ADL chief’s assault on left-leaning organizations criticized as harmful

(RNS) — In one in all his harshest speeches thus far, the pinnacle of the Anti-Defamation League, the nation’s main antisemitism watchdog, in contrast three left-leaning teams which were crucial of Israel to white nationalists.

The speech by Jonathan Greenblatt, who has led ADL for seven years, signaled a brand new, extra combative deal with what he known as anti-Zionist extremists. He stated his group would now struggle these teams utilizing its “analytic capabilities,” “litigation expertise” and “advocacy muscular tissues.”

Greenblatt’s prerecorded video, which aired Sunday (Might 1) on the ADL’s Nationwide Management Summit, took to activity three teams he stated had been the “picture inverse” of the intense proper: Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim civil rights group.

“Not like their right-wing analogs, these organizations may not have armed themselves or engaged in an revolt designed to topple our authorities, however these radical actors indisputably and unapologetically recurrently denigrate and dehumanize Jews,” Greenblatt stated.

He additionally went additional than ever in claiming that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, saying: “To those that nonetheless cling to the concept anti-Zionism shouldn’t be antisemitism — let me make clear this for you as clearly as I can — anti-Zionism is antisemitism.” Equating the 2 has been a deeply contentious situation in debates about Israel’s conduct towards minority teams.

The ADL is greatest recognized for its annual audits of antisemitism within the U.S. and for its monitoring of white supremacist teams. It additionally runs anti-hate academic applications and gives anti-bias coaching for legislation enforcement.

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Through the years it has additionally aggressively fought those that criticize Israel, notably condemning the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions motion, which goals to finish Israel’s occupation of the West Financial institution by exerting financial stress on the nation. The group has lobbied the Biden administration to broaden the U.S. authorities’s use of the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which critics say conflates the Jewish individuals with the Israeli state.

However Greenblatt’s assertion that left-leaning teams crucial of Israel’s insurance policies towards Palestinians are equally as harmful to Jews as right-wing white nationalist or white supremacist teams was new.

And it drew sharp responses.

“Folks look to the ADL as a frontrunner in (monitoring) antisemitism,” stated Rabbi Jill Jacobs, government director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Name for Human Rights. “It’s actually vital for them to tell apart between what’s truly antisemitism and what’s not. On this case, they’re blurring the strains in a method that’s harmful for Jews and for pro-Palestine activists. It makes it tougher to name out actual antisemitism when it exists.”

Jacobs stated it was professional to criticize Israel due to its occupation of West Financial institution, its discrimination towards Palestinian individuals, its unlawful settlements or any variety of human rights violations, even when that criticism could offend Jews.

Greenblatt was not accessible to reply to questions on his feedback. A spokesman stated he believed there’s “a distinction between being crucial of particular person Israeli insurance policies and the kind of excessive anti-Zionism we’ve seen from these teams.”

Nihad Awad, co-founder and government director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of many teams Greenblatt singled out for being “extremist” and “radical” stated the ADL’s assault was an try at silencing criticism.

Nihad Awad. Photograph courtesy of CAIR

“The ADL can not take care of the reality,” Awad stated. “It’s relentless in apologizing and defending and defending and shilling for Israel,” Awad stated. “They haven’t any morality to face on.”

Awad was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan, after his mother and father had been pushed out of the city of Lod, in central Israel, in 1948.

Shortly after taking on as CEO, Greenblatt confirmed a willingness to embrace American Muslims. When Donald Trump proposed a Muslim registry shortly earlier than taking workplace as U.S. president, Greenblatt responded: “The day they create a Muslim registry is the day I register as a Muslim.”

The ADL later condemned the Muslim ban.

His singling out of CAIR, nonetheless, could put a severe pressure on the ADL’s means to interact Jewish-Muslim relations or for that matter, Jewish-Palestinian relations.

And, some critics say, his remarks basically mischaracterize the premise for progressive criticisms of Zionism.

“What unites the left-leaning teams Greenblatt focused is that they’re preventing for higher equality,” stated Peter Beinart, professor of journalism and political science on the Newmark College of Journalism on the Metropolis College of New York. Beinart favors a one-state resolution that may merge Israel, the West Financial institution and the Gaza Strip right into a single democratic nation, even when it prices the nation its Jewish majority.

Peter Beinart. Photograph by way of CUNY

“The teams he was speaking about on the left take as their core precept the thought of equality below the legislation for Palestinians and Jews,” Beinart stated. “That’s the precise reverse of what white nationalists within the U.S. need.”

Beinart stated a rising variety of People, together with Jewish People, need authorized equality between Jews and Palestinians in a single state. A latest poll from the American Jewish Committee discovered that 22.5% of U.S. Jewish millennials ages 25 to 40 favored “one bi-national state with a single authorities elected by each Palestinians and Israelis.” (Forty-seven % of American Jewish millennials favor “two impartial Israeli and Palestinian states residing aspect by aspect,” the ballot discovered.)

Stefanie Fox, government director of Jewish Voice for Peace, a company with 70 chapters and half 1,000,000 members throughout the nation, stated Greenblatt’s feedback about her group replicate mounting pressures due to the rising motion for Palestinian rights. 

“The ADL sees Israel is hemorrhaging assist for its regime of inequality, supremacy and discrimination,” Fox stated. “Requires Palestinian freedom and equality are rising within the court docket of public opinion, human rights organizations, the progressive motion and amongst American Jews. It is sensible that they’d resort to outrageous claims and much more intense lobbying, lawfare, and spying in an effort to silence these of us calling for freedom and equality.”

The end result of such makes an attempt to smear her group, which she known as “proudly anti-Zionist,” would solely make issues extra harmful for Jews worldwide, she stated.

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