Thread by @YairWallach

1/ Yesterday we saw forceful and vocal response from Palestinians worldwide to incidents in which people waving the Palestine flags targeted Jewish neighbourhoods in London with vile antisemitic harassment and threats.
The response below is one of many.

https://twitter.com/JehadAbusalim/status/1393996494261297154?s=20

2/ Antisemitism in the Palestine activism scene in the West almost never comes from Palestinians, almost always comes from non-Palestinian activists. We should acknowledge the heavy burden this places on Palestinians, especially in this moment.

3/ So while they face bombing, attacks, displacement, and brutalisation in Palestine, Palestinians also now need to find the time and space to reject what some racist idiots are doing in the name of their cause.

4/ We know that the charge of Antisemitism is often levelled against Palestinians and their supporters in an unjustifiable way. There are people for whom the mere presence of the Palestine flag is antisemitic. This must be rejected.

5/ But it is also true that some Antisemites are attracted to the Palestine cause, given that half the world's Jews live in Israel, that Israel defines itself as a Jewish state. For many reasons this is much more a problem in Europe than it is in North America.

6/ And that primarily often takes the form of conflating Diaspora Jews with Israel (and attacking them on that basis), or using antisemitic language to discuss Israel, e.g. as part of a global Jewish conspiracy.

7/ For a good resource on how to identify Antisemitism in this context, please see the recently published Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. jerusalemdeclaration.org

8/ Pro-Palestine activists must not leave this work to Palestinians. They need to educate themselves better on identifying antisemitism, call it out when they see it, not downplay it or engage in knee jerk denialism.

9/ We should recognise the uniquely vulnerable and difficult position of Palestinians here.
They struggle against occupation and colonisation by Israeli Jews, people who themselves were, not long ago, refugees fleeing racism ...

10/ While for diaspora Jews, as a racialised minority, antisemitism is not a distant memory but also a lived experience; and, for many, Israel is a positive and reassuring anchor.
I can think of no other occupied and colonised people in similar circumstances.

11/ All this means that if and when Antisemitism is not taken seriously - it harms not only diaspora Jews but also Palestinians.

And the forceful response yesterday provided a clear direction on how to take this seriously, identify and reject it.

/End