Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 25.06.2024
Amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the distorted definition of Anti-Semitism known as IHRA has been used to stifle freedom of expression. The IHRA protects against the genocide of the Palestinians, the tortures, rapes, executions, mass graves, and the destruction of hospitals, schools, roads, and farming land. The pro-Palestinian protests and the chant Palestine free from the river to the sea have been called by the Western imperialists and their mass media Expressions of Anti-Semitism. So is the scientific definition of Israel as an apartheid state.
In universities across the world, the definition of anti-Semitism put forward by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has been used to silence critical commentary on Israel’s human rights violations and war crimes. Every clash between Palestinians and Zionists has been called dangerous Anti-Semitism. While students and among them, Jewish students and staff have tried to resist attempts at censorship and silencing, what is happening at the universities is a good illustration of how the IHRA definition hurts academic freedom on campus and helps propagate colonial violence.
At the same time, the Zionists claimed that Israeli women were raped by Hamas without being able to produce any forensic evidence to justify the genocide and attacked UNRA under the claim that it supports terrorism.
Both Palestinian and Jewish academics have argued that the adoption of the IHRA definition undermines the fight against racism and have pointed to the context in which it was carried out – to impede activism challenging Israeli apartheid.
“As a group of university scholars in Australia have written: “[The] IHRA definition is not only vague but also not grounded in contemporary anti-racism scholarship or practice. It treats antisemitism as if it occurs in isolation from other forms of racism and disconnects the struggle against antisemitism from the struggle against other forms of racism.”[i]
“The IHRA is a problem across the Global North. In response to a report compiled for the #NoIHRA project, prepared by Independent Jewish Voices, Amos Goldberg, Professor of Holocaust History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, noted: “how powerful, cynical and vicious the weaponization of the fight against antisemitism for silencing critique of Israel and Zionism has become.”[ii]
While Israel holds to the unproven accusation of rape of Israeli women, “Israel’s systematic sexual abuse and torture of Palestinians are detailed in new reports. A report published by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that the frequency and severity of sexual and gender-based violations meant that they were likely “part of [Israeli security forces] operating procedures.” This included physical and mental abuse while being undressed, being forced to walk naked between checkpoints, and being coerced into undressing in front of family members” [iii]
The commission added that the soldiers often filmed and photographed these acts.[iv]
“Another detainee testified that during interrogation, he was forced to sit on a metal stick which penetrated his rectum. His account closely resembled another from an Unrwa report that cited a detainee testifying that interrogators “made me sit on something like a hot metal stick, and it felt like fire.”[v]
In the last few days, we have been flooded by a claim that for no other reason than an Anti-Semitism pro-Palestinians demonstration attacked a Los Angeles synagogue “Adas Torah.”
LA AP writes: “Opponents of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza staged a protest that evolved into brawling and one arrest outside a Los Angeles synagogue over the weekend in violence condemned by President Joe Biden and the city’s mayor, who called for more police patrols.
Fighting between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and counterprotesters erupted Sunday outside the Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood and police were called in to break it up.
“I’m appalled by the scenes outside of Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles,” Biden said in a post on social media site X. “Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American.In a statement, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the violence was “abhorrent” and that blocking access to a place of worship was unacceptable“ [vi]
The Wall Street Journal writes: “Pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with pro-Israeli demonstrators and blocked access to a Los Angeles synagogue Sunday in a violent episode condemned by President Biden and other leaders as antisemitic.
Dozens of protesters shoved, punched, and yelled at each other near the Adas Torah synagogue in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, an area with a sizable Jewish population. The pro-Palestinian protesters were blocking access to the synagogue, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a social-media post.
“I want to be clear that Los Angeles will not be a harbor for antisemitism and violence,” she said. “Those responsible for either will be found and held accountable.” [vii]
The clashes took place on Sunday. Police sided with Zionists, as can be seen in videos. I thought to myself, this is strange. What large group of Jews with Zionist flags was doing in the synagogue on Sunday? On Monday, I got the answer:
“WASHINGTON: Tensions escalated outside a Torah synagogue in Los Angeles on Sunday following protests over an auction of property and land in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to settlers. The event, organized by pro-Israel groups, drew strong condemnation and opposition from anti-war activists and protesters advocating for Palestinian rights. According to eyewitnesses and journalists covering the event, the protests turned violent when clashes broke out between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and pro-Israel groups.A social media site sympathetic to Palestinians, Gaza Notifications, reported, “A Torah synagogue in Los Angeles hosted a controversial auction on Sunday where property and land in the Israeli-occupied West Bank were sold to settlers” [viii]
Down with IHRA!
Down with the Zionist monster!
For Palestine, red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/6/the-ihra-definition-of-anti-semitism-has-no-place-on-australian-campuses
[ii] Ibid
[iii] MEE staff 12 June 2024 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-systematic-sexual-abuse-torture
[iv] MEE staff 12 June 2024 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-systematic-sexual-abuse-torture
[v] Ibid
[vi] https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-los-angeles-synagogue-protest-cc997c3116d12f159df138a0ba9be002
[vii] https://www.wsj.com/us-news/pro-palestinian-protesters-block-access-to-los-angeles-synagogue-in-violent-clash-7d48098f
[viii] https://www.dawn.com/news/1841810/auction-of-israeli-occupied-land-triggers-clashes-in-la