Amid a highly hostile atmosphere, Jewish voices are silenced due to anti-Zionist narratives.
When Labour official Vivien Burke’s social media account was exposed, it turned out that besides having a strong focus on Israel, claims that „no one is allowed to criticise Israel” appeared, with Burke blaming her imaginary silencing on „a very powerful smearing machine,” which is a claim widely used by antisemites. However, the people who are being silenced are not the people Burke is referring to.
Silencing Jews has been a particular success of anti-Zionist ideology, which neither helps Palestinians nor puts pressure on Israel to make reforms. It merely silences reasonable voices and rational criticism.
Numerous things raise concerns and need voicing. Things are being said and done that miraculously escape the censor. Whatever it does, the State of Israel is seen as evil. First, there is the idea of the „hate washers.” These are people for whom Israel can only ever pretend to do good things so that it can secretly do evil, selfish things. Following Israel’s immediate aid to the victims of the earthquake affecting Kurdish regions, conspiracy fantasies emerged that Israel was somehow responsible for the death toll, orchestrating events to improve their image on the international stage by rescuing people.
Moreover, according to the report of The Jewish Chronicle, the positive effects of liberal values in Israel are frequently depicted as a devious lie. The Radiohead concert in Israel was labelled „art washing,” the beverage industry „wine washing,” and a cycling competition „sport washing.” Rights for gay people have been called „pink washing,” rights for women „purple washing,” ecological efforts „green washing” and veganism „vegan washing.”
These approaches mean that everything Israel does can be interpreted as immoral or wicked.
Then there are the straightforward hypocrites, with the latest decision of Barcelona’s mayor to cancel the twinning of Barcelona with Tel Aviv, citing Israeli human rights violations. At the same time, it remained in twinning arrangements with Russia, China and Iran.
There is a permanent inquisition against Israel at the UN. Breaking their own rules for impartiality, the commissioners have records of extreme anti-Israel positions and antisemitism. The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) includes regimes with the worst rights records, like China, which enjoys immunity while obsessively condemning Israel.
So, in reality, the ones being silenced are those who defend themselves from anti-Jewish hatred — mainly Jewish people in the diaspora.
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