O pinion
Trail of Misinformation Aims to Divide Supporters of Israel
and of Social Justice
BY LAURA FRANK
THE JEWISH communities’
participation in the racial
reckoning undertaken by
our nation over the past year
may be the most important
social justice work we’ve done
in the last half century. Since
the deaths of George Floyd
and Breonna Taylor, Jewish
communities, like so many
others, have worked to under-
stand the racism baked into
our society and pledged to use
our power to make our country
more equitable. We’ve joined
with other communities across
our region to demand justice
and opportunity for all and
have forged new friendships
and strengthened old alliances.

This past month, however,
we’ve watched many of these
relationships and partner-
ships deteriorate, or crumble
altogether. It has been upset-
ting and painful to see many of
our domestic allies and friends
openly embrace anti-Israel,
and increasingly anti-Jewish,
platforms on social media and
in public spaces. Watching
their hateful words spiral into
overt acts of violence and
targeted aggression against
Jewish Americans was an
entirely predictable and avoid-
able consequence.

I’ve been engaged in Jewish
advocacy long enough to know
that the anti-Zionist movement
never misses an opportunity to
use the conflict to attack Israel.

So, when Hamas began raining
rockets down on Israeli civilian
populations, it was foreseeable
that propaganda against Jews
would quickly follow.

Since Israel’s creation, its
enemies’ efforts have moved
from war and invasion to
delegitimization and boycotts.

For years, American Jews have
often faced “litmus tests,”
in which they must publicly
renounce Zionism in order
to participate in progressive
activities and movements such
as the Women’s March. But in
followers. It’s clear that it is
now incumbent upon Jewish
Americans, and our allies,
to confront and correct the
lies and falsehoods in order
to defuse this new spread of
antisemitism. One such piece of propa-
ganda, designed to draw
parallels to European colonizers
who sought to evict people of
color from their lands in Africa
and the Americas, is that
Israel is a settler colonial state
committing ethnic cleansing
against the Palestinians. Jews
originated in Israel, and have
remained there in some form
ever since. The Jews did not
return to their homeland to
colonize, but instead to save
themselves from aggressions
and evictions across Europe
Most distressing of all is that these reactions have been spurred on
due to a stunning failure of community activists and political leaders to
adequately equate their words with the actions of their followers. It’s
clear that it is now incumbent upon Jewish Americans, and our allies,
to confront and correct the lies and falsehoods.

the past few weeks, anti-Israel
misinformation and distortion
have escalated in the public
discourse and the media,
which has helped fuel an over
400% increase in antisemitic
activities. Most distressing of all is
that these reactions have been
spurred on due to a stunning
failure of community activ-
ists and political leaders to
adequately equate their words
with the actions of their
and the Middle East. In fact,
only 31% of Israeli citizens are
of European descent at all.

As to the establishment
of the state of Israel in 1948,
Israel was created pursuant to
the UN’s plan for a two-state
solution. While the Arab
residents who fled Israel
became refugees, the nearly
150,000 who remained became
Israeli citizens. Today, Arabs
comprise more than 22% of
Israel’s population and hold
Correction an example of their superior
power. But this argument fails
to address why those defense
systems are necessary. Israel,
more than any other country
in the world, has faced repeated
attacks from its neighbors
and terrorist organizations
that reside among them. Not
surprisingly, Israel has invested
heavily in defense systems and
security measures to protect
its citizens, as all sovereign
nations are entitled and have
an obligation to do.

Finally, another pervasive
argument is that Zionism is
racism. Zionism rests on the
belief that Jews, like any other
peoples, should be allowed to
self-govern within the land
in which they are indigenous.

But Zionism was never about
having an exclusively Jewish
state, in which persons who
pursued other faiths would
not be allowed to live, worship
freely or have equal rights. The
goal of those equating Zionism
and racism is not to improve
the situation of people of color
in the land of Israel, but rather
to deny the Jewish people their
right to self-determination and
their indisputable ties to that
land. This isn’t to say that all those
who participated in anti-Is-
rael demonstrations in recent
weeks are antisemitic. In fact,
it’s safe to assume that most
are not. But what is clear is that
bad faith actors, whose intent is
to annihilate the state of Israel,
are now seeking to build walls
between Jewish advocates for
Israel and their allies in the
fight for racial justice here in
the United States.

Jews have always been at the
forefront of the fight for human
rights and social justice. Israel
was built on these very princi-
ples. We must consistently
contest anti-Zionist misinfor-
mation, as we continue to fight
for an equal and just society for
all here in the United States. l
Laura Frank is the director of the
Jewish Community Relations
Council of the Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia.

STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
In the article “Attorney, Israel Fundraiser Herbert Kolsby Dies at 94” in the May 20 issue,
Kolsby’s name was misspelled in the captions.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM high levels of employment in
the government and the IDF.

Israel has repeatedly sought
to negotiate an end to the
hostilities so that Jews and
Palestinians might live side-by-
side in peace. But Palestinian
leadership has rejected offers
of statehood at least seven
times since 1948. In the name
of peace-building, Israel has
handed the Sinai Peninsula
to Egypt and later the Gaza
Strip to the Palestinians, which
resulted in a brutal takeover
from Hamas. This resulted in
hundreds of deaths of both
Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

Another argument paints
the Palestinian people as the
oppressed and Israel as the
oppressor, pointing to Israel’s
powerful defense systems as
JEWISH EXPONENT
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published. JUNE 3, 2021
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