When you tell me to trust the testimonies of Zionist forces, as a Mizrahi Jew, I say pass.
Zionism had Israeli Jews dress up as our Iraqi neighbors and friends to massacre us, fellow Jews. Why? So that Mizrahi Jews would flee Iraq and help settle Palestinian homes cleared of Palestinians.
As a Mizrahi Jew, you can skip me with Zionist government testimonies about anything.
The same ideology that took in my Yemeni Mizrahi cousins for good press, then had their "savage" babies stolen at birth and given to white Jewish families.
The word Mizrahi, which we're conditioned to use, is a colonialist invention. We once called ourselves Iraqi Jews, Iranian Jews, Egyptian Jews, Palestinian Jews... Mizrahi literally is modeled after how British colonialists said Oriental. To erase us.
So my question to people who believe anything good about the political zionist ideology, or anything true about the far right government enacting it, if they lie and treat fellow Jews this way, imagine what they would do to Palestinians.
One great modern example of Jews rejecting Zionist fear mongering was when Netanyahu visited France after antisemitic violence. He told them they would only be safe in Israel. They responded by singing La Marseillaise, the French National Anthem.
Caveat to this thread: Yes, I know Jewish safety across North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia had been both wildly safe and successful and also dangerous. The point of this is not to whitewash anything, but to highlight political Zionism as deeply antisemitic and racist.
Palestinian safety in these regions was also mixed, and often dangerous. As is Bahai, Kurdish, etc. Oppression of minorities isn't unique to us. And the solution to it is multifaith, multiethnic democracy, not the Jewish theocracy being built at the expense of others.
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Since Maccabi Tel Aviv is trending, come and get to know its soccer/football fans who ignited anti-Arab hate and violence in Amsterdam, leading to reprisals from Arabs who were attacked (and who are universally being smeared as antisemites engaging in pogroms).
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Here is a report from an Israeli agency, who sent observers to every match to find 190 incidents of racist chants, calling 2022-2023 "the most racist and violent" soccer season in Israel's history. Including routinely chanting "monkey" at Black players.
This predominant fan culture in Israeli soccer isn't only home calling foreign team bigoted things, but also veers into going after each other. The study found 20 matches where fans would call for "Shoah" of the opposing Israeli team.
As we go into new campus actions for Gaza across the world, you're going to see a lot of our legacy Jewish orgs using polls to tell you how antisemitic our universities are.
The problem with these polls?
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Nearly all of these polls assume that when a student is asked about antisemitism, they have a good analysis of what it means.
One way to examine the polls that are coming, is to look up their methodology, which is rarely reported in articles that mention the polls.
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So @BrandeisU's new poll will be used in media, talks & emails to politicians, agencies, parents etc saying students are swimming in antisemitism.
Who/how they "fixed" the poll won't be reported.
Here's fine print admitting they only polled kids who went on trips to Israel.
We’ve been told as Jews that the slightest micro aggressions by individuals births antisemitism so dangerous we must have zero tolerance.
Today we’re told that open genocide, apartheid & ethnic cleansing in co-opting our name, faith, history & even synagogues doesn’t fuel antisemitism & we should tolerate it for our survival. 🧵
If some among us can’t navigate through hasbara engineered to rob us of our humanity for Palestinians and Arabs, and instead favor an often outsized moral panic over our daily safety, one would think maybe at least you can attempt to see our own self interest in ending this. This which will fuel antisemitism for decades to come, putting our lives in danger.
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A common reply to this idea has been a smear. That this frames Jews for our own antisemitism. Yet, if you stay beyond the sound bites you’ll learn that many of us who look deeply into antisemitism history know that it’s invented by right wing Europeans and utilized by white supremacy as a middle man, a steam valve, to offer the poor a target.
From a booklet distributed by @DemMaj4Israel at the DNC today, touting 22 years of Kamala Harris' support for Israel, including this bit of her backing the criminal prosecution of Muslim students who interrupted an Israeli government speaker at their school.
@DemMaj4Israel The students prosecuted are referred to as the Irvine 11, who were moved by Israel's 2008-2009 massacres inside Gaza which killed 1500 Palestinians and left 100,000 homeless.
@DemMaj4Israel Here's the amicus brief from lawyers at @theCCR and @jvplive on discriminatory enforcement on the Muslim students, such that had not been seen for other protestors first amendment rights and those who had interrupted even longer.
Kamala's entry to the race affords Democrats not a reset in swing state voter excitement but an opportunity to reset.
An opportunity she can throw away, in whole, by selecting PA Governor Josh Shapiro as her VP.
Here's why. 🧵
White nationalist aligned Republicans use Gaza protests to do what they've dreamt of doing for generations: delegitimize secular higher learning in favor of far right religious dogma.
Democrats have an opportunity to position themselves in contrast by choosing freedom of speech.
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Josh Shapiro did the opposite, and collaborated with GOP strategies to vilify and criminalize free speech by students, even repeating far right talking points against those students, and against the freedom of speech we'll need to fight for democracy.
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