We Are on Precarious Ground
Washington Watch
November 20, 2023
Dr. James J. Zogby ©
President
Arab American Institute
Several events that have occurred in the past few weeks should make us pay attention to the frightening reality we are in when it comes to freedom of speech regarding Israel/Palestine. We are on precarious ground.
What is clear is that public opinion has shifted in a more pro-Palestinian direction, especially among younger Americans and people of color. Up until now, this fact has registered mainly in polling data. But with the past six weeks of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza, there has been an outpouring of statements of support for Palestinian rights and opposition to Israel’s unrelenting war against the Palestinian people.
It was expected that pro-Palestinian support would be countered by groups supportive of Israel. But the virulence of the pro-Israeli counterattacks has been worrisome. A major American Jewish organization purporting to defend civil rights had called on universities to ban Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). They have called the student group antisemitic and, in an extraordinary move, have also called on the US government to investigate whether the students could be charged with “providing material support for terrorism.” While sometimes incautious language may have been used by young students to express support for Palestinians, there is nothing to substantiate the dangerous charge of terrorism. Some universities have responded by banning the SJP, together with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a national organization of young progressive American Jews supportive of Palestinian rights. Despite its Jewish membership, JVP has also been termed antisemitic by the same pro-Israel advocates.
A week ago, the chair of a Midwestern state’s Democratic Party sent a press release denouncing a group of officers of the Young Democrats on one of the state’s college campuses. The student Democrats’ letter ended with a nuanced version of what pro-Israel groups have come to insist is a controversial statement. Instead of saying “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” they wrote “May every Palestinian be free, from the river to the sea.”
Despite the student’s best efforts, the state party chair’s release accused them of using antisemitic language, making Jewish students feel unsafe on campus, and supporting genocide against the Jewish people. The state chair also called on them to resign from their posts as elected officers in the Democratic group.
In justifying this harsh response, the chair cited the definition of the original phrase provided by a pro-Israel group:
“This phrase is antisemitic and can make members of our Jewish community feel unsafe because it calls for genocide. ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is an antisemitic slogan commonly featured in anti-Israel campaigns and chanted at demonstrations…Usage of this phrase has the effect of making members of the Jewish and pro-Israel community feel unsafe and ostracized. It is important to note that demanding justice for Palestinians, or calling for a Palestinian state, should not mean, as this hateful phrase posits, denying the right of the State of Israel to exist.”
Just a week ago, a respected community-based organization in the state of Maryland that advocates and provides services for immigrants also issued a statement in support of the Palestinian people. They denounced the massacres perpetrated by Hamas on October 7th and also the Israeli bombing campaign that had taken the lives of thousands of Palestinians. The CASA statement went on to say that as people of color they identified with the struggle for justice and freedom because, “the Palestinian struggle mirrors our won.”
CASA’s solidarity was met by a letter from a group of Maryland legislators and elected officials demanding that CASA rescind their statement, declaring it “antisemitic.” And as state legislators who decide the state’s budget, they more pointedly stated without any concern: “This might be an appropriate time to reevaluate the state’s mechanism for providing financial aid and support to our immigrant community.” Subtle, this was not. Since thousands of immigrants depend on CASA for critical services and advocacy, they felt compelled to apologize and take down the statement. As of yet, it seems the legislators have not relented in their threat to eliminate the group’s funding.
Finally, an op-ed published in the New York Daily News this week calling for the reestablishment of the notorious Jewish Defense League should cause concern and outrage. Instead, it passed without comment from elected officials concerned about the spread of hate. In his column, the author, a prominent New York philanthropist, praised the JDL’s founder, Meir Kahane, and extolled the virtues of the group which he claimed represented strong Jews and a firm response to treats against their safety. He ignored the facts that: for decades the JDL was on the FBI terrorism list; was one of the major perpetrators of terrorist violence during the 1970s and 1980s; and was even banned in Israel as a racist terror group that spawned the likes of the individual who perpetrated the massacre of Muslim worshippers in Hebron’s Ibrahim Mosque and the individual who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. That a major US paper would even publish such a piece without comment is an indicator of how dangerous the situation has become.
From these examples, it would seem the wrong discourse is being scrutinized.