Cover of Kenneth Stern’s book revealing violent Palestinian stereotypes.
What was Kenneth Stern thinking when he approved this cover for his book?
Philip Weiss, in this post on Mondoweiss, ‘American Jewish Committee’ and ‘Southern Poverty Law Center’ endorsed anti-Arab image, was appalled by Stern’s use of antiPalestinian imagery to prop up his book on AntiSemitism, as well as its endorsement by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Are Palestinians antiSemitic, or are they just fighting for their existence and freedom as a people having been handed a 60 year history of disenfranchisement and misery initiated by the colonial goals of Zionism?
A question that Stern asks in his book is whether criticism of Israel is antiSemitic? Is criticism of Zionism antiSemitic? His responses to both of them is conditional but subtly in the affirmative. But one thing that Stern never asks: is Zionism antiPalestinian? Israelis are taught from childhood never to utter the term, “Palestinian.” They are “Arabs,” just Arabs, and Arabs are Arabs, and Arabs hate Jews.
Here’s Philip Weiss’ view on people like Stern who he labels Progressive Except for Palestine.
Morris Dees is the head of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Center made a name for itself in the 70s and 80s fighting for civil rights and human rights for blacks. They’re very concerned with racism. They moved on to fighting the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist movement and the militia movement. Good liberals.
Morris Dees endorses the book whose cover is at left, called Antisemitism Today. On the back cover, he writes of the author, “Ken Stern has been out on the front lines of the fight against antisemitism, and he knows how and where the battles have been waged.” Etc.
I just got the book today, but it was published in 2006 by the American Jewish Committee. You’ll see the cover of the book features some angry Arabs at a demonstration, apparently Palestinians, if you notice the Palestinian flag. There’s one sign against the occupation.
Wait, what the hell do these generic Arabs have to do with anti-Semitism today? Where is the antisemitism? Isn’t it racist to put a photograph of Arabs on a book jacket and accuse them of anti-Semitism? Why is the Southern Poverty Law Center endorsing a racist book jacket? Do Arabs ever count when you’re fighting racism?
Not really. There’s an exception for Arabs. The exception is that great modern American tradition called PEP, reflecting the importance of American Jews to liberal causes: Progressive Except for Palestine.
The author of the book is Ken Stern. He works for the American Jewish Committee and he’s Mr. PEP. His previous books were in support of the American Indian Movement and against the American militia movement.
American Indians: good. American right wingers: bad. Arabs: bad.
Got that? It’s easy to be PEP!
Progressive Except for Palestine is just another version of exceptionalism in the arena of ethnic prejudice.
Just for reference sake, in this paper, Defining Antisemitism, Kenneth Stern provided some rules for discriminating antiSemitism when it implicates criticism of Israel:
Examples of the ways in which antisemitism manifests itself with regard to the State of Israel taking into account the overall context could include:
· Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
· Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
· Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
· Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
· Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel.
However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
I’ll let others determine the legitimacy of at least some of these rules. Some are quite legitimate.
But one, comparing Israeli behavior to that of the Nazis, in my mind really invokes the sensitivities of Jews to the Holocaust, in spite of occasional use of the Holocaust to justify Israel’s existence. In this regard, I recall a diary I put up on NION a few years ago about an Austrian Catholic bishop, who toured the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, where he saw pictures of Nazi soldiers pointing rifles at Jewish parents and children, then toured Ramallah in the West Bank, where he saw a similar sight: Israeli soldiers pointing rifles at Palestinian parents and children.
I have since avoided the confluence of these realities.