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Opinion | Israel Cannot Blame Antisemitism

Alone for Global Condemnation
Hanin Majadli Nov 28, 2023 12:33 am IST Follow

In recent weeks, Israel and Israelis have had new, serious

enemies competing with their longtime strategic foe, Iran.
These aren’t Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but rather
demonstrators in the streets, on campuses, and opposite
Israeli embassies in Europe and the United States. They have
one particularly hated slogan: “Free Palestine,” or in its
longer version: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be
free.”

If you thought this was only driving Israeli right-wingers

crazy, you’re wrong. It’s also riling leading left-wingers and
people who, until the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli
border communities, were stalwart advocates for human
rights. Israelis claim that the slogan is a clear call for the
destruction of the State of Israel – pure antisemitism.

There has been a range of Israeli reactions to the pro-

Palestinian tide: online public diplomacy, amused
newspaper articles, sketches on the satirical TV show “Eretz
Nehederet,” and political cartoons. There are jokes about
bored, privileged Europeans or Americans who feel they’re
at the forefront of a fight they don’t understand and
ultimately damage the Palestinians.

Israelis argue that they even know which river or sea is being
referred to and that Islam will soon take control of their own
countries and destroy them, just as Hamas took control in
the Gaza Strip and has tried to destroy Israel. These Israelis
call on the demonstrators to come to their senses and realize
that Israel is the good guy and Hamas and Islam are the bad
guys.

Frankly, I don’t know whether all the pro-Palestinian

demonstrators have a coherent ideology, whether they
support a two-state solution or one state. Maybe they’re just
antisemites, and I don’t intend to be their advocate.

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But instead of being concerned with all this Judith Butler,

Greta Thunberg, and Angelina Jolie, Jewish Voice for Peace,
the international left wing, and everything else in existence,
Israelis need to ask themselves how things got to this point.

A quick tour of social media will suffice. You can easily get an
unfortunate impression of the state of affairs from Israeli
public officials’ video translated by Google Translate. Danny
Danon, Israel’s former UN ambassador, is suggesting that
Gaza’s residents agree to voluntary expulsion.

Ayelet Shaked, the former justice minister, is looking

forward to the day when Israel turns the city of Khan Yunis
in Gaza into a soccer field. Amichai Eliyahu, the heritage
minister, thinks an atomic bomb on Gaza is an option, while
Otzma Yehudit Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech is
praying for the reoccupation of Gaza.

Then there are the TikTok videos of Israeli soldiers in Gaza

laughing about the hunger of residents there and troops
filming themselves blowing up houses, as a soldiers stands
at a DJ control board in the background timing the blasts to
the beat. But most importantly, people are seeing the
horrific scenes from Gaza that aren’t shown on Israeli
channels.

And it’s not just the events of the past month or so. It’s more
and more settlement construction, the occupation, the
blockade on and bombardment of Gaza, the IDF spokesman
lying, the IDF spokesman lying again, etc.

Over the past decade and a half, the world has marched
toward a conversation about occupation, colonialism, and
human rights, while in Israel, the common, mainstream
discourse has stalled over whether or not there’s such a
thing as a Palestinian people.

Young people around the world are opposed to militarism

and the military, while their Israeli counterparts have been
shifting to the right, becoming more racist and ignorant.
That’s the image that Israel projects to the liberal world – a
racist, occupying country that has been systematically
killing Palestinians for years.

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You can condescendingly laugh about the “snowflake”

protesters all you want, but they’re not going anywhere.
Because they represent the future, while Israel has, it has to
be admitted, been stuck in the past for too long.

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