Quote:
Originally Posted by CroFlames
I find it interesting that you need to be super careful about how/who/what you criticize about the genocide taking place in Gaza, but the in the Russo-Ukrainian war thread, it's fair game to criticize the Russian aggressor without limits. We call them orcs, and worse.
But imagine if we called Israeli soldiers orcs and the Israeli leadership & Netanyahu the orc manager.
I'm certainly not defending the Russians and I have no problem calling them such names because of their grotesque aggression. But I see no difference in what Israel is doing to Gaza (except on a smaller scale), so it's odd to me that the argument here usually boils down to how to properly criticize, lest you be called an antisemite.
|
Israelis call Netanyahu all sorts of names. It’s not antisemitic to call Netanyahu a monster. 10% of all Israelis were out on the streets protesting the government last week, that is an immense amount of humans protesting their government. You would be hard pressed to find a recent anti-government protest as large as that one in any other country. It’s the usage of age old antisemitic stereo types in tandem with criticism. For example painting Netanyahu with devil horns is eerily similar to the age old stereotype of Jews having horns.l I think the vast majority of Jews would view something like that as very antisemitic, even if many of us do not like Netanyahu.
I also do not see people arguing that Canadians with russian heritage or ties should be speaking out more against Russia or that the Russian community in Canada should be generalized as a monolith. Jews are barely 1% of Canadas population and are a ultra minority, placing expectations and exaggerating Canadian Jewish influence on the current conflict definitely seems like punching down. I think this gets eerily close to antisemitism as it is not something required of any other minority group. Within the last two years I have had 4 or 5 instances where I have mentioned I am Jewish to a new acquaintance in my line of work or even with my fiancés family and within 5 minutes they ask me for my stance on Israel/Palestine. While maybe unknowingly to them, this feels a bit antisemitic to me, as nobody asks a Chinese Canadian after just meeting them about what their views of Chinas treatment of the Uyghurs is.
Many Jews have generational trauma and are ultra sensitive towards generalizations and stereotyping for obvious reasons. Many of us have faced actual real antisemitism, I had to deal with antisemitic bullying in middle school which involved pennies being thrown at me during lunch for example. Another time when traveling in Japan I had befriend several American Navy officers who were staying at the same hostel. A couple days of backpacking with them I mentioned I was Jewish and one of them straight up looked at me and told me “I ####ing hates Jews and that I better walk in the other direction”. I don’t think my experience with antisemitism is uniquely worse or equatable to what a black person or indigenous person have faced, but my point here is that antisemitism is not something we just make up, many Jews have firsthand real experience with it. Unfortunately there are antisemitic undercurrents within the pro-Palestine movement, we have seen instances of targeting of Jewish neighbourhoods, businesses and synagogues. Due to probably many Jews own generational or self experienced trauma it is a normal human reaction to start to believe the entire movement is antisemitic. After taking a lot of time to reflect I know that is not the case.
I guess my main points are that antisemitism is real, the lines do get blurred by some Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestine supporters. Not everyone who is critical of the Israeli government or IDF is antisemitic but there are people who use criticism as a cover to spread classic antisemitism. I think generalizing and holding a very small minority to standards we don’t hold any other minority group to is anti-ethical to Canadian values. Canadian Jews opinions vary greatly regarding Israel. Some are very Zionist, some are antizionist, some are confused, some truly don’t care at all. I love Canada and cannot wait to move back soon, I obviously believe in Israels right to exist but also would like there to be a progression towards a more civic society with less ethnocentric/religious policies and more efforts for a peaceful solution. I don’t view myself as Israeli or that I have any sort of dual loyalty. I am a Canadian whose Jewish not a Jew living in Canada.
