasons.
- False claims detract from genuine anti-Semitic attacks.(Boy who cried wolf)
- Genuine activists are being silenced by false claims.
First lets see what ‘Anti-Semitism’ means.
The term Semitic people or Semitic cultures (from the biblical “Shem“, Hebrew: שם) was a historical term for people or cultures who speak or spoke the Semitic languages
More specifically: Relating to/or denoting a family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and certain ancient languages such as Phoenician and Akkadian, constituting the main subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic family.
Would you suggest all Muslims support Daesh?
Also worth pointing out that the people living in Palestine in 1917 and even to this day, are descended from the original Jewish people.
For those that have not thought about this before:
2000 years ago it was Jewish, then we saw the advent of Christianity, many people living in the holy lands converted to this new faith.Where do you think all those Christians suddenly came from? Brooklyn?
Anyway some years later we saw the birth of Islam and many of the Christians and Jews started to convert to that new religion.
This left fewer people practicing Judaism in Palestine than before Christianity.
In the mean time, people living in central Asia/Eastern Europe started to convert to Judaism. These people had never lived in Palestine yet it is their descendants that now lay claim to the land and property owned by the decendants of the original Jewish people.
So who do oppose then if not Semites or Jews?
Up until recently it was simple, we opposed Zionists. But now it seems that this is being equated with anti-Semitic by some people, not least from the ex tory MP and rocking horse brain donor recipient Louise Mensch, with hilarious results……
Some people were understandably confused……
This Tweeter questioned whether the founder of Zionism Theodor Herzl would be muted. After all, ‘A Zionist’ is what he would call himself.
She replied and in doing so proved that, like most people who defend Israel on a regular basis, she has no idea what she is talking about. The crap just pours out of their mouths in uncontrollable torrents.
But it’s not just the dumb asses of this world that are conflating Zionism with Semitism. Some allegedly intelligent people are at it too. Last week The University of California adopted a policy which effectively links the too.
This was reported by many, I have chosen this piece. You can read the full article here:
University of California Adopts Policy Linking Anti-Zionism to Anti-Semitism
But they have a point right? I mean not all Jews are Zionists, but surely all Zionists are Jews? So you are indirectly targeting Jews.
Erm, No actually.
Ahh bless them, someone needs to tell them they can’t be Zionists anymore. But let them down gently .
But seriously, this shows Zionism is a political, colonialistic ideology . It has nothing to do with religion.
And anyway, Who is going to tell this lot they are anti Jewish?
cockneyactivist 
Reblogged this on Global Political Analysis.
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I have lost count of the number of times I have been accused of so-called antisemitism. I invariably respond by pointing out that semitism is a group of languages – including Arabic – and that I have nothing against anyone speaking such languages, including Jews and Arabs. The response – invariably – is one of confused ignorance, as those who try unjustifiably to defend the appalling human rights record of the illegal zionist state have been mind-washed out of all ability to reason in any rational way. How did we end up with the term antisemitism being substituted for anti-jewishness? It is due to the work of a German-speaking Austrian journalist Wilhelm Marr in 1879. Prior to that date, the term was hardly ever used, while the term zionist was first used in 1890 by another Austrian Nathan Birnbaum, following which Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl used the term to establish a political movement and established the the World Zionist Organization in 1897.
So, it is therefore obvious that the concept of zionism as a political force was a primarily European one and one in which historic Jews had no or little role to play.
Arguably, zionism was a response to the forces of growing nationalism across Europe, as established regimes like Britain and France sought to establish their imperial credentials and while newly emerging nationalist movements in places like Germany and Italy sought to establish themselves.
The historic strategy of Jews had been to assimilate into existing and established cultures across Europe and elsewhere around the world but there was a growing recognition that this strategy was not working well – and it has to be admitted that what became know as the holocaust provided ample evidence of this fact.
Zionism therefore was a largely European movement and one which was principally a reactionary fore against the growing force of European nationalist forces.
The Jews are not a wholly unified body. The main elements within them today – the European Jews – are alled Ashkenazim and it is they who largely led the zionist terrorist groiups which seized the land of Palestine by force. displacing half the Palestinian population in the process. They established their zionist force by illegal military force, which is why they remain so brittle about criticism to this day.
This is why they are so defensive about any criticism of their stealing ways.
They have stolen the land of the Palestinians, as well as all the natural resources of Palestine and the futures and lives of Palestinians. What they have done is totally reprehensible and it is their guilty consciences which make them act as they do.
The fault is all theirs and no one else. They could have developed a collective existence alongside the Palestinians but they chose, for reasons of European racist supremacism, not to do so – and they wonder why decent world opinion shuns them?
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I’m still waiting for someone to take me up on my challenge for molecular DNA tests as Semitic blood can be determined. To date no pseudo Semites have risen to the test. Oddly enough my Jewish mates tend to be Semitic looking. Great post. Let’s see more.
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Ken O’Keefe clarifies things in a powerful 2-hour talk he gave recently in Berkeley, California. Sharing the truth far and wide will expedite an already growing historic shift in global consciousness, so consider taking a short time to spread O’Keefe’s very timely and vital message to everyone you know:
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