This week’s column takes a break from Israel-Palestine coverage to look at how Israel’s protracted war on Gaza is affecting diaspora communities.
Deutsche Welle, Germany’s public broadcaster, has an important, detailed story on how the country’s zealous suppression of Israel criticism labels some Jewish artists as antisemites. This deplatforming is occurring because of Germany’s definition of antisemitism, which is based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s.
Ever since the German parliament passed its 2019 resolution condemning the BDS movement as antisemitic, different cultural institutions in the country have been uninviting planned guests or cancelling awards, preemptively attempting to avoid controversy and accusations of antisemitism.
The phenomenon became even more pronounced after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in late 2023, following the Hamas attacks that claimed the lives of some 1,200 Israelis and the taking of more than 200 hostages.
This included cases where people publicly criticized Israel's actions in Gaza without including a direct condemnation of Hamas, and ended up being accused of antisemitism. Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham and his Palestinian co-director, Basel Adra, experienced this firsthand at the Berlinale in February, following their award acceptance speech that was critical of the Israeli government.
Abraham, who faced death threats in Israel following the accusations, criticized German officials for devaluing the term "antisemitism."
"Germany is weaponizing a term that was designed to protect Jews, not only to silence Palestinians, but also to silence Jews and Israelis who are critical of the occupation," he said.1
Argentina, reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, has experienced a major spike in antisemitism since the Oct. 7th attacks by Hamas. The country’s Jewish umbrella organization (DAIA) found that Israel was a large cause of antisemitic incidents.2
Among the in-person incidents that DAIA logged in its report were the word “Hamas” and a crossed-out Star of David that was drawn on a student’s desk and a building that hung a sign reading, “Zionists out of Palestine. This did not start on 7/10. Hitler fell short.”
From before Oct. 7, it included the inclusion on a restaurant’s menu of an “Anne Frank” hamburger and “Adolf” fries; the restaurant changed the items’ names after members of the Jewish community, including DAIA, criticized the menu for trivializing the Holocaust.
Marisa Braylan, the report’s author and the director of DAIA’s Center for Social Studies, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the tally reflected a sad reality for Argentine Jews since Oct. 7.3
A fake news scandal has hit the Jewish Chronicle, which is the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper. (Disclosure: I wrote an article for the paper years ago, though I cannot recall what the subject was.) The Guardian has done an excellent job of covering this story.
Among the most controversial claims published by the Jewish Chronicle, the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper, was the suggestion last week that the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, might be preparing to flee to Iran with Israeli hostages, a suggestion that has also been made by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Jewish Chronicle article is one of several sensational reports that have been written in recent months by a writer bylined as Elon Perry, whose résumé claiming he has worked as a journalist, academic and served as an elite undercover soldier has also been questioned.
Checks by the Guardian have found no evidence of any record of significant stories published by Perry as a reporter in English or Hebrew, except for the recent series of articles in the Jewish Chronicle now alleged to be fabrications.4
Fortunately, The Canadian Jewish News daily podcast demonstrated sharper journalism when interviewing Dr. Arnie Aberman. He decided to return his honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto for, what he said, failing to keep Jewish and non-Jewish students safe. Host Ellin Bessner challenged Aberman several times. The podcast is worth listening for that and for capturing the divide over Israel between Jews born before 1948 and after.
The last story of the week stays in Canada, moving to Montreal. There has been a lot of reporting about antisemitism on the campuses of Carleton University and McGill University. This month, McGill’s student union revoked the club status of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - McGill. (They appear to have rebranded as Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance - McGill.) The Montreal Gazette has the story, which involved pressure from administration on the student union to comply with its demand.
[Interim deputy provost Angela Campbell] referred to “deeply troubling behaviour” by SPHR members, including “glorification of violence against civilians following Hamas’s terrorist attack on Oct. 7, threats to and harassment of McGill community members, support for the forced entry into and attempted occupation of the James Administration Building, as well as the obstruction of university activities and damage to university property.”
“SPHR’s conduct stands in clear violation of McGill policies. As SPHR is your club, the result is that SSMU is in breach of these policies,” Campbell wrote.
The SSMU was required to remedy these “events of default” within 60 calendar days of notification, which meant before Sept. 8.5
Have a great week, and thanks for reading.
Here’s the DW.com story: https://www.dw.com/en/when-germany-targets-jewish-artists-as-antisemitic/a-70180570
Here’s the JTA story: https://www.jta.org/2024/09/16/global/argentina-posts-44-increase-in-reported-antisemitic-incidents-in-2023-mostly-after-oct-7
Ibid.
Here’s The Guardian story by Peter Beaumont: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/12/idf-investigates-claim-jewish-chronicle-published-stories-based-on-fabricated-intelligence
Here’s The Gazette story: https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/under-pressure-mcgill-student-union-revokes-palestinian-groups-club-status