Welcome to the public seminar! This time Stephen Zunes from University of San Francisco will present his research with the title "Antisemitism and the Pro-Palestinian Movement: What’s Real, What’s Not, and Why it Matters".
Since the launching of Israel’s war on Gaza in October, there has been a dramatic growth in North America, Europe, and elsewhere of popular movements in opposition to the Israeli war and occupation and in support for Palestinian rights. Defenders of Israel have attempted to discredit the burgeoning movement by insisting that it has been based not on support for peace, human rights, and international law, but a hatred of Jews. While most of these charges are baseless, antisemitism—like racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression—is ubiquitous in Western societies and is certainly present in the pro-Palestinian movement as well. There needs to be discernment between recognizing the uniquely repressive manifestations of Israeli policy and acknowledging ways in which Israel, as the world’s only Jewish state, may be unfairly singled out for criticism. Among the questions to be addressed include: While it is not necessarily antisemitic to be anti-Zionist, are there ways in which some forms of anti-Zionism indeed take on an antisemitic form? In what ways is blaming pro-Israel policies by some Western nations on wealthy influential Zionists rather than these governments’ own perceived strategic and ideological interests resemble historic antisemitic conspiracy theories exaggerating Jewish power? Is it antisemitic to see Zionism as a colonial settler enterprise, to accuse Israel of genocide, or call for a Free Palestine “from the river to the sea?”
Read more about Stephen Zunes:
American Expert in US Foreign Policy and Human Rights is Awarded Segerstedt's Visiting Professorship