We need to get better at rebuking Israeli politics without promoting antisemitism.
In addition to the ethnic erasure that occurs when all Jews are lumped into the category of white, this latest round of hatred directed at Israel erases the fact that millions of Jews around the world, including as many as half of those in Israel, are NOT white.
Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews have faced persecution for millennia – and this latest round of anti-Zionist fervor has all but erased their existence from many of our minds.
Let me be clear, the Israeli government’s genocidal rampage against Gaza is unacceptable, but advocating for the destruction of the livelihood of millions of Jews in Israel is not a solution rooted in social justice. Palestinian liberation will not succeed if it is predicated on fear, ignorance, hatred, and vengeance.
We must become better at criticizing Israel without amplifying hatred toward Jews and equating Judaism with colonialism.
