Some loss of credibility for protesters against Israel's war on Hamas doesn't mean they're all anti-Semitic [View all]

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/05/drawing-line-where-protests-against.html

There have been arrests, clashes with school security and law enforcement, and some ugly racial incidents, that have marred the image of "peaceful protests." In some cases, pro-Israeli protesters are present, and that increases the possibility of violent clashes. The protests at Columbia, and at UCLA, which got a lot of media attention because they are in New York and Los Angeles, cities that are the focus of negative attention from conservative media sources, were criticized for damage to the building that was occupied, and for a massive amount of trash that was left behind. Reports of some protesters expecting food to be delivered to them helps create an image of the protest that distracts from its intentions.

The far right wing media is just looking for ways to discredit the protesters as a bunch of violent, spoiled liberal children, and to split the Democratic party on this particular issue. That's laughable in light of their defense of the Capitol building's attackers on January 6th, but it's not an excuse to be careless. A lot of the rhetoric starts out with accusations of violence and racism against protesters, so it is vitally important for protests to defy those accusations by keeping order and not letting their protests get to the point where they can be accused of violence or racism.

There have been multiple accusations of anti-Semitism associated with the protests. That comes largely from the influence of right wing Evangelicals who focus on a gross misinterpretation and misapplication of Genesis 12:3 by claiming that anyone who utters a critical word against the modern state of Israel, regardless of what they are doing, is subject to being cursed by God. Criticizing and protesting against a war being carried on by the modern state of Israel does not meet the definition of the term "curse" in Hebrew, written in Genesis, nor do those verses apply at all in any context to the modern political state known as Israel.

It's not hypocritical, or anti-Semitic, to protest against this particular war and the excessive civilian casualties it is producing, as opposed to not protesting the Sudan civil war that is also responsible for a large number of civilian deaths, because those who hear and see these protests have a lot more influence over the Israeli-Hamas war than they do over the others. It's not difficult for a news source looking to prove their point to find anti-Semitic protesters, including radical Muslims for whom the destruction of the Israeli state is a political and religious goal. But it's less difficult to find Islamophobic, racist, hateful agitators and bigots among the far right wing protesters who are taking Israel's side. I'm sure that those who take this seriously wouldn't appreciate being classified or characterized that way.