Oppression is never, ever good

Dr. Hajo Meyer, an 86 year old Jewish man who survived almost a year of living in the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz,  toured the UK holding a lecture series entitled “Never Again – For Anyone”. The lectures centered on Dr. Meyer’s protest of the apartheid conditions and oppression Palestinians are enduring within Israel. For his pains he was called anti-Semitic“:

Jonathan Hoffman, co-vice-chairman of the Zionist Federation, said: “I shall be telling him he is abusing his status as a survivor, and I shall be telling him that if Israel had been created 10 years earlier, millions of lives might have been saved. “Whether he is a survivor or not, to use Nazi comparisons in relation to Israel’s policies is anti-Semitic, unquestionably.”

In response, Dr. Meyer asserted that:

“Formerly an anti-Semite was somebody who hated Jews because they were Jews and had a Jewish soul. But nowadays an anti-Semite is somebody who is hated by Jews.”

You know, anti-Semitism unquestionably exists. France is seeing a nightmare resurgence in anti-Semitic hate crimes, including the murder of Jewish children. Hate groups like “The Golden Dawn” in Greece are gaining political strength, which is horrible. In fact, anti-Semitism has been on the rise within the European Union as a whole for the last few years and is getting worse, God help us all. It’s also increasing in the USA, fueled by the collapse of the social safety nets and rising economic insecurity – things that make dipshits search for an easily understood scapegoat and thus feeds hate groups.

Anti-Semitism sucks, and the people who believe it and practice it are stupid, shit-kicking cuntmonkeys.

However, I do not think legitimate criticism of the Israeli political policies that displace Palestinians and enforce their second-class citizenship is anti-Semitic. I am not some goat-blowing dumbass Holocaust denier. I am someone who thinks that injustice can be committed by anyone to anyone, and should always be fought through non-violent protests vis-a-vis Gandhi. The situation in Israel right now is heinous. Seeing that the Palestinian people are being treated horribly does not make me anti-Semitic … it makes me appalled. The fact that the Jewish populace has been targeted for genocide in the past does not give the Israeli state a free pass on ethnic cleansing in the present.

To imply being anti-apartheid is the same as being anti-Semitic is a false conundrum. For one thing, there is a difference between Jewish people and Israel, and that difference includes the Jews who live in Israel. It is also wrong to assume all Jewish people are a monolithic group of pro-Zionists. They clearly aren’t. There is a sizable community of Jewish people who are fighting for Palestinian rights. Jewish people protest Zionist policies within Israel.

The accusations of anti-Semitism over legitimate policy disputes and protests has got to stop. It’s bullshit. Far-right extremist groups in Israel have accused their fellow Jewish Israelis of being “Nazis” when the ultra-Orthodox community was rightfully censured for spitting on a little girl and trying to make women sit in the back of a bus. There is no way people opposed to spitting on a little Jewish girl are Nazis.

A very famous Jewish rabbi wept.