The problem with NZ Human Rights Commission adopting the IHRA definition of anti-semitism
To the NZ Human Rights Commission
I urge you not to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-.semitism.
The IHRA definitions include statements that are deemed to be examples of antisemitism. One of these is “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, eg, by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour” is strange.
I believe all the colonial settler states (NZ, Canada, Australia, US) like Israel must have been a racist endeavour and could not be otherwise. To deny this fact is to deny history.
The leaders of Israel only allow a version of Israel that is a product of the original racist endeavour which involved the dispossession and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
The 1948 state was then recognised by the UN and broader international community with the proviso that those expelled had the right of return.
The Jewish and Arab citizens of this state had formal citizenship but not real equality This state barely existed for three decades before a new state was established in 1967 by force that controlled all of historic Palestine. This state has never allowed even citizenship rights to its non-Jewish residents in the occupied territories who have been subject to military rule for 55 years – longer than the apartheid state of South Africa existed.
This state is an apartheid state with millions lacking citizenship rights or any form of self-determination.
Israel never publishes a map of the State of Israel with borders based on 1948. I saw this reality when I was detained and expelled trying to deliver medical aid two years ago. Even the advertisements show maps that are of all of Palestine. The West Bank is simply Judea and Samaria.
Israel also demands we recognise this Israel as an exclusively Jewish homeland. That is a continuing racist endeavour that should be condemned.
To be very clear I am not against the land of Israel-Palestine being a Jewish homeland. I am against it being an “exclusively” Jewish homeland which is what Israel’s rulers now demand. It must become a shared homeland for both Jews and Palestinians if the system of apartheid is to be dismantled. Whether that is one-state or two-state solution must be decided by the people who live there and have the right to return. My own preference – a unitary, democratic and secular Palestine – seems to be becoming the only choice left by the ongoing colonisation and settlement building precluding any other.
Truth is always inconvenient to those in power, and usually has to be repressed for those in power to remain in power.
What the hell are you on Cas? Mike Treen has endlessly proven that he is able to walk and chew gum at the same time. He has both local and international perspectives that are certainly not of a right wing perspective, seemingly unlike yourself. Are you even a one issue warrior or just an abuse merchant?
If it comes down to social issue activism, it would seem his drive and successes must irk you. (See: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/category/bloggers/mike-treen/).
What happened to Cas’s comment? It has disappeared!
Agreed. The ‘racism’ card and even “human rights advocates” are just as likely to be working for their own agenda or others, as other groups. Infiltration of the right wing ideology is everywhere.
Even sadder when people like Jeremy Corbyn are condemned as a racist, terrorist and anti semite as attacks on his character are used as a weapon to dilute and distract from the important (and anti racist, terrorist and anti semite) ideas and beliefs that he has. (Also attacked for being white, too old etc).
Civil and human rights definitions in my view seem to being redefined by the identity police, to help neoliberalism and stop freedom of speech, not the opposite (while pretending they are the ‘true’ human rights advocates).
I’m not sure that the left are being left behind because the neoliberals and woke are now re-defining all the definitions of everything.
Sad day for all those who fought for zero discrimination against sex, race, age, sexuality, discrimination against the disabled, etc.
Sadder still that anybody who speaks out against brutality of the zionist regime (not the Jewish people) is punished for it.
Link to Oxford Union debate on the subject
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDRzEyOam-M
An interesting alternative to the IHRA definition of antisemitism:
https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/
John it appears to have been taken down like a lot of stuff reported on Israel.
The content may be on another site.