![Sample our Economics, Finance,Business & Industry journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5931/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Economics-Finance-Business-Industry.jpg"})
Abstract
Escalating Israeli state violence against Palestinians in Gaza in the current moment of genocide should serve as a wake-up call for united action, yet the context is fraught. The state of Israel, a settler colonial and occupying power over Palestinians, is simultaneously presented as a safe haven for Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, and Jews internationally. We ask how a united movement that counters both anti-Palestinian racism and antisemitism can be advanced. An analytic of praxis starts by naming anti-Palestinian racism and recognizing antisemitism as anti-Jewish racism.
Acknowledgements
This article is jointly and equally written by the co-authors. Some sections are drawn from our article “Antisemitism as Anti-Jewish Racism: Reflections on an Anti-Racist Analytic” (forthcoming 2024, Historical Materialism), as well as other writings, as cited in the article.
About the authors
Abigail B. Bakan teaches in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is also cross appointed in the Department of Political Science and is an affiliate with the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Yasmeen Abu-Laban teaches in the Department of Political Science and is Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Citizenship and Human Rights at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Notes
1 Ahmad, Cultural Politics of Emotion.
2 See for example: Elassar, “‘Not In Our Name’”; Rocco and Carty, “Protest Held at Toronto’s Union Station.”
3 In Radical Empathy, political scientist Terri Givens addresses racial divides in the United States and makes the case that radical empathy is based on six steps: willingness to be vulnerable, being grounded in who you are, being open to the experiences of others, practicing empathy, taking action, and creating change and building trust.
4 Hill and Plitnick, Except for Palestine.
5 Palestinian BDS National Committee, “Palestinian Civil Society.”
6 Palestinian BDS National Committee, “Palestinian Civil Society.”
7 Abu-Laban and Bakan, Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race.
8 Abu-Laban and Bakan, Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race, 13.
9 See Bakan and Abu-Laban, “Palestinian Resistance and International Solidarity”; Nastovski, “Workers Confront Apartheid.”
10 Abu-Laban and Bakan, Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race.
11 Gould, “IHRA Definition of Antisemitism.”
12 ELSC, “Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy,” 21–22.
13 CAUT, “CAUT Members Reject.”
14 Nestel and Gaudet, “Unveiling the Chilly Climate.”
15 Burke, “Hamas Releases Third Group of Hostages.”
16 Shakir, “Why Does Israel Have So Many Palestinians in Detention?”
17 Pappe, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine; Abu-Laban, “Re-defining the International Refugee Regime,” 310–21.
18 Khalidi, Hundred Years’ War on Palestine.
19 Engels, Anti-Dühring.
20 UN OHCHR Press Release, “Gaza: UN Experts Call to Prevent Genocide”; Corder, “South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel”; Mokhiber, Letter to UN High Commissioner.
21 See Nadeau and Sears, “Palestine Test,” 7–33; and in the current context, Basu, “Chilling Effect.”
22 While data on these trends are contested—especially regarding what is and is not counted particularly as “antisemitism”—the rise of overtly Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents and discourse in Europe and North America is evident. See Braunschweiger et al., “Interview”; Frenkel and Myers, “Antisemitic and Anti-Muslim Hate Speech”; and Ramzy, “‘No One’s Experienced Something Like This.’” On issues of data collection on antisemitism see Nestel, “Use and Misuse of Antisemitism Statistics.”
23 See Jokic, “Cultivating the Soil of White Nationalism”; Lavin, Culture Warlords; Gillies, “Canada is No Exception.”
24 Said, Orientalism.
25 Abu-Laban and Bakan, “Anti-Palestinian Racism and Racial Gaslighting.”
26 Bakan and Abu-Laban, “Israel/Palestine Conflict and the Challenge of Anti-Racism.”
27 Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, Anti-Palestinian Racism.
28 Abu-Laban and Bakan, “Anti-Palestinian Racism: Analyzing the Unnamed.”
29 Abu-Laban and Bakan, “Anti-Palestinian Racism and Racial Gaslighting,” 508–16.
30 See CJPME, “Anti-Palestinian Racism in Canada”; and ACLA, Anti-Palestinian Racism.
31 Abu-Lughod and Sa’di, “Introduction.”
32 Khalidi, Hundred Years’ War on Palestine.
33 Human Rights Watch, Threshold Crossed; Amnesty International, Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians.
34 Abu-Laban and Bakan, “Anti-Palestinian Racism and Racial Gaslighting,” 512–14.
35 These are organizations committed to defending Palestinian human rights: Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Al-Haq Law in the Service of Man; Defense for Children International – Palestine; the Union of Agricultural Work Committees; Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.
36 Amnesty International, “Israel/OPT.”
37 See Israel, Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy, Terrorists in Suits.
38 See Bakan and Abu-Laban, “Palestinian Resistance and International Solidarity.”
39 UN OHCHR, “Speaking Out on Gaza/Israel.”
40 Guyer and Perkins, “ADL Staff Decry ‘Dishonest’ Campaign.”
41 Lerman, Whatever Happened to Antisemitism?
42 Langmuir, Toward a Definition of Antisemitism, 311; Zimmerman, Wilhelm Marr.
43 Arendt, “Race-thinking Before Racism.”
44 Abu-Laban and Bakan, Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race, 60–61.
45 See Postone, “History and Helplessness”; Webman, “Challenge of Assessing Arab/Islamic Antisemitism.”
46 Schroeter, “‘Islamic Anti-Semitism,’” 1188.
47 Bakan, “Race, Class and Colonialism,” 258–61.
48 Goldman, God’s Country; Dart, “Bible Belt in BC.”
49 Herzl, Jewish State.
50 Begley, Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters.
51 Ofer, “Dual Perspective.”
52 Reiter, Future Without Hate or Need.
53 Traverso, End of Jewish Modernity, 31.
54 Bakan, “Race, Class and Colonialism”; McGeever, Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution; Kellogg, Truth Behind Bars, 262–64.
55 See Boyarin, No-State Solution, 33–34; Tracy, “Is Israel Part of What it Means to be Jewish?”
56 Bowman, “Place for Palestinians in the Altneuland.”
57 Bhandar, Colonial Lives of Property.
58 Herzl, Jewish State, 87.
59 Shohat, “Rupture and Return.”
60 Traverso, End of Jewish Modernity, 8.
61 See Reiter, Future Without Hate or Need; Traverso, Jewish Question.
62 See Abella and Troper, None is Too Many; Bakan, “When the State Says ‘Sorry.’”
63 See Lentin, Israel and the Daughters of the Shoah; Wolfe, Traces of History.
64 Pappe, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
65 Among these currents are: Jews Say No to Genocide; National Jewish Coalition for Immediate Ceasefire; Independent Jewish Voices; Jewish Faculty Network; United Jewish People’s Order; If Not Now; Not in Our Name; and Jewish Voice for Peace.
66 Said, Question of Palestine; Bashir and Goldberg, Holocaust and the Nakba.
67 Boyarin and Boyarin, Jews and Other Differences.
68 Lipton, “What’s in a Nose?”
69 Said, Question of Palestine, 53.