Israel uses antisemitism as cover for Gaza genocide. It's a trap

I am often asked if Israel makes Jewish people unsafe. The answer is clearly yes. However, first and foremost, no one is as endangered by Israel as Palestinians.

It is possible that close to a million Palestinian people have been murdered by Israel over the past 20 months. They have been bombed, sniped, burned alive, crushed under buildings, raped, beaten, attacked by dogs. Left to die in incubators. Frozen to death. Denied water and healthcare.

Over 2 million people are being starved to death while I type these words, and this doesn’t count the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered and displaced from their land over the past 77 years. Regardless of one’s awareness of the Nakba and the ongoing violence perpetuated by the State of Israel since 1948, we are now all watching the most horrific things imaginable being done to the Palestinian people every day. No one can say they didn’t know.

And yet, somehow, cries of antisemitism have the power to flip reality on its head. People on the Jewish left — including the organisations Jewish Voices for Peace and If Not Now — have tripped over themselves to condemn violent resistance and mourn all lives.

In doing so, these organizations and individuals once again center Jewish feelings and Jewish safety when the real story is Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians, when the real problem is Zionism, when the real danger is Israel, when the real crisis is Jewish people consenting or supporting the Jewish State’s crimes against humanity.

Don’t be distracted by this manoeuvre. This is simply a way to deflect attention away from what is most likely the most horrific and widespread human-led atrocity in history.

Israel, the United States, Canada, and many European states have weaponised false accusations of antisemitism to justify their crimes against humanity. When we enter into disingenuous antisemitism debates, we are allowing the story to shift away from what really matters and what really matters is genocide and the global indifference to Palestinian death.

Once this genocide is over and Palestine is free, we can spend all the time we want reflecting on how Israel has been bad for all of us, including Jewish people. Once the genocide is over and Palestine is free, we can talk about how Israel really did make Jewish people more unsafe.

Right now, those conversations are not only a distraction, they are a form of narrative violence when Israel is still granted impunity and financial support to continue with its project of genocide and ethnic cleansing by and in the name of the Jewish people.

To quote Mohammed El-Kurd, it's not the Palestinians' fault that these people are Jewish.

As Israel’s interception of the Madleen and abduction of 12 activists in International waters has recently revealed, non-violent resistance cannot and will not end state violence.

In fact, it never has, and, as we have seen from Palestine to Los Angeles, condemnation of violent resistance merely legitimises and supports state violence. As the United States government continues its support for Israel’s crimes against humanity, we will likely see an escalation of events like those in Washington DC and Boulder, Colorado.

As these events unfold, we mustn't be distracted by antisemitism dog whistles and instead acknowledge these acts as political reactions to political violence. The people experiencing real and material identity-based violence right now are Palestinians, who are being exterminated en masse because they are Palestinian.

Resistance to the Jewish supremacist project of Zionism, which is an inherently settler colonial project of genocide, is not antisemitic. It is instead an anti-colonial form of resistance. Anyone condemning the recent waves of political assassinations and spectacles of violence clearly and specifically orchestrated as a form of political resistance should instead redirect their outrage to this: almost one million Palestinians, murdered in the most extreme and horrific ways.

Two million people are being actively starved to death by Israel. This is the violence we should be condemning. Any violence against Israel, the US, or individuals supporting Israel and the US’s ongoing genocide is resistance and should be framed as such. To draw on antisemitism in this moment is both a form of genocide denial and an incitement to more violence against Palestinians.

Maura Finkelstein is a writer and anthropologist. She is the author of The Archive of Loss: Lively Ruination in Mill Land Mumbai, published by Duke University Press in 2019. In addition to academic writing, her essays have been published by Post45, Electric Literature, Allegra Lab, Red Pepper Magazine, The Markaz Review, the Scottish Left Review, Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye, and Al Jazeera.

Follow Maura on X: @Dr_mauraf

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.