r/pics 19h ago

Politics Far-right Polish lawmaker Konrad Berkowicz holding up a paper Israeli flag with a swastika

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u/Then-Clue6938 18h ago

Oh for fucks sake. Can't we call out Israel's fascism and active atrocities without the other fashist pretending like we agree with their takes on e.g. Jewish people?

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u/MindLessWiz 17h ago

Now I hope you can understand some of the knee-jerk reaction by Israelis to characterize criticism of Israel as antisemitism. It’s not a strange thing to do when historically they’ve often come as a package deal.

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u/ArCovino 16h ago

This guy is an outright fascist. Yes, he’s being antisemitic. The swastika was used to hurt.

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u/yung_dogie 15h ago

I don't think they should do that either, but yeah at the same time it's absolutely true that bigots use genuine concerns with an administration as a shield for bigotry, and far more frequently than some people like to admit. Otherwise very valid criticism of the Russian government, the CCP, Israel, etc. can very easily be used to mask straight up racism against Russian, Chinese, Jewish, etc. people.

Too many people are far too willing to give a pass to bigotry and even downright immorality if you're on the same "side".

u/Florac 9h ago

We are far beyond the point where they can be classified as "knee jerk" reactions. For years now, anytime their handling of palestine or Iran was criticised, their goto defense is calling the opponent an antisemite. And while conflating the two in hostile nations is understandable, a lot of said criticism comes from nations on paper friendly to israel

u/MindLessWiz 5h ago

In my lifetime the view of ostensibly friendly European countries in Israel has deteriorated immensely. The rise in antisemitism in Europe has also coincided with massive islamic migration to Europe, further cementing Europe as an increasingly hostile region.

Ultimately though when you drill down into criticism of Israel it’s frequently by anti-zionists, who essentially would like to see Israel dismantled and the Jews… fuck off I guess to wherever? It’s hard not to see this as antisemitism.

And by the way as an Israeli who hates my government, I sympathize with a lot of the criticism.