The author Ehud Olmert
is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a cabinet minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006. [source: Wikipedia]
The author Ehud Olmert
is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a cabinet minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006. [source: Wikipedia]
But they don’t. There’s Jewish voice for peace, there’s Norman Finkelstein, Code Pink, and so on. Countless Jews oppose settler colonial Zionism, and many more oppose the genocide. Do not fall for the lie that Israel and Judaism are the same thing.
I don’t fault you for thinking what you do though. The propaganda that tries to equate antizionism to anti-Semitism is incredibly insidious and convincing. A German Christian man gets murdered for collaborating with this genocidal state, and all mass media outlets call it antisemitism. The planes that drop the bombs that have murdered tens of thousands of children have the star of David painted on them. The moment anyone criticizes Israel, immediately folks bring up the Holocaust as a counterargument. What are people supposed to think? Everything is geared towards making people believe Jews are Israel and Israel is Jews.
I recently saw a photo of a hand drawn picture here on lemmy protesting the genocide. It was very heartfelt and nice. I don’t fully recall, but it had a girl in a Hijab in the center holding hands with people next to her, and it said things like “not in our name”, and 'stop the genocide". Along the center of the picture, they had drawn stars of David. And my immediate gut reaction was to think that this was incredibly distasteful; it was like drawing swastikas on a picture remembering the Holocaust. I had completely forgotten that the star of David is a religious symbol, and that it is not owned by the Israeli state. The propaganda has worked on me too, and I know better.
The person who had drawn this was convinced that the genocide was wrong based on her Jewish identity. Her religious beliefs told her that what Israel is doing is wrong. And my instinctive reaction on seeing a symbol indicating this was disgust. I felt so ashamed when I recognized what I was feeling. This is what people mean when they say Zionism breeds antisemitism. This is what people mean when they say Zionism makes the world less safe for Jews. An entire generation is growing up watching a livestreamed genocide, and CNN, Fox News, all politicians, the entire nation of Israel are all telling them “this is what Jews want”. How could they not grow up to be antisemites?
Your comment is incorrect and immoral. But I hope the mods keep it up as an illustration of what Israel has really done for Jews after all these years.
Not to detract from anything you said, but the swastika is also a religious symbol. The fact today, some 80 years after the Holocaust, it is still viewed visourally as a Nazi symbol does not bode well for us.
Well I for one (not GP) am actually quite glad that it is literally illegal to publicly display here in Germany, especially with the current political climate going on here and elsewhere. You want to just out yourself as a Nazi? Okay, off to prison you go. That’s good. AFAIK there are exemptions for temples and such, e.g. for artistic uses like Games, some Wolfenstein games replaced swastikas in the German release because nobody was sure if that’s legal.
I don’t think it is actually illegal to display in any country that has a lot of people using it religiously, but yeah it’s a sad fact that it still has to be illegal in so many places such a long time later.
I was talking about perception, not legality.
I’m Jewish. The taboo around the swastika does not negatively effect me. If the local Indian restaraunt were to redecorate and adorn their walls with swasitkas, I would stop going there. If I saw someone I didn’t know whereing a swasitka necklace, I would avoid them.
I do, however, have enough empathy to recognize that this situation must suck for Hindus, Jains, or any other group for which that symbol has significance.
I also have the capacity to imagine a world where the same exact thing happens to the star of David. One where I cannot go outside whereing it on a necklace. One where we need to censor any artwork or buildings that might be viewed by the general public, lest they misinterpret the symbol. One where Jewish establishments are avoided or vandalized because people see the Star of David and interpret it as a declaration of support for Israel. Or, worse, as a declaration of hate for Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, or whatever other group the state of Israel gets into a fight with.
This is not some crazy hypothetical. The star of David is the iconic aspect of the Isreali flag; just like the swastika is the iconic aspect of the Nazi flag. There is a massive and media savy coalition devoted conflating Judism and Israel. A coalition that includes both pro-Israel members, and anti-Semitic members. In this very thread, just 3 posted my parent, we have someone openly admitting to doing this. I have a friend still in collage who has stopped wearing anything with the star of David on it. He has not taken down the Mezuzah from his dorm room door. He has not stopped wearing a kippah. The only symbol of Judism that has been causing him issues is the one plastered on the Israeli flag.