Don’t Let the Anti-Semites Hijack Black Lives Matter

I am inspired by the recent protests against racism and police brutality in the United States. These spasms of resistance are completely necessary and remind non-black citizens of just how unequal our society is, how threatened the black community feels on a daily basis and how much racism has been allowed to run amok in our institutions. 

I attended a protest last week in Phoenix, Az., where I stood in solidarity with thousands of black, Hispanic, Asian, white, queer, Muslim, Jewish people and more, against the evils of white supremacy in our law enforcement and beyond. It was nothing short of a religious experience. Every voice was lifted in song in chants of  “Black Lives Matter.”  Unity against the forces that perpetuate bigotry and hatred in this country is breathtaking to witness. It’s important to emphasize that the vast majority of those fighting for a better, more equal America, are doing so in good faith and without sinister intentions. Unfortunately, a select few have chosen to warp the spirit of this noble cause, and by doing so, have weakened the movement. 

In alignment with the actions of millions around the world, these agents of chaos have used political frustrations to drag Jews and Jewish peoplehood into the spotlight. In their view, white supremacy in the United States is directly linked to Jewish autonomy in their indigenous homeland. In their view, black liberation is intertwined with Palestinian “right of return” and the eradication of a Jewish state.  This twisted manipulation of social justice in order to attack Jewish people is nothing less than classical anti-Semitism. 

Perhaps there are similarities between Israeli law enforcement’s bias against Palestinians and the biases of American police against black people. It’s true, killings of unarmed Palestinian men are common in Israel and in the occupied territories, most notably, the murder of an autistic Palestinian man in East Jerusalem several weeks ago. And yet, I find myself wondering how many countries we can locate on a map where state law enforcement is unethically biased against a particular group of people. I am not justifying racism in law enforcement anywhere, but why choose Israel, the only Jewish state, to directly connect racism in the United States? It may be a response to the “deadly exchange,” which references the United States and Israeli security forces’ history of training together to combat terrorism. Some conclude that racism rubs off on both units as a result of this cooperation, and therefore the targeting of black Americans and Palestinians is connected.

While I am against American law enforcement being trained in conjunction with Israeli forces, I can’t help but see the obvious anti-Semitic tropes lingering in the “deadly exchange” rhetoric, that somehow the Jews are involved in America’s white supremacy problem, that somehow the Jews are encouraging unrest and discord in America’s body politic. Antisemitic right-wingers have co-opted this conspiracy theory in their own way, pointing to George Soros and his malicious puppet-mastery as the cause of racial unrest. It remains offensive to imply that Jews, also victims of white supremacy and white nationalism, are somehow connected to the murder of black men in the United States when the United States has been grappling with racial injustice for centuries. 

Anti-Semitism thrives in social chaos.

But that is exactly what the anti-Semite wants to see. The constant tethering of Israel to progressive causes, be it “LGBTQ folk for Palestine,” or “From Standing Rock to Palestine,” has little to do with Israeli policy or justice for Israeli Defense Force soldiers who act immorally, and has more to do with isolating Jewish voices from progressive movements and vilifying Jews, all Jews, in these spaces. Anti-Semitism thrives in social chaos. The small minority of racial justice activists who have chosen to link the presence of a Jewish state (and only this state) to the fight against racism in the United States are using chaos, as so many anti-Semites have done before, to scapegoat the Jews and target them. They are no friend to the fight for racial, criminal and environmental justice. Put simply, they don’t like Jewish people and are using every chance they can get to rally troops for their cause. 

It’s also important to emphasize that these activists are not criticizing Israeli policy or Israeli settlements or potential annexation of the West Bank. Such criticism should be welcomed in progressive spaces, and often. But rather, these individuals, who are not one race or one ideology, are militantly advocating for the destruction of a Jewish state and violence against Jewish people, and usually attach a myriad of classical anti-Semitic tropes in doing so. 

We cannot overlook the virus of Jew-hatred when it infects a movement we should be proud to be a part of. 

In fact, much of the anti-Semitic rhetoric that is spreading like wildfire has nothing to do with Israel at all. I have seen hundreds of tweets that seem to target Jews with labels such as “white supremacists,” “greedy,” “landlords,” “cheap.” There seems to be a new wave of direct attacks on Jews using manipulated classical anti-Semitic language and tropes. I was uncomfortable, but not at all surprised, when Paris broke out into chants of “Dirty Jews!” at an anti-racism protest this week. Though Palestinian flags were waving, this chant has nothing to do with Israel/Palestine and everything to do with hating Jewish people. It seems the anti-Semites have found a way to hijack that movement as well. We cannot let them do the same to racial justice activism in America. 

I am inspired by the Jews and Jewish organizations who have taken a stand with Black Lives Matter. We as a community must do more in the fight against racial injustice, and that includes calling out prejudice and bigotry within our own circles. But we cannot overlook the virus of Jew-hatred when it infects a movement we should be proud to be a part of.  Jews must remain vocally in support of the movement for racial justice, for we too are threatened (though the comparison is minute) by white supremacist violence in this country. But we cannot compromise on our safety in these spaces, especially when activists with large platforms warp much needed social justice movements as a method to target Jews.