United States | News & Politics

There is a two-way misinformation issue right now that really complicates things. If you legitimately criticize Zionism, the pro-Israel side accuses you of antisemitism, which is bullshit. However, actual antisemites are using the word "Zionist" as a proxy term for "Jew", and exploiting he current climate against Israel to spread classical antisemitic narratives. The result is a mix of honest "Zionism motivates human rights abuse against Palestinians" statements, and dishonest "Zionists control the world" statements.

When Jews and their allies attempt to counter antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism, their legitimate criticisms are treated like pro-Israel gaslighting. One of the most egregious examples of this happened in Seattle, where the Wing Luke Museum hosted a "Confronting Hate Together" exhibit featuring contributions from different ethnic communities in the city.

They kicked the Jewish group out because they said "Today, antisemitism is often disguised as anti-Zionism,” and said “pro-Palestinian groups have voiced support for Hamas” (both issues that affect the non-Zionist Jewish community, and that I have personally witnessed).

Worse yet, the museum defended their decision saying that the Jewish group conflated anti-Zionism with antisemitism and excluded Palestinian, Arab and Muslim perspectives. The thing is, they didn't say all anti-Zionism was antisemitism, they said that antisemitism can be disguised as anti-Zionism. That's true. And why would the Jewish group be obligated to include Arab and Muslim perspectives? Why are they required to answer for this conflict in this way just for being Jewish? Were there no Arab and Muslim groups invited to participate in this exhibit?

The Jewish group did their own exhibit somewhere else (so much for confronting hate together), and the Wing Luke Museum director resigned.

If folks would actually learn what Zionism is and criticize it with clarity, this kind of thing wouldn't be an issue. Increasingly, the people using "Zionist" as a pejorative are just using it as a blanket term for "Jews I disagree with", and that is really fucking shitty.