Redefining racism in the Israel debate

If the Middle East conflict is a race war between Arabs and Jews, does this mean that all those who support Palestine or Israel are “racists”?

Abigail Wiley tells a personal story of being dragged into the swamp of endless disagreement within the vast confines of the internet.

I had to give a spoiler warning for those who haven’t watched it. Chris Lilley2013 television series, Ja’mie: Private School Girl.

Believing she will win a prestigious school medal, School Captain Ja’mie (Lilley) instead finds herself being questioned by school officials about an inappropriate video she sent to a young boy from Africa in which he sings the school song while topless. Realizing that he cannot immediately provide a satisfactory explanation, he accuses his teachers of targeting him because he is in an interracial relationship.

This was repeated when I saw a shared post. LinkedIn By someone I’ve known for over 20 years. Let’s call him Daniel (because that’s his name). It was a link to an article written by a student who was asked to leave his shared home in Canberra because he was a Zionist – or, as he put it, a ‘Jewish Zionist’. To protect her identity, I will give her the nickname Ja’mie.

Ja’mie shared a letter she wrote to these housemates and explained their actions ‘There is no reason other than racism’. This was accompanied by a photo of a white person like me, as well as a brief author bio. For reference, my matching foundation shade is “Victorian lead poisoning victim.”

My main purpose in writing this is to critique how the consequences of one’s actions or political views can be avoided by turning to something else; especially by designing complaints about “racism” here.

While Ja’mie renames “Jewish Zionist” after her housemates evict her for being a Zionist, she conveniently avoids taking responsibility for anything problematic the term represents by shifting the focus to the “Jewish” part. This identity probably didn’t bother the housemates at all. Nothing in his article gave the slightest hint of any problem with his race or ethnicity. There is absolutely no example to the contrary in the article. Maybe the real problem was Zionist ideology?

By the way, if any Jew comments on anything and you disagree with that person’s views, does it naturally follow that he can claim it was because of “racism”? Consider whether Ja’mie would agree with the following points regarding this thesis: Noam Chomsky, Katie Halper, Norm Finkelstein, Peter Beinart, Nathan Thrall, hadar cohen, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Sim Kern, Jon Stewart, Amy Goodman, Stephen Kapos, Nurit Peled Elhanan, Debra Wing actress, Ant Loewenstein, Aaron Mate, Omer Bartov; (and I’ll have to stop here before my battery dies). If he objects to the views of these Jewish commentators on Israel, we must clearly state that this is “for no other reason than racism.”

Hey, I didn’t make the rules; Ja’mie did it.

I’ve spent most of my life in share houses in different cities, so I’ve seen a lot of share house ads. Ideological harmony is among the most important features sought. Houses can be 420 (cannabis) friendly, queer friendly, SW (sex worker) friendly, Christian, vegetarian… I have definitely felt excluded or rejected from houses whose philosophy was very different from mine.

Although I’ve never met Ja’mie’s former roommates, mutual friends could identify them. I mean, this is Canberra, for heaven’s sake: it’s like a city where there’s only two degrees of separation from everyone else. So he left them a little exposed. We can understand the pain and humiliation of being rejected, or actually entertain the idea that this is punishment for being Jewish, but Ja’mie’s open letter doesn’t seem to take her former housemates’ feelings into account either.

We’ve heard of a full stadium in the last two years. football hooligans Racist and genocide slogans are chanted in Amsterdam “Death to Arabs”knowing that these individuals are likely past or present Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in a position to achieve exactly this with impunity (before gleefully posing with their victims’ looted clothes). Parents saw the headless, emaciated bodies of children their own age and heard them being callously ignored as “human shields.”

I am aware of the frustration of people losing their sleep or even going on hunger strike as a result of these events, or of not being able to stop them. Isn’t it natural that when someone living in your home expresses support for the ideology we’ve learned to associate with these horrors, this affects your psychological safety? For comparison, imagine sharing your home with a supporter. Rapid Support Forces or Westboro Baptist Church.

I hesitated before commenting on Daniel’s post, afraid I would immediately become a target, but then I realized I was being a wimp by prioritizing my own comfortable anonymity.

I reminded the International Court of Justice (ICJ) I left the following comment because I find Israel responsible for apartheid in the occupied territories:

‘It is not ‘racism’ if a white person is asked to leave their shared home because they support apartheid.’

It wasn’t too surprising to see a hostile message at the top of my LinkedIn feed the next day.

“Moran D” knew my profession, it wasn’t listed directly under my name, which meant he scanned my profile – it was immediately noticed as an attempt to gather personal information. Certain of my businesses are not listed due to past borderline stalking behavior. This must have angered Moran if he was hoping to encourage his contacts to bombard my employer with complaints.

I must say that I feel very important. Suddenly I went from an ordinary person with the same views about Gaza as the vast majority of Australians to a justice-seeking public figure with enough clout to attract harsh criticism from outsiders. I could finally count myself among the people I had respected for a long time. Naomi Klein And Francesca Albanesebut there is much less work or talent on my part.

Moran D wrote in her post, which addressed me directly even though she couldn’t tag me, that Jews are not White because they ‘minority’ 0.2 percent and ‘Not a race, but a people’. He also asks if I have ever seen a White Jew of African descent.

In fact, the rate is now around 0.4 percent, the same as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Imagine someone points out the Whiteness of a Jehovah’s Witness of European descent and he responds: “You know, Jehovah’s Witnesses are a minority, and there are non-White Jehovah’s Witnesses in Africa, which means I can’t be White either.” You’d probably ask him to share whatever he’s drinking.

“Minority” is not a synonym for “non-White.” Examples of other minorities in Australia include triplets, vegans, PhD holders, Family First voters, professional circus performers, Icelanders and people with Down syndrome. Members of these groups may also be White.

Ja’mie is not White because of her religion; she is White because she has low levels of melanin and is therefore able to enjoy the privileges of Whiteness in a society that is often hostile to those who cannot claim it.

Moran goes on to express that since I don’t have any Jewish clients, he hopes that I would blatantly discriminate against them because they are Jewish. I wasn’t interested in this post, but do you know who “liked” this? Daniel, who has known me for over twenty years and in that time has never once suffered the slightest negativity from me because of his religion, yet supported a statement from someone who doesn’t know me, suggesting that I would allow innocent cats and dogs to suffer – through my temporary shifts at veterinary clinics – because their humans’ religious beliefs differ from mine.

Enjoying my newfound fame, I shared photos of Moran’s post with as many people as possible and received a few unsolicited diagnoses on her behalf.

Was my reference to apartheid unfair? Ja’mie’s article implies the existence of Palestinians, which is not a given among Zionists. He even claims to have objected to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and want ‘All Palestinian people should have a home in Israel’even if in separate, neighboring countries. It seems that his version of Zionism at least acknowledges and opposes its unpleasant aspects. But he also “likes” Daniel’s replies to me, in which he insists there is no apartheid.

Daniel’s first response, meanwhile, was a clear insistence that Israel is not an apartheid state (because some random guy in Canberra clearly knows that better than the ICJ), accompanied by a statement that the Jews have historically been an apartheid state. ‘Excluded from Whiteness’This was certainly not the case in apartheid South Africa, where White Jews enjoyed the benefits of membership in the Whites, the most privileged of four racial categories designated by the government.

Having eaten too much cake last night, I admit I’m in no position to give life advice, but if I were I’d remind Ja’mie of the part of her article where she claims to be a “proud” Zionist. If you really mean it, Ja’mie, just to be to be proud Hiding behind false accusations of racism gives the impression that you lack the courage to stand up for your beliefs.

In fact, “be proud” is the advice I would give to the original Ja’mie. Girl, you may be an objectionable person, but stop using this racist nonsense to distract from the real issue: completely consensual behavior with an age-appropriate friend never hurt anyone. Embrace your body positivity!