We must stop U.S. support for Israel's genocide.
Understanding and dismantling antisemitism.
As Jews dedicated to the liberation of all people, we’ve always devoted significant time to understanding and dismantling antisemitism. We even wrote a book about it.
At this time of heightened crisis, it can be hard to understand where the threats are, how to stay safe, and how to resist right-wing attacks. So we worked with our partners at PARCEO resource and education center to put together a brief explainer: “On Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism and Dangerous Conflations.”
But in past years, anti-Palestinian organizations have introduced a controversial and dangerous definition of antisemitism — one that conflates antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel.
As the Israeli military carries out a genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, right-wing groups in the U.S. are exploiting fears of rising antisemitism to shut down even the most basic demands for an end to the bloodshed.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has even gone so far as to include dozens of Jewish-led protests for a ceasefire as part of its documentation on rising antisemitism. After JVP and other groups led a sit-in inside a Capitol building last month — part of the largest Jewish-led protest in solidarity with Palestinians in U.S. history — ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called us a “hate group” and the “photo inverse of white supremacists.”
Conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism puts anyone standing up for Palestinian rights at risk of losing their livelihoods, being harassed, doxxed, or worse. It forces Palestinians to choose between accepting their dispossession or being labeled a bigot. And it obscures our ability to understand and combat real antisemitism. Every time the specter of antisemitism is leveled against critics of the Israeli state, it takes attention away from the actual violence and bigotry that is antisemitism.
That’s why one of our most important tasks as Jews in this movement is to combat false, dangerous accusations of antisemitism against our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim comrades in particular. We do so by rejecting the false conflations from organizations like the ADL, and by continuing to build an intersectional, multiracial, intergenerational movement of Jews and allies fighting for Palestinian liberation.
Tell Columbia: Reinstate JVP and SJP.
Students on campuses across the country are under attack by the same right-wing forces seeking to delegitimize our national organizing.
Write to the Columbia administration to demand that they immediately reinstate the student chapters of JVP and Students for Justice in Palestine.
Keep up the pressure on Congress.
This week, Palestinians from Gaza and the U.S. sued President Biden and other top U.S. officials to end U.S. support for Israel’s unfolding genocide against them, their families, and the Palestinian people.
Use this tool developed by our sibling organization, JVP Action, to call Congress now and demand an end to U.S. complicity in genocide. You can’t call too many times.
Power Hours: Collective action every day.
Each day, hundreds of people are taking collective action to demand a ceasefire at JVP’s Power Half-Hours for Gaza.
The same link will work every day, Monday through Friday, at 3pm ET/12pm PT.
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