Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 08:00 PM EDT - Zoom

Combating the Weaponization of Antisemitism

by Coalition to End Zionist Repression & International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)

Though Zionist exploitation of Jewish histories of persecution is not new, the justification for the present intensification of genocide in Palestine and the region—and the repression of its dissent— are becoming more virulent (and absurd) as Israel and Zionism are increasingly criticized and the masses grow in solidarity with Palestine. This weaponization of antisemitism relies on the coupling of Jewish peoplehood with the settler state of Israel, achieved in part through the rightwing consolidation of the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of antisemitism over the past decade. Workshop participants of all backgrounds will gain tools with which to combat the misuse and weaponization of antisemitism in this political moment.

The crackdown on student-led protests and encampments in the spring illuminates how repression of pro-Palestine activism is insidiously rolled out under a smokescreen of “free speech” and so-called Jewish safety and civil rights (even as many anti-Zionist Jewish students were themselves criminalized and disciplined by college administrators and the state). On college campuses and beyond, the Zionist weaponization of so-called antisemitism and calls for “Jewish safety” serve to silence criticism of Israel and Zionism, criminalize dissent, sow division, and strategically position European and Russian Jews as the perennial—and only—historically legitimate victims of genocide. Such weaponization also deflects from both antisemitism at the core of rising Christian nationalism, and Jewish Zionist institutions’ deepening alliances with a range of explicitly anti-Jewish right wing forces.

Zionism is not Judaism. Criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. Anti-Zionism is anti-Racism. Anti-Zionism is central to collective liberation.

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