Israel is promoting anti-Semitism

The Zionists of Israel have taken another step to promote anti-Semitism among the international community.

There is a new bill that the Knesset has passed, not with any new ideas, but one that codifies Israel’s disenfranchisement of its Palestinian population. The bill emphasizes the Jewish dominance of the State of Israel and that every Jew throughout the world can claim citizenship in Israel. Nothing new here, but it continues. The Arabic language will no longer be an official language in Israel and only the Jews in Israel have the right of self-determination.

Now, we all know that, as claimed by the US and Israel, as well as members of NATO, Israel stands as the only democracy in the Middle East. REALLY?

The stripping away of the Arabic language will have serious impact. It is a strategy that has been used historically in the colonization of countries that strip away the culture and history of the native people of that country.

In an article published in Haaretz, it states, “The right to self-determination is an essential principle anchored in modern international law, such as in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Israel has ratified. This principle includes the right for persons to determine their own destiny in their own country and has been a major tool employed to hasten the end of colonialism. Denying this right to Palestinian citizens will mean that constitutionally, not only will Jews have the exclusive right to obtain automatic citizenship in Israel, but Palestinian citizens will not be allowed to determine their own destiny, to own or to purchase state land, to freely choose where to live, or to unite in Israel with their Palestinian children and spouses who do not hold Israeli citizenship.”

I, as an American Jew, have tried, on many occasions, to assert the difference between Israel’s Zionism and Judaism. Unfortunately, Israel is making it harder and harder for me to maintain that position. Their policies and actions have brought many anti-Semites out of the closet. But there are people who never thought negatively about Jews merely because they were Jews who are now expressing anti-Semitic feelings. Quite frankly, I’m beginning to feel that way myself.

Growing up as a Jew in NYC, I always prided myself on the fact that Jews were well represented in the movement to organize labor unions, in the movement to make communism a reality, and in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. In fact, for many folks, communism and Jewish people were interchangeable.

Those are connections I could feel good about, but today, the connection is Jews and genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, etc.

I know that Zionism is not Judaism and recognize that communism is not Judaism. Both are politically based movements and have nothing really to do with Judaism.

I am not a religious person. If I had my druthers, I would extinguish all organized religion which I have found to be a threat to all humanity. But, I honor the right of all people to select their own personal way of dealing with life and death and the nature of our mortality.

However being born a Jew at the birth of Nazism has made me particularly sensitive to expressions of anti-Semitism and I am also sensitive to the role that the Zionists in Israel are promoting anti-Semitic feelings throughout the world.

When someone with an Arabic name commits a murder, it is immediately designated as an act of terror. The entire Muslim community is expected to publicly denounce the act and the actor and assure the Judeo/Christian communities that we are safe . . . not all Muslims are terrorists.

I feel the same bind as a Jew. I must speak out over and over again to let the world know that all Jews are not Zionists and do not support a Jewish state. I don’t believe that any country should be based on any religious doctrine. To support such ideas means that one is willing to accept ethnic cleansing and/or genocide, and racism.

ISREAL DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST AS A JEWISH STATE!!

Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.