An anti-Israel group hosted an Orwellian ‘anti-Semitism panel’ that featured speakers who promote boycotts of the Jewish state and spread modern-day blood libels.
On Tuesday, a notorious anti-Israel group hosted an “anti-Semitism panel” that featured speakers who demonize the Jewish state and have repeatedly been accused of anti-Semitism.
“Tell everybody, I don’t hate you. I absolutely love you,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat of Palestinian descent who has pushed the anti-Semitic dual loyalty canard on a number of occasions. Most recently, Tlaib posted a non sequitur referencing Israel after President-elect Joe Biden appointed a Jew, Antony Blinken, to serve as secretary of state.
“So long as [Blinken] doesn’t suppress my First Amendment right to speak out against [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s racist and inhumane policies,” Tlaib tweeted.
A week and a half earlier, she retweeted a post that read “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a popular slogan calling for the elimination of the Jewish state.
The majority of the panel Tlaib joined on Tuesday was not Jewish and included individuals who have used their platforms to slander Israel.
One of them was Marc Lamont Hill, who proudly parroted the “river-to-the-sea” slogan at a 2018 United Nations event in a speech that gained praise from notorious KKK hatemonger David Duke. Hill supports anti-Israel boycotts and has spread modern-day blood libels that Israel “poisons” Palestinian water and “kills” Arab children.
Bari Weiss, who recently resigned from the New York Times over anti-Semitism at the paper, tweeted, “So ‘dismantling anti-Semitism’ is actually about dismantling accusations of anti-Semitism.”
The so-called “anti-Semitism” panel also featured Peter Beinart, who recently called for the end of Israel as a Jewish state.
According to a report by the JTA, panel members claimed anti-Semitism comes primarily from right-wing sources.
Hill, however, admitted in prerecorded comments that he has “hear[d] and see[n] [anti-Semitism] in practice” both “in meetings” and in “literature” in which he “hear[d] the way Jewish people were being smeared,” reported JTA.
Beinart, for his part, asked, “Listen to the folks on this panel and what they said. Do they sound like people who hate Jews to you? Trust your gut.”
Yes, Peter. People who call for the elimination of the only Jewish state in the world and who spread lies about the Jewish people “sound like people who hate Jews.”
