AN ASTUTE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMIC ON ANTI-ZIONIST JEWS ****
http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2013/11/he-has-their-measure-australian-jewish.html
Associate Professor Philip Mendes is a left-leaning Aussie Zionist and a much-published historian of the Jewish Left in Australia. I’ve referred to him on this blog before, here.
In an op-ed, entitled “The BDS movement and the opportunistic exploitation of self-denying Jews,” on the website of the ABC, he writes, inter alia:
‘[T]here is little doubt that a Greater Palestine is the ultimate political objective of the international Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel (BDS). Not surprisingly within the BDS movement, the opinions of the small minority of anti-Zionist Jews loom larger than life. For example, Federal Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon has claimed that “many Jewish communities support this work.” In fact, no Jewish communities support the BDS. Similarly, the Mayor of Marrickville, Fiona Byrne, proudly cited support from the NSW Jews against the Occupation group which has about 10 members, and also claimed support from “a growing number of Jews from all over the world.” In fact, the only organized Jewish community group in Marrickville, the Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance which is left-oriented and strongly supportive of a two-state solution, devoted considerable time and resources to opposing the Marrickville BDS proposal during the 2011 NSW State election campaign.
Similarly, BDS campaigner Professor Jake Lynch, head of Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, has responded to accusations of discrimination against Israeli Jews by citing talks at the Centre by anti-Zionist Jews such as Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky as evidence of a non-racist policy. But Lynch is disingenuous in not acknowledging that virtually all the Jews hosted by the Centre have been fanatical anti-Zionists, and that the Centre has specifically excluded any pro-Israel Jews.
Some conservative Jewish commentators label anti-Zionist Jews as “self-hating” Jews in an attempt politically to discredit their arguments. Self-hatred is an alleged psychological condition which involves members of despised low-status racial, religious or sexual minority groups identifying with the values and prejudices of the majority group and internalizing their stereotypes.
But quantifying these views in such psychological terms is arguably problematic…. However, there is evidence that many anti-Zionist Jews have no interest in or knowledge of Jewish history, values and culture. They really don’t care what most Jews say or do. Those whose sole identity is a political one rather than a Jewish one can hardly be accused of self-hatred when they reject something to which they had no attachment in the first place. I personally prefer the term self-denying Jews, since anti-Zionist Jews mostly reject ethnic or cultural connections with the Jewish community, and eschew feelings of solidarity with other Jews who are oppressed or attacked.
So why does the BDS movement highlight the views of this small group of anti-Zionist Jews who are so unrepresentative of collective Jewish opinion? There are two reasons.
The first is a continuation of malevolent historical practice….
The second factor is that the BDS movement attempts to use Jewish anti-Zionists as an alibi against serious accusations of anti-Semitism by arguing that Jews also share their views….’
Read the entire piece (and be amazed at the intemperate comment it’s attracted from Professor Jake Lynch) here
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