Video, transcript, and key quotes from the talk by Sara Kershnar at the ICSZ “Battling the ‘IHRA Definition'” conference in October 2023.
Zionism is inherently antisemitic. It requires the continual fueling and fear of antisemitism in order to justify what it does. As Jewish people we oppose Zionism because it exploits and betrays our own history of fighting for our own liberation and against genocide.
Abstract:
Since the early days of its development, the Zionist movement has leveraged and been supported by fascist regimes, movements and leaders, including antisemites. In service of the founding of the State of Israel, Zionist leaders and activists collaborated with Nazis, courted the Tsar and ultimately won support from the renown antisemite Balfour. More recently, right-wing and centrist Zionist organizations in the US have found supporters and transacted with reactionary elected officials and government representatives, as well as fascist forces, including the Trump administration and the Proud Boys. The Zionist Organization of America welcomed reactionary, antisemitic, former-Trump administration cabinet member Steve Bannon to speak and even centrist Zionist organizations opportunistically supported Trump’s policies. The ADL aligned itself with the Trump administration’s attempts to silence free speech through defining antisemitism as including criticism of the State of Israel despite the contraction with their stated position on free speech and civil rights (which has always drawn the “free speech” line with Palestine).
This is consistent with the racist and colonial ideology, practices and policies of the State of Israel and its opportunistic role in the global repression industry. Maintaining and expanding an exclusive Jewish state in Palestine requires on-going ethnic cleansing and military repression of Palestinians and military dominance in the region. Through the ongoing colonization of Palestine and the accompanying atrocities, Israel has developed great expertise in repression, and exporting these tools and methods on an industrial scale has become crucial to Israeli economic and political power. Since the founding of the state, Israel has collaborated with many of the most repressive regimes and forces on all continents. Israel played and/or plays a role in arming and training the apartheid regimes of Southern Africa, colonial and neo-colonial regimes in the Middle East, dictators in Central and South America and police forces in the United States. Netanyahu has built alliances and provided weapons and repression technology and strategies to Filipino dictator Rodrigo Duterte, India’s Hindu-fascist Prime Minister Modi, Brazil’s former reactionary Prime Minister Bosolnaro and, of course, Trump. More recently, Netanyahu’s increasingly explicit fascist regime has been supported by reactionary and centrist US Zionist organizations alike.
This presentation asserts the need to increase awareness across liberation movements in the US and internationally of the very real ways the State of Israel contributes to fascism and repression, and to expose Israel’s role in repression, not only of Palestinians, but through its military and homeland security exports, all over the world.
We met with many leaders in Palestine, and almost all of them said, while it’s helpful, we don’t need an anti-Zionist Jewish point of view for Palestinian Liberation. But we do need you to be part of an organized left and working side by side with us.
So the collaboration with the right has been part of Israel’s and the Zionist movement since its founding.
Read the transcript.