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| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Over 200 scholars say backing Israel boycotts is not anti-Semitic |
| 2021-03-27 |
| [IsraelTimes] International group of researchers in Jewish-related fields releases new definition of anti-Semtism in pushback against moves to define BDS campaigns as anti-Jewish. A group of over 200 scholars has released a definition of anti-Semitism that explicitly excludes efforts to boycott Israel — the latest pushback against a campaign by a number of establishment Jewish groups to label boycotts campaigns against Israel as anti-Semitic. The Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism released Thursday comes just over a week after a separate statement by a liberal group of Jewish scholars said that double standards applied to Israel were not necessarily anti-Semitic. The Jerusalem Declaration goes further than the earlier declaration by the Nexus Task Force in explicitly saying that the movement to boycott Israel is not in and of itself anti-Semitic. “Boycott, divestment, and sanctions are commonplace, non-violent forms of political protest against states,” according to the Jerusalem Declaration, which was signed by scholars in the fields of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, Jewish thought, Israel and other disciplines. “In the Israeli case, they are not, in and of themselves, anti-Semitic.” Both statements seek to push back a bid by a number of mainstream Jewish groups to have state and national governments adopt the 2016 definition crafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The most controversial component of the IHRA definition defines as anti-Semitic “Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” The Jerusalem Declaration, so named because it is the initiative of a group of scholars who came together in 2020 under the auspices of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, makes clear that it was spurred in part by objections to the IHRA definition. “Because the IHRA Definition is unclear in key respects and widely open to different interpretations, it has caused confusion and generated controversy, hence weakening the fight against antisemitism,” the declaration says. Among the signatories to the Jerusalem Declaration are well-known critics of current Israeli policies, including Ian Lustick of the University of Pennsylvania, and the writer Peter Beinart, as well as others in the mainstream of modern Jewish scholarship, including Susannah Heschel, the chairwoman of the Jewish studies program at Dartmouth; A.B. Yehoshua, the Israeli novelist; and Dov Waxman, the chairman of Israel studies at UCLA. Among the declaration’s lead drafters are anti-Semitism scholars in the United States, Israel, Germany and Britain. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #6 Sadly, apartheid (the only Afri word many people know) has become a four letter word. American Indian reservation have become sacred territories, and rightly so. What would have been the alternative, whole scale slaughter and extinction. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2021-03-27 15:18 |
| #5 A group of over 200 |
| Posted by: Amoco Shrines4883 2021-03-27 14:42 |
| #4 If the BDSers do the same to all the other countries that do the things they accuse Israel of, and worse, then it is not Jew-hatred. However, since none of them do so, Jew-haters is what they are. Insisting that discrimination only against Israel with the intention of destroying the only Jewish nation is not discrimination? The answer is left as an exercise for Woodrow Glinemp4761. End the apartheid and these programs will quickly disappear. Israel has long had Arab Muslims and Arab Christians as teachers in public schools, IDF generals, supreme court judges, and members of not only the Knesset but members of the cabinet. Ethiopian Jews and Arab represent Israel in international beauty pageants and music competitions. Cities are so integrated that Tel Aviv has its own chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood. If this is apartheid, Chock Unusock9099, those juices have never done it right. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2021-03-27 14:23 |
| #3 Wow!!! 200 out of over several million scholars worldwide. Yep! Thats a sure sign the wind is against Israel. |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2021-03-27 08:04 |
| #2 End the apartheid and these programs will quickly disappear. |
| Posted by: Chock Unusock9099 2021-03-27 07:03 |
| #1 Jewish supremacy (analog of "white supremacy"). |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-03-27 06:06 |