Saturday 6 June 2020

As Jews, we’ll never address racism while clinging to Zionism

MY LATEST BLOG POST: "AS JEWS, WE'LL NEVER ADRESS RACISM WHILE WE CLING TO ZIONISM"

A reflection on some of the responses to the murder of George Floyd from the Jewish community and its lack of self-awarness on issues of racism.

Extract:
It’s impossible for even liberal Jewish supporters of Israel to recognise the structural and institutional racism they inhabit while they cling to the idea that only an exclusive Jewish sovereignty in Israel/Palestine can guarantee Jewish security. The longer this idea is treated as a universal law of nature rather than a sorely overrated political ideology, the longer it will take to recognise and then shed a racist mind set.
While America has spent decades struggling to acknowledge and rectify its past, Israeli Jewish society remains locked in a state of denial, with no hint of even beginning the struggle to re-evaluate its foundational stories. The same goes for the communities around the world who’ve placed Israel and Zionism at the centre of their Jewish identities. And that means the racism goes on, hard wired into Jewish institutions and culture around the world.
Until we drop Zionism as the lens through which we see the world, and our place within it, we will not understand why our project of national liberation has been, and remains, a racist endeavour for another people.
Read the full post at Patheos