#ADL / Annual Antisemitism Report (with TAU): "Antisemitism Worldwide Report for 2023
Concern for the Future of Jewish Life in the West"
I had to read it again: "Concern for the Future of Jewish Life in the West"... Also absent in the aftermath of October 7th discussion is any reference to the atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza, for which it is under active investigation both in the #ICJ and #ICC and is an obvious contributor to the rise in anti-war protests around the world.
Reminder: The #ADL is a controversial North American organization, claiming to be an authority on the subject of antisemitism. It has been criticized for its equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism and for allegedly undermining left-wing and pro-Palestinian activism.
The #ADL has been accused of inflating the number of antisemitic incidents to support its narrative of rising antisemitism. For example, in 2017, the ADL included 163 bomb threats to synagogues in its "harassment" statistics, even though these threats were attributed to a single disturbed individual. Critics argue that this "alarmism" serves the institutional imperative of the ADL and other similar organizations. https://www.wrmea.org/israel-palestine/adls-campaign-to-silence-criticism-of-israel-by-calling-it-anti-semitism.html
Critics also argue that the #ADL's conflation of #antisemitism with #anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel silences legitimate criticism of Israel's policies and actions toward Palestinians. They claim that this equation deflects attention from the actions of the Israeli government, soldiers, and settlers, and threatens the livelihoods of journalists and academics who deviate from the ADL's narrative. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/jan/05/adl-pro-israel-advocacy-zionism-antisemitism
In May 2022, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt sparked controversy by equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism and labeling groups advocating for Palestinian rights, such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), as "extremist." This comparison was criticized by both ADL staff and external observers, who argued that it undermined the ADL's ability to build coalitions with other groups and fight antisemitism effectively. https://jewishcurrents.org/adl-staffers-dissented-after-ceo-compared-palestinian-rights-groups-to-right-wing-extremists-leaked-audio-reveals
The Report:
Interestingly, though, the authors do not perceive criticism of Israel as antisemitism. They state that "criticizing Israel, including in harsh terms, is NOT antisemitism." However, seeking its elimination as the national home of the Jewish people, including through the false argument that it is an unlawful colonial enterprise, is antisemitic. The problem is, of course, that Israel is a "colonial" byproduct, while calling for its elimination is not a conclusion of such an observation more than the elimination of the USA, Australia, New Zealand, or any other colonies.
The authors identify several factors that have contributed to the rise of antisemitism, including:
The war in Gaza
The rise of populism in the West
The spread of antisemitism on social media
The failure of academia to address antisemitism on campus
The influence of foreign funding on academia
The failure of political leaders to condemn antisemitism
[...] The Report notes that hate speech was articulated even before Israel launched its campaign in Gaza, including on leading university campuses, and thus urged against seeing the recent wave of antisemitism as an emotional response to the war. "Some antisemitic attackers emphasize their problem is with Israel, not with Jews, and then attack Jews and Jewish institutions."
[...] Dr. Carl Yonker, Senior Researcher and Project Manager at the "Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry," TAU, who wrote a study for the Report on antisemitism in the United States, said: "Contrary to the conventional wisdom, post-October 7 incidents were also led from the far right in America. Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and others glorified Hamas and used the war to spread antisemitic propaganda along with conspiracy theories, according to which the crisis will advance the replacement of the white majority in the West by migrants from the Middle East. The fringes in the United States are encroaching on the political center from both right and left, making combating antisemitism much trickier."
Someone, who identified as Jewish and disliked the ADL's tactics, once suggested to me that there's a financial model for collecting data when we were discussing @babka.social, which wanted to take down an instance because they didn't like my posts ...🤔 especially anything tagged with #ArabJews which infuriated Serge ... Not sure how it works, how the #ADL is inflating numbers (at least from social media) buy transparency is one of their problems IMHO.
Someone, who identified as Jewish and disliked the ADL's tactics, once suggested to me that there's a financial model for collecting data when we were discussing @babka.social, which wanted to take down an instance because they didn't like my posts ...🤔 especially anything tagged with #ArabJews which infuriated Serge ... Not sure how it works, or if the #ADL is inflating numbers (at least from social media) but transparency is one of their problems IMHO.
@oatmeal@martinvermeer@israel@palestine ADL now includes criticism of Israel or protest actions against Israel as “antisemitic incidents” and doesn’t differentiate between those and actual antisemitic incidents so yes they are inflating their numbers.