Though Jews make up a small proportion of the prison population, they often are discriminated against and denied religious materials, such as kosher meals and tefillin, advocates for Jewish prisoners say.
One can argue whether the actions Israel\’s government has taken in the face of terror and recalcitrance are moral or effective. One can argue that Israel\’s settlement policy — as its architect, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has come around to doing — is deleterious to the nation\’s security.
Jews in America are more favorably regarded than Catholics, barely less well liked than Protestants and far more highly viewed than Evangelical Christians.
We must speak out against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism and bigotry anywhere we encounter them, especially in our own peace and justice community. We cannot accept a peace movement leadership that excludes outspoken opponents of the war because they are also supporters of Israel.
Sadly, even though most Americans remain supportive of Israel, there is abundant evidence that in academia, opposition to Israel\’s policies has mutated into attacks that demonize the Jewish State, undermine its legitimacy and foment anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports that \”campus anti-Semitic incidents were up dramatically in 2002.\”
Expressions of anti-Semitism through Holocaust imagery were so harsh in the Greek media and political circles at the time that Hronika, the official magazine of the Central Board of Greek Jewish Communities, spoke of a climate of \”hysteria and anti-Semitism\” that was masquerading as mere criticism of the State of Israel.
In his attempt to critique the Anti-Defamation League\’s (ADL) survey on anti-Semitism in America, our friend and former colleague David Lehrer has misinterpreted ADL\’s findings in three key ways (\”Don\’t Circle the Wagons,\” July 5).
If Israel\’s friends and diplomats have a harder time this week convincing the world that Israel is not a racist state, they have only their own government to blame.
On a cool and drizzly night in this Indian Ocean port city, a vast white tent standing in the middle of a cricket field seemed to fit in with the circus atmosphere of the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, one Jewish observer said.
This was no regular circus that had come to town, however, but a viciously anti-Israel, anti-Jewish circus that had carried on all week and was about to reach its apex.
It got so bad on Monday, just halfway through the official governmental conference that began Aug. 31 and ends Sept. 7, that the United States and Israel recalled their delegations.
The U.S. delegation said it would not continue working in such a \”racist,\” anti-Semitic atmosphere.
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