Sarsour's
Anti-Semitism Campaign Minimizes Anti-Semitism
by Ariel Behar
IPT News
May 9, 2017
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Natan Sharansky, the
former Soviet political prisoner and Jewish Agency chairman, put forth
a "3D test" to distinguish between criticism of Israel and
anti-Semitism. Criticism crosses into anti-Semitism when it delegitimizes
or demonizes Israel, or subjects it to double standards. Thus, when Israel
is cast as evil, when only Israel is held accountable in a conflict, and
when Israel's fundamental right to exist as a Jewish homeland is
questioned, criticism crosses into anti-Semitic territory.
Through her actions and statements about Israel and Jews, celebrity
Islamist activist Linda Sarsour fails the "3D test."
In a recent Newsweek article, Sarsour argues that she
has been labeled an anti-Semite because of her participation in the
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement. "This is a deliberate
attempt to smear me, as a prominent leader in the progressive
movement," she told the magazine. "They're basically
criminalizing and defaming my work calling for human rights in Palestine.
They equate activism on Palestine with anti-Semitism and that is an
unfortunate equation."
"The reason why Israel gets singled out in this debate is because
the majority of military aid ... goes to Israel ... which they use to
occupy Palestinians," Sarsour said in a radio interview last month on SiriusXM radio.
Sarsour's answer is
a self-serving attempt to divert attention away from her own words. It
ignores her support of sharia law, her failure to denounce
terrorism committed in the name of Islam, and her support of the violent Palestinian
"resistance," all of which aligns her with anti-Semitism.
Sarsour also tries to shut down those who cite her record of celebrating
terrorists and advocating radical positions by calling the critics
Islamophobes. "Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian Muslim American woman in
a hijab and she has the audacity to be prominent in this country, the
audacity to resonate with communities outside her community," she
said, speaking in the third person in the SiriusXM interview. "How
dare I do that? How dare I defy every stereotype that Islamophobes have of
me."
Yet, she's nakedly intolerant of beliefs other than her own.
Sarsour famously tweeted, "Nothing is creepier than Zionism."
That's not a statement critical of the Israeli government or of settlement
building in the West Bank. Instead, Sarsour believes the entire concept of
a homeland for the Jewish people is flawed, is "creepy."
And Sarsour wants nothing to do with you if you believe in and
support the state of Israel. That goes for Jews who might try to stand in
solidarity against anti-Muslim bigotry. In her worldview, Zionism and
feminism are mutually exclusive. "You either stand up for the rights
of all women, including Palestinians, or none," Sarsour told The Nation. "There's just no way
around it."
"But insisting that Jews need not apply if they subscribe to the
belief in a Jewish homeland in Israel is an anti-Semitic double
standard," StandWithUs researcher Lauren Post wrote in the Forward. "Too many leftists
already ignore anti-Semitism unless it's rhetorically convenient, so
perhaps it's unsurprising that Sarsour's brand of feminism demands that we
give up our liberation movement for some nebulous greater good."
Women who disagree with Sarsour about feminism are met with sometimes profane attacks. She attacked ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali, saying she deserves
an "a$$ whippin'," and that she'd like to "take [Hirsi Ali
and Islam critic Brigitte Gabriel's] vaginas away- they don't deserve to be
women."
New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind,
D-Brooklyn, called Sarsour out on her hypocrisy and double-standards after
she was invited to give a commencement speech at CUNY School of Public
Health in Brooklyn. Hikind highlighted Sarsour's dishonesty in a recent
op-ed published in the New York Daily News.
"Until recently, she'd convinced a lot of people that she stood for
progressive liberalism, stood for feminism, stood for dignity, human rights
and all of the things that people who favor the liberal left say they stand
for, too," Hikind wrote.
"But there's an old saying: You can't hide the crazy."
That "crazy" includes embracing Rasmieh Odeh, a convicted terrorist whose participation
in a 1969 grocery store bombing in Jerusalem killed two college students.
Sarsour called it an honor to be in Odeh's presence after Odeh
announced her intention to plead guilty to naturalization fraud.
Sarsour "associates with terrorism and supports terrorism,"
Hikind told the Investigative Project on Terrorism. "Her record, her
involvement, her statements, is just beyond the pale. What kind of message
does that send?"
It is not clear if Sarsour is feeling the heat or has other motivations,
but she is orchestrating a broad campaign to insulate herself from
questions of whether she fails the 3D test and crosses into anti-Semitism.
When vandals
desecrated a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Sarsour made sure everyone saw
her helping raise money to repair the damage even though those cemeteries
likely included (shudder) Zionists. Still, her efforts garnered
unquestioning national attention.
"This is another way for us to publicly defy the stereotype that
Muslims and Jews are not communities that can get along," she told
National Public Radio.
Sarsour also appears in a video produced by the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace, in which she said a
"conversation on anti-Semitism is so critical at this moment."
But that good deed can't be done without qualification, as she says
accusations of anti-Semitism are often "used by the right wing against
Palestinians and those who are pro-Palestine ... [to say] that we are
anti-Semitic, or because we're critics of the State of Israel that means we
are anti-Semitic"
Anti-Semitism is a problem, she says in the video. It's just not as bad
as racism or anti-Muslim bigotry. Most Jews are white, after all, and
therefore do not face systemic discrimination in employment or housing.
"And we need to make that distinction." Again, Sarsour offers a
self-serving answer meant to define a problem on terms best suited for her.
It's a gross misrepresentation that minimizes the threat of anti-Semitism
in America.
The latest FBI hate crime data, covering the year 2015,
shows Jews are targeted more than twice as often as Muslims in hate crimes
motivated by religious identity. In fact, Jews account for more than half
of all hate crimes based on religion, with 664 documented incidents in
2015, compared to 257 targeting Muslims.
Generally speaking, activism is something worth celebrating. But Sarsour
is notorious for her controversy and her double-standards. And praising
Sarsour as a "champion of change" does harm to the legitimate
struggle for human rights, and for the fight against anti-Semitism. We need
not embrace someone who defends and supports extremism in the name of
social justice.
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