Lena Bloch
2 min readSep 27, 2024

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"The struggle for Palestinian liberation demands that we counter this weapon - the militarisation of anti-Semitism. What, then, to do if you are falsely smeared with the ‘anti-Semitism’ label? Absolute rule: never respond on the terms handed you. Do not respond with protestations of your innocence; nor with any form of pseudo-apology for anything you did not do, thinking you will placate the inquisitors.
The smear is to silence you, of course; but they are also thrilled if you protest, because anti-Semitism remains the issue, you remain on the defensive, and because the words, ‘Palestine’, ‘apartheid’ and ‘genocide’ are nowhere to be found.
You should instead - correctly - boomerang the charge back. And it must include the words that the smear was intended to silence:
- No - don’t blame Jews for the crimes of Israel.
- I’m arguing for simple human rights. Stop smearing Jews as bigots - as opposing equality - in order to shield Israel.
- No, the only anti-Jewish bigotry here is from those defending Israeli apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide in the name of Jews.

We would say, Israel did xyz, while a bigot would say the Jews did xyz. But that bigot is now the Israeli state and its cheerleaders, who have made state and ethnicity synonymous in order to repackage criticism of the state as anti-Semitic.
Other states deflect criticism of their crimes by ‘hiding behind the flag’, accusing dissenting citizens of being unpatriotic to the state. Israel instead hides behind the ethnicity, free of borders, accusing dissenting voices anywhere of being traitorous to Jews as Jews."
Thomas Suarez - https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1476/clear-the-smoke-and-mirrors/

Israel and world Zionism are classic antisemites in that they say that the atrocities have been perpetrated by Israel because it is a Jewish thing to do for the sake of Jews.

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Lena Bloch
Lena Bloch

Written by Lena Bloch

Background in psychology of learning, literature, philosophy, math.

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