[yshavurah] anti-semitism
- From: "Bill" <rebiljob@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Havurah Listserv" <yshavurah@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 11:05:04 -0400
Echoing what Deb said, the following just came through on the Temple Isael
electronic havurah. This is, indeed, a very difficult time to be a liberal
(politiacally) Jew.
Johanna
Bigotry outside Faneuil Hall By Alan Dershowitz March 5, 2004
The other day, I experienced violent anti-Semitism for the first time in my
adult life. It took place in front of Faneuil Hall, the birthplace of American
independence and liberty.
I was receiving a justice award from the Jewish Council on Public Affairs and
delivering a talk on "Civil Liberties in the Age of Terrorism" from the podium
of that historic hall. When I left, award in hand, I was accosted by a group of
screaming, angry young men and women carrying virulently anti-Israel signs. The
protest was denominated a peace event and was sponsored by a group calling
themselves by the vague name ACT-MA. Their website describes them as promoting
peace and justice and associated with larger solidarity organizations, but
there was nothing peaceful or just about this protest.
Although the signs they were carrying were not anti-Semitic, the sign carriers
were shouting epithets at me that crossed the line from civility to bigotry.
"Dershowitz and Hitler, just the same, the only difference is the name." The
sin that, in the opinion of the screamers, warranted this comparison between me
and the man who murdered dozens of my family members was my support for Israel.
It was irrelevant to these chanters that I also support a Palestinian state,
the end of the Israeli occupation and the dismantling of most of the
settlements. They also shouted "Dershowitz and Gibbels [sic], just the same,
the only difference is the name" - not even knowing how to pronounce the name
of the anti-Semitic Nazi propagandist.
One sign carrier shouted that Jews who support Israel are worse than Nazis.
Another demanded that I be tortured and killed. It wasn't only their words; it
was the hatred in their eyes. If a dozen
Boston police were not protecting me, I have little doubt I would have been
physically attacked. Their eyes were ablaze with fanatical zeal.
The feminist writer Phyllis Chesler aptly described the hatred often directed
against Israel and supporters of the Jewish state by some young people as
eroticized. That is what I saw: passionate hatred, ecstatic hatred, orgasmic
hatred. It was beyond mere differences of opinion. When I looked into their
faces, I could imagine young Nazis in the 1930s in Hitler's Germany. They had
no doubt that they were right and that I was pure evil for my support of the
Jewish state, despite my public disagreement with some of Israel's policies and
despite my support for Palestinian statehood. There was no place for nuance
here. It was black and white, good versus evil, and any Jew who supported
Israel was pure evil, deserving of torture, violence, and whatever fate Hitler
and Goebbels deserved.
I do not believe that criticism of Israel, or even of Zionism, is tantamount to
anti-Semitism and I have so written over the years. But what happened in front
of Faneuil Hall went beyond criticism. To be sure, it was constitutionally
protected speech, just as the Nazi march through Skokie was constitutionally
protected speech. But the shouting was plainly calculated to intimidate. An
aura of violence was in the air, and had the police not been there, I would not
have been able to express any views counter to theirs.
As it turned out, I was not actually able to express any of my opinions, even
in response to their outrageous mischaracterization of my views or their
comparisons of me to the most evil men in the world. When I turned to answer
one of the bigoted chants, the police officer in charge gently but firmly
insisted that I walk directly to my car and not engage them. It was an order,
reasonably calculated to assure my safety, and it was right. The officer got
into my car with me and only got out a few blocks away. The intimidation had
succeeded. I was silenced, and their horrible message went unanswered in the
plaza near Faneuil Hall.
That is not the way the marketplace of ideas is supposed to work. It is not the
conception of liberty for which Sam and John Adams spoke so eloquently and
controversially in and around Faneuil Hall more than two hundred years ago. It
was far more reminiscent of rallies conducted by Nazi thugs in Berlin seventy
years ago.
I will not be silenced nor intimidated. The shouters know that. Their goal is
to silence and intimidate others, who do not get police protection and do not
have access to the media. Let the debate about Israel and the Palestinians
continue unabated. Let all views be heard. The shouters in front of Faneuil
Hall wanted no views but their own to be seen and heard. They succeeded that
day in front of Faneuil Hall, as they have on some university campuses, but the
marketplace of ideas is far too vibrant to be shut down by a bunch of
self-righteous thugs shouting ugly and bigoted epithets.
Other related posts:
- » [yshavurah] anti-semitism
