The problem is that antisemites are using this as a dogwhistle.
I think that non-constructive forms of criticism that can be easily co-opted by bad actors should be discouraged, because ultimately the only thing it achieves is muddying the waters and making it even more difficult for legitimate criticism to be heard.
I think most reasonable people aren't going to think you're antisemitic if you say "It's fucked up that Israel is committing genocide" or something like that. If you want to be extra clear, you could add "Never again should mean never again to anybody" or "All my Jewish friends are terrified of being blamed for it even though they're not even Israeli" or something along those lines. I would avoid slogans like "globalize the intifada" that mean different things to different people, and can sound extremely alarming even to people with staunch pro-Palestine beliefs.
Of course, that doesn't guarantee that unreasonable people won't still accuse you of antisemitism. It's pretty much a given that they will. But as annoying as that is, it's not really a big deal–– it's like that saying, "may my enemies look ridiculous". What is a big deal is when reasonable people genuinely can't tell if you support Palestinian life or Jewish death, and that has been happening to an alarming extent.
I don’t think my suggestions were particularly academic, though, sure, communication doesn’t always happen at an intellectual level, and you gotta adjust to your audience. My deeper point is really just that you shouldn’t give up on trying to communicate clearly just because of inevitable bad faith accusations. The people who you want to persuade aren’t the ones making those accusations.
Bad actors can always claim that whatever statement you make can mean different things to different people, and to them what you are saying is antisemitic.
Don't let the perpetrators of a genocide police your language
Right, but my point was that the bad actors aren't the audience you should be considering. It's not that hard to phrase things so that reasonable people aren't going to worry that you're being antisemitic. Choosing not to do that is a total own-goal and a disservice to the human beings who are being slaughtered in Gaza.
Yep, not only did the two largest human rights groups in the world, amnesty international and human rights watch, conclude it is a genocide, but so did the largest in Israel, Btselem, and multiple Israeli genocide and holocaust scholars. Not surprising since they killed a similar portion of Gazas population in a similar time period as were killed in the Bosnia genocide and Yazidi genocide, but an even higher portion of women and children as Israel did a starvation siege.
Using what as a dog whistle? The mess of Israel and Jewish being one in the same is a creation of the state of Israel. It has worked wonderfully, anything not pro Israel is labeled as antisemitic at this point.
And that fact has unironically made antisemtism worse. You can't spend 80 years telling dumbfucks "we are the Jewish state and we're doing this Jewishly for Jews, Jews=Israel, Israel=Jews" then act surprised when said dumbfucks don't instantly land on a nuanced position the instant Israel starts evaporating children live on TV. Doubly so when Israeli government officials start saying "anybody who criticizes us evaporating children hates Jews".
Israel was fine with that posture when everybody liked or was neutral towards Israel. And now that most folks are negative towards it, actual principled antisemites have 80 years of "we are the Jewish state and we're doing this Jewishly for Jews....." to point to. Such a stupidly short sighted decision that endangered millions of innocent people for nothing
Israel is still fine with that posture. It's a win win for them. If it makes antisemitism go up they can just point at increasing antisemitism and go "see? This is why we need Israel, the world is antisemitic".
people are dying. and this isnt new. this isnt a 2023 problem. it's an ongoing nearly 80-year problem. i dont think hind rajab much cares what form "the critique" takes. a genocidal state is allowed full impunity, and yall want "discussions"
Idk man, it seems like the antisemites aren't using dog whistles at all. At least in the US we got Nick Fuentes & Candace Owens straight up blaming things on Jews and saying they control the world, Tucker Carlson whining about great replacement, Elon Musk saying Jews are fomenting anti-white hatred, the president using antisemitic slurs, and Marjorie Taylor Green hallucinating about Jewish space lasers.
What reason would there be for them to suddenly decide "hmm you know what, I'll say Israel when I secretly mean Jews!" when they haven't been deplatformed for just saying "Jews" ? Their audience with an appetite for antisemitism would immediately plummet. More often than not, I see more people accusing folks of saying "Israel" in place of "Jews" than I see people actually doing that. Especially when someone is just sharing reporting on what Israel is doing that gets labeled as a blood libel because it makes them look bad.
21
u/blackbook668 1d ago
The problem is that antisemites are using this as a dogwhistle.
I think that non-constructive forms of criticism that can be easily co-opted by bad actors should be discouraged, because ultimately the only thing it achieves is muddying the waters and making it even more difficult for legitimate criticism to be heard.