The 6Th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism ICC Jerusalem, March 19Th-21St, 2018
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The 6th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism ICC Jerusalem, March 19th-21st, 2018 Summary of GFCA Panels The following is a brief summary of the various thematic panel discussions and their operative conclusions: Hate in the Age of New Politics: Confronting Neo-Nazism and Antisemitism of the Extreme Right in the United States and Elsewhere Sharon Nazarian,, ADL Senior VP for International Affairs, began the panel by situating the white supremacist movement within the context of dramatically rising numbers of antisemitic incidents in the US and the increase in white supremacist recruitment efforts including on college campuses. Mike Signer, former mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, described the impact of his Jewish heritage on his public service, especially as related to his leadership during the August 2017 Unite the Right white supremacist rally. Signer suggested that the Alt Right lost legitimacy when it began to use violence as an instrument for spreading ideology. Yair Rosenberg, Senior Writer for Tablet Magazine, described his efforts to "troll the trolls." He argued that when confronted online by antisemitic harassers who intend to silence or intimidate, repaying with dismissive humor can be a way of turning the tables on them and revealing their ignorance and maliciousness to a wide audience. Eric K. Ward, Executive Director of the Western States Center, described his decades of work studying and opposing white supremacists in the US. He underscored the fact that hatred of Jews is the unifying core of white supremacist ideology, and called for a greater mobilization by civil society to oppose this movement. Ha asked that Israeli government take care to distance itself from any type of far right hate innuendo in US or elsewhere, Operative suggestions raised during the panel included the following: 1) Need for better understanding by municipal and law enforcement authorities of anxiety and fear level experienced by the Jewish communities due to extreme right public actions. Perhaps there is need for a renewed discussion in US on constitutional parameters regarding severe hate provocation. 2) Need for greater tools of resilience and push back against hate trolling; there is a need for private sector take responsibility for preventing extreme right manifestations. Airbnb temporarily closing down rentals available in Charlottesville is an example of possible steps. 3) The sane majority should not keep silent, in the face of extreme hate by small groups attempting to gain political power and control of the public square. Antisemitism in the Far Left: Intersectionality as a Cover for Hate Speech in Current Progressive Activism David Bernstein, President and CEO, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, suggested a conceptual framework for understanding the current situation. Since the end of the ‘60’s, the Left understands oppression as caused by global structures. The weak are by definition the oppressed, as they are discriminated by power and capital. Hence the weak by definition cannot be racist, because structurally they are the victims of racism. Since Israel and the Jewish people are in a position of power, they are generally not identified by the Left as potential victims of racism, and at best these issues are allowed to fall through the cracks. In the past, antisemitic conspiratorial thinking were held by radical groups in the margins, but one hears these ideas today more in the mainstream. Marx’s idea that the Jews are not a nation has been adopted by arts of the Left as part of the delegitimization of Israel. He advocated using the language of intersectionality to enter their space. Simply attacking it conceptually from the outside will not be an effective strategy. Sohrab Ahmari, Senior writer, Commentary Magazine, cited Judith Butler’s position that Hamas and Hizbullah are part of the global left, which means that she understands them as perfectly legitimate organizations. Ahmari described what he called ‘the Olympics of oppression, with everyone vying to be the most oppressed- but with no acknowledgement of Jews as victims”. Intersectionality promotes a relativism which is not good for the Jewish people, as it lacks all historic context and does not take into account the suffering of the Jews in the 20th century which necessitates their statehood. Nadine Epstein, Editor-in-Chief, Moment Magazine, said the antisemitism of the left is less dangerous than the far right in the US because it is not carrying guns. She focused on the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter movements, advocated engagement with them wherever possible, and does not believe the problematic positions of the leadership impugn the entire movements with antisemitism, as most participants are ignorant of the leadership views. Dave Rich, Associate at the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, said that in the discourse of the far-left, identity politics has replaced class politics. Intersectionality encompasses the notion that all oppressions are connected, so that the perceived oppression of one person is in reality addressed by the campaign of everyone else who sees themselves as similarly oppressed. Oppression in this thinking implies the absence of power. Hence Jews and Israel need not apply, as they are perceived as having power. 2 LGBTQ Expert Panel on Contemporary Antisemitism Inside the Rainbow Coalition Tyler Harris Gregory, Executive Director of A Wider Bridge pointed out that the LGBT rights movement has historically been one of the most successful and is similar to Zionism in many ways. Why then has the LGBT movement become a home for many anti-Zionist activists? It is important that we underline a number of points. First of all, Israel is by far the from conservative and religious Jerusalem, but nevertheless, Israel is overall very liberal and open to LGBT rights. Secondly, we need to challenge our movement for its lack of focus on the terrible things happening in other places, such as Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East, and what is the LGBT movement doing to help these people. Gretchen Hammond, Journalist and Fellow at Tablet Magazine, recounted the antisemitism she witnessed first hand in Chicago, “where people from my own community turned against the Jews. In 2017 I reported regarding three Jewish activists who were banned from the Dyke March in Chicago. We did not expect this to attract as much attention as it did.” The Dyke March released three different response statements, and Hammond had an argument with her editor who wanted to present only one side of the argument. Hammond was roundly attacked and banned from her newspaper, more or less forcing her to separate from the LGBT community. The LGBT movement in the US is too fractured and politicized at present, and one finds a more coherent attitude and position actually in Tel Aviv. Israel is singled out for pink washing, but when one considers it, every liberal country could be similarly condemned for being advanced on LGBT issues but lacking on others. Avi Sofer, former Executive Director of Agudah, said that LGBT antisemitism is a new instance of well established present forms of antisemitism. Particularly in Europe, our many friends in the LGBT community remain silent. We encounter a radical politics imposed by a minority, and one finds that there is no will or desire to hear an objective factual description of the situation in Israel.. Malmo it is so antisemitic one cannot identify there either as a Jew or as an LGBT, but this is ignored. Pink washing is innuendo and an exercise in deflection, The term was created to close down speech, and to keep us from talking about actual issues. I would that when one is accused of pink washing, the response should be – let’s speak about things as they are, without name calling and evasion. Elizabeth Schwartz, Author and Attorney of LGBT family law, said that we are confronting antisemitism even inside some parts of the Jewish community. Many people see the world as the oppressor vs. the oppressed and paint all the complexities of the world in black and white. At the same time, In the same way, it is not right to paint all progressives and lefty actions as antisemitic. I do not want to us leaving the social justice table, and not nearly enough is known about the social justice work happening in Israel. It is fine that the LGBT movement not agree with all aspects of Israel or its policies, but the very troubling question remains: Why is Israel singled out? 3 The Persistence of Christian Theological Antisemitism in the Mainline Protestant Church: Coping with Bigotry and Hate in the Spiritual Realm Rabbi David Sandmel, Director of Interreligious Relations, ADL spoke about the Kairos Palestine document, released in 2009. The document is a call for justice and peace by a select group of Palestinian Christians. In reality, it traffics in classical Christian anti-Judaism, distorts history, and refuses to recognize the Jewish connection to the land of Israel. It has and will continue to be used by the Christian BDS activists in the U.S. especially on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the state and the tenth anniversary of the Kairos document adoption. Rabbi Yehiel Poupko of the Chicago Jewish Federation said that one example of the theological problems of the Kairos document is its rejection of Jewish particularism, a feature of Palestinian Liberation Theology as seen in the work of Naim Ateek. The land of Israel becomes universalized, and the identity of Jews and their historical connection is erased. In the Mainline Protestant critique of the Jewish return to sovereignty, we are seeing transference of two thousand years of Christian non-acceptance of Jewish particularism. Robert Nicholson, Executive Director, Philos Project, said Christians in Israel and Palestine have generally not resorted to violence, but have become much more vocal of late.