<@Why?> #47734
> mainstream British politics is gagged of the right to critique Zionism
I assumed this meant that wingnut isolationism was giving way to wingnut support for Zionism?
Not just that. Given the current British context, I’m pretty sure the OP is primarily referencing the recent change in leadership within the Labour Party. The new leader, Keir Starmer, and his people are acting quite decisively to punish any perceived instances of anti-Semitism within the party, and this seems to include viewing at least some anti-Zionism with suspicion. Gone are the days when Jeremy Corbyn was in charge and Israel could be criticized in pretty much any way, justified or not, that wasn’t outright 100% obvious in-your-face anti-Semitism.
Some people on the (far) left perceive this as giving a full pass to Israel, with the usual accusations of capitulating to Israeli lobbying efforts.
Whether the OP goes beyond just anti-Zionism and into outright anti-Semitism, I wouldn’t judge just from the OP.
Thus, I’ll now look into the rest of that Twitter thread.
The BLM UK Twitter account cites the support of a great many people and organizations. Most prominently featured is Jewish Voice for Peace, which is… controversial among Jews, to say the least. From what I’ve seen, it’s a very pro-Palestinian organization, and one whose criticism of Israel can be quite extreme.
My impression is that we’re dealing with a fairly classic far-left anti-colonialist perspective here, one that emphasizes intersectional support for oppressed people everywhere, particularly those seen to be oppressed by Western white and/or colonialist states and enterprises — and that is exactly how these people perceive Israel.
I will just say that such movements and opinions make me wary, but I’ll refrain from judging them more without having conducted more research previously.
So, based on this Twitter thread and from my general impression of such far left anti-Zionist movements, here’s my thoughts about what we’re likely dealing with here.
These sorts of people genuinely tend not to perceive themselves as anti-Semites. They wear their anti-Zionism with pride, seeing it as resistance to the sort of racism and (neo-)colonialism they see around them, harming people of color and other minorities. They insist very firmly that criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism; I’ll give them a point in that some Zionists on the right really do engage in frivolous accusations of anti-Semitism as a way to defend or evade responsibility for human rights abuses.
There is also the problem that there are a fuckton of anti-Semitic tropes, so criticizing certain practices like lobbying by pro-Israeli or Jewish groups becomes genuinely difficult due to this minefield of influence, disloyalty and money-related tropes that have been used to libel Jews throughout history (and the present).
However, this defensive approach of “Anti-Zionism is NOT anti-Semitism!” is also often taken to extremes, with an assumption that any criticism of their anti-Zionist arguments comes from a place of bad faith (heartless pro-Israel shills and fundies who don’t care about the oppression and killing of Palestinians).
That there is a problem with anti–Semitism on the left (including the British left) should be obvious if you look at the whole Labour antisemitism trainwreck. And I will admit that it seems that Corbyn’s opposition within the party deliberately sabotaged the internal investigation to make the Corbynites look worse and, eventually, to topple them — which indeed happened.
But when you look past the intra-party backstabbing, when you go beyond the genuinely existing cynical right-wing media usage of the whole thing as a truncheon to hit Labour with, you are still left with a problem: that there were a lot of Labour activists and members who were so utterly extreme in their anti-Israel sentiments and oftentimes, yes, even anti-Semitic… so much so that many Jewish Labour members reported that the atmosphere within the party had become so toxic and hostile to them that it was basically unlivable.
All in all, the problem with groups and people like the OP isn’t that they’re necessarily personally hardline anti-Semitic (at least towards Jews outside Israel and the Palestinian territories). It’s that even when they might not hate Jews themselves, they oftentimes tolerate those among them who are, by justifying their bigotry as just “faux pas” or marginalized people getting a bit too heated in their righteous indignation.
After all, how could these wonderful warriors against oppression themselves be bigots? That’s nonsense! (or so it seems to them)
We need to keep in mind that this is often a showdown between two groups who are both high-strung and expecting attack at every moment.
On the one hand, we have Jews, particularly those who have some measure of support toward Israel, who are very sensitized to any manifestations of anti-Semitism. When someone criticizes or attacks them while seemingly utilizing one of many anti-Semitic tropes (knowingly or not), the defenses go up and these Jews (or other Zionists) go all in, feeling that the opponent is the same old intractable enemy who would be happiest to see them all dead.
On the other hand, we have far leftist groups, some of them ‘brocialist’, but more importantly, many of them are minority advocates — like for racial or LGBTQ justice. They see a particular view of Israel and its supporters, and often end up believing that they are dealing almost with demons incarnate. In their opponent, they see the same oppressors that hurt them historically and currently — typically rich, white and cynically religious.
It is, of course, an opponent that will give no mercy and needs to be fought bitterly and uncompromisingly.
Too often, neither side sees the other as humane at all, but rather as just a monolithic, irrational blob of utter hatred that wants to destroy good people.
And I think that BLM UK here is part of one side of that equation.
