Does Zionism and its treatment of Palestinians pass the racism test? No, hence BDS. No doubt others who regard Israel's treatment of Palestinians as apartheid, like Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, the Council of South African Trade Unions, (all of whom know a thing or two about apartheid) are racists too. This article is fantasy stuff seeking refuge in slurs to defend the inherent racism of Zionism and its apartheid practices against Palestinians.

Were we wrong to campaign against South African apartheid (with which, I note, Israel had close links) and implement the equivalent of BDS then? Were we racist in doing that? Of course not, just as we are not today in pointing out the apartheid state that is Israel.

"the Nazis or the Spanish Inquisition. These analogies merely illustrate the age-old anti-Jewish imagery employed by the BDS movement in general and CPACS in particular"

I couldn't see anything in the article to justify this statement. The nearest I could find related to alleged statements by Jake Lynch, CPACS director. And the link in the article, which looked as though it would be a link to further details of what he had said, was a link to an article about what he was alleged to have said, with no direct quotes or further links.

What is is with OLO contributors? Are you writing only for readers stupid enough that you can be sure they don't want further particulars, verification, etc, of what you say? Or do you seriously not want readers to follow up on such details? As it is, I've no real idea what Lynch said.

The point about Morocco and the Spanish Sahara is worth making. Personally I am much more horrified about Israel's conduct than that of Morocco because
(1) I don't know why the Spanish Sahara gets so much less publicity than Palestine, but possibly the reasons also mean it is genuinely less to be horrified about
(2) The fact that our own Government (and even more so, our allies in the west generally) so strongly support Israel makes it more topical for us here than the situation of Morocco
(3) There's certainly no suggestion that the Moroccan government is carving up the Spanish Sahara into chunks and excluding the local people from large parts of it, as is happening in Palestine.

None of which has anything to do with racism. In fact, if racism (as n distinguishing between Jews and non-Jews) is an issue, it's even more of a reason for focussing on Israel - exclusion of Palestinians because they are not Jews is pretty much the reason for my strong opposition to Israel and its policies.

just a note Daniel. The Jews did hand the Christ over to be murdered and called for his blood to be upon them. They are however no more guilty than any other sinners like you and me. He (Christ) could of escaped the cross anytime He chose. Instead He offered His life as a sacrifice.

Passy
All Israeli citizens, Jewish and non-Jewish, are entitled to vote in elections. There have been Arabs in every Knesset since Israel was established. That’s quite a big difference from apartheid South Africa.

Using anti-zionism as a cover for anti-Jewish racism is an old ploy, and one used as much by the left as the right:

http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/4363/full

My main objection to the BDS movement is that it has only one main target. Israel has a lot to answer for, but its human rights record is not the worst in the world, or indeed the Middle East. The accusation of anti-Jewish racism will carry weight until BDS advocates can explain why Israel is deserves such treatment while North Korea, Syria, Libya, Sudan, China, Saudi Arabia, Burma, Uzbekistan, Eritrea etc. do not

In answer to Passy ...part 1

I really suggest that you look up what apartheid is and South African Apartheid if you think there is any comparison.

Khaled Abu Toameh, who is an Israeli Arab journalist will tell you no such condition exists in Israel. He says he lives in Jerusalem in a Jewish neighbourhood, his children attend a school with Jewish children, he works for an Israeli publication. He gets treatment in hospital and more. And that is not apartheid.

In SA the black people were not even permitted to drink out of the same water bubbler as a white person. They certainly couldn't attend a higher institute of learning. they had no rights, they didn't have the vote and were beaten for no reason when the whites felt like it.

In Israel. Arabs have the vote. There have been Arabs in the Knesset - parliament, since the very first one in 1949.

There are Arab Judges, Arab Foreign Ambassadors, Arabs in every occupation imaginable. In fact two days ago an Arab was 2nd in Master Chef in Israel.
I was at Tel Aviv University last year and was amazed at the high number of Arab students. I sat in McDonald's on Tel Aviv beach and chatted. On a number of occasions I had Arab taxi drivers. My nephew had a Arab do the painting in his house.

That is not apartheid.

In answer to Passy part 2

Arabs as citizens can buy houses wherever they please (there are Arab minorities in the predominately Jewish cities of Acre, Ramle, Jaffa, Carmiel, Safed and Netanya but there is not one Jew living in any Arab town or village in the entire country!

Believe it or not! The reason is simple. Any Jew moving into an Arab town is assured that his house will be set alight the very same night. This is the fate of several Jews who bought houses in the Druze village of Peki’in. Their houses were destroyed, they barely survived, a riot ensured, the locals kidnapped a policewoman for several hours until calm was finally returned to the village.

This in a village famous for its hospitality to Jews -- as long as they remain guests and not residents. That is the apartheid in Israel!

Anyone visiting Israel knows this is true. It’s also true that in Judea and Samaria, the heart of ancient Israel , the local Arabs decided in 1967 to be called “Palestinians”.

That no one saw them as a separate people before 1967 is irrelevant. That they have no unique national history, religion or customs is also irrelevant. That only two countries ever recognised the territory as belonging to Jordan or to any other Arab state is also irrelevant.

The new “Palestinian” dogma became: the Jews conquered the land, so we, the new Palestinians want it back (but you never had it in the first place!)

Jeremy:

Actually, what Morocco is doing is far worse than Israel in many ways. Israel actually recognises that the Palestinians have a right to at least most of the West Bank and Gaza. Whatever land grabs Israel is accused of making at least, the Palestinian Authority independently governs about a fifth of the West Bank and all of Gaza is under Palestinian governance.

On the other hand, Morocco completely rejects that the Saharawis have any right at all to govern in the West Sahara. As far as it is concerned, the West Sahara is Moroccan and that's the end of the discussion.

If you want to know why we hear about the Saharawis less than the Palestinians, really it's the same reasons why we don't hear about most oppressed people in the world – like the Uighurs, the Tibetans, the Darfuris, the Nubans, the Eritreans, the Hazara, etc.

For one thing, reporting on those people is risky business. There are thousands of journalists in Jerusalem, because it's not a bad place to live really and your life is definitely not at risk. Journalists in the West Sahara who don't toe the Moroccan government's line have a nasty habit of being beaten-up and imprisoned.

Also, Israel/Palestine is in a very strategic place – it's more or less the land bridge from Africa to Asia, and it is in the epicentre of the world's energy supplies. That means people pay attention to what's going on there. The Saharawi live in an obscure corner of a dessert that nobody pays much attention to.

Plus, the Palestinians have the huge benefit of being supported by the Arab League, which gives them a giant leg-up onto the international stage. The Saharawi have no significant support from any world leaders.

And finally, you can't rule-out the old Orientalism. Arab Muslims oppressing Arabic-speaking Muslims doesn't get much attention as everyone expects Arabs to kill each other like savages, whereas Jews are not allowed to put one foot wrong.

Don't look for logic or principles in Anti Racism, anti Racists are bad people albeit people who are seemingly able to live with the contradictions and double standards inherent in such a position.
In the mind of an Anti Racist it's perfectly acceptable to be virulently anti Semitic, anti Chinese or anti White as long as the end result is the elimination of "prejudice"...as I said, don't look for the logic in it, it's "Do as we say, not as we do!".

Oh, jeeeez!

Not another one, is David Singer on vacation?

The author is correct in pointing out that Israel tends to get singled out for its behaviour more often than other like minded human rights abusers. I myself find Israeli behaviour reprehensible and I know that it is not racism that motivates me. I do not like or dislike Jews any more or less than any other race of people. I suspect most other critics of Israeli policy are in the same position as myself.
My reasons for paying more attention to Israeli crimes than those of other odious regimes are as follows.
Firstly, Israel considers itself a "western nation" and a democracy. They constantly claim to be the only real democracy in the middle east.
When Israel behaves badly which it constantly does, this reflects on all western nations and all democracies, proving to the world the Western style democracy is no better than any other tyrannical form of government.
Secondly, our Australian government constantly allies itself with Israel. Israel was "honoured" in our federal parliament on the 60th anniversary of its founding. We do not honour other tyrannical regimes. This gives the impression that we in Australia are in cahoots with Israel and approve of their actions. Whilst our government may be willing to turn a blind eye to Israeli behaviour, I do not want the world to think the average Australian supports it.
Thirdly, it simply sickens me when the oppressor portrays itself as the victim. The total lack of honesty by the government of Israel and its supporters, plus the constant cries of antisemitism whenever their more egregious crimes are pointed out, forces me to respond.

Rhys Jones

I suggest you pay a visit to Israel, because all your preconceived ideas will vanish.

Israel is not an oppressor and the idea of Israel being a 'tyrannical regime" is the best laugh I've had in a while

Rhys,
Anti Racism = Anti Survival.
"Racism" is a group survival mechanism, if you are opposed to Jewish ethnocentrism you are therefore opposed to their survival as a distinctive and cohesive group. You'll notice that Anti Racists only crawl out from under their rocks when specific groups are displaying ethnocentric,ie "Racist" behaviour, Jews, Chinese, Europeans, the three groups who have the most to offer the world, that tells you all you need to know about "Anti Racists", they're nasty, jealous, weedy little people who in a normal society would be booted of the tribe and left to fend for themselves.

Mr Meyerowitz-Katz,

Throughout history few people have ever said "I hate Jews for no rational reason." Every generation of Jew haters has its rationalisations. Jews are Christ-killers. Jews poisoned the wells causing the plague. Jews are engaged in a plot to enslave humanity as described in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Tragically every generation has believed its rationalisation – believed it passionately. Here is Martin Luther on one of his obsessions:

>>I have read and heard many stories about the Jews … how they have poisoned wells, made assassinations, kidnaped children, as related before. … For their kidnaping of children they have often been burned at the stake or banished (as we already heard). I am well aware that they deny all of this. However, it all coincides with the judgment of Christ which declares that they are venomous, bitter, vindictive, tricky serpents, assassins, and children of the devil who sting and work harm stealthily wherever they cannot do it openly.>>

http://www.humanitas-international.org/showcase/chronography/documents/luther-jews.htm

And here is Morsi 2010:

>>Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them. They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue.>>

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/3713.htm

Israel-hatred, the obsession with Israel, the belief that Israel is somehow the summit of all that is evil and wrong with the world, is merely the latest rationalisation for Jew-hatred. The Israel-obsessed truly believe that so long as they put the words "Zionist" or "Israel" in their rants they are not Jew haters, honest we're not.

Welcome to the twenty-first century Mr Meyerowitz-Katz. From the Jewish perspective it looks as if it will not be too different from the twentieth.

Except, well, this time Jews have nukes. And how that will play out I simply don't know.

Mr Meyerowitz-Katz (cont'd)

Here is an example of what "Saint" Chrysostom had to say about Jews:

"Although such beasts are unfit for work, they are fit for killing. And this is what happened to the Jews: while they were making themselves unfit for work, they grew fit for slaughter."

(Homily 1. Chrysostom wrote 8 homilies against the Jews)

http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/chrysostom-jews6-homily1.asp

And here is the tragedy. I have no doubt Chrysostom honestly believed everything he said about Jews just as I have no doubt today's Israel obsessed believe sincerely that they are not Jew haters. It's the "Zionists" they hate because of all the terrible things they are (allegedly) doing to the Palestinians.

Many Jews themselves buy into this narrative. Sometimes the results are bizarre. A Hebrew University research (sic) paper questions why IDF soldiers rarely rape Palestinian women.

>>A research paper that won a Hebrew University teachers' committee prize finds that the lack of IDF rapes of Palestinian women is designed to serve a political purpose.

[…]

The paper further theorizes that Arab women in Judea and Samaria are not raped by IDF soldiers because the women are de-humanized in the soldiers' eyes.>>>

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124674#.UQzocaV34g1

Of course usually dehumanisation is used to explain why soldiers do rape. When women are dehumanised in the eyes of non-Jewish soldiers they are raped. When women are dehumanised in the eyes of Jewish soldiers they are not raped!

This was so bizarre that I didn't believe the newspaper accounts. I acquired a copy of the paper myself. The newspaper report is accurate. If anything its understated.

But here is the bottom line. What is the single biggest obstacle to peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours?

Not the only reason. But the single biggest reason.

It's Arab hatred for Jews.

While that persists no peace is possible. So I guess it's nuclear war here we come.

See: Why we hate the Jews

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/12099.htm

Steven, the more things change the more they stay the same eh?
Do we all understand now that there is no such thing as progress?
There's no such thing as the "Past", everything which we perceive as reality runs on cycles. Anti Semitism is no exception, Herzl in his work "The Jewish State" infers a cyclical perception of reality when he talks about the inevitability of the Pogrom .