Collaborative documentation:

To archive Zionist hate mail you’ve received, forward it to us. (Please redact private information, or ask for our help with that.) The archive will be shared for research.

Next Event:

About the project:
People who speak publicly about Palestinian lives, and against Zionist colonialism, are all too familiar with backlash in the form of smear and hate mail. Smears are public attacks, often spuriously charging antisemitism or “support for terrorism.” They often extend further, too. For instance, when preeminent scholars of ethnic studies identified Palestinian experiences as material for study, Zionist organizations impugned their expertise and called them “fringe activists.” Hate mail is generally private. It is sent directly to the person being attacked, often anonymously. Freed from the constraints of public manners, Zionist hate mail is often racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, anti-queer, sadistic, gory, and threatening. Habitually we survive smear and hate mail, we move past them. This dangerous time, though, calls for a more deliberate approach. ICSZ is launching collaborative research that examines Zionist hate mail as a study of Zionist ideologies, and examines Zionist smear to identify its use as a material weapon of fascism.

Theorizing smear:
In the past, smear might have been understood as rhetorical attack, intended to elicit fear, damage reputations, and destabilize speech. In the present, it does different work. Smear has become a material weapon that leverages elements of fascism, from policing to the destabilization of factual knowledge. As Zionist organizations post lists of people they have smeared, and whom they want arrested and deported on the basis of those smears — and as the regime appears to adopt those lists as guides — smear can no longer be considered rhetorical. Zionist smear deliberately subjects its targets to state violence.

Studying hate mail:
Generally, recipients of hate mail keep it private. We filter it out and perhaps consider it “extreme.” This project proposes instead to take hate mail seriously, as an archive of Zionist text. What does it tell us that more curated, smoothed-down Zionist speech doesn’t let through?

Interested in joining this work? Reach out to info (at) criticalzionismstudies.org.

Speakers Bureau

Amplify knowledge about Zionism, anti-Zionism, Palestine, repression, resistance, and many interrelated topics. Find a speaker to bring to your community, in person or virtually.

Upcoming Events

June 27, 3pm EST/12pm PST
Register at bit.ly/SmearOnTwitch
Webinar with Brandon Harris (University of Alabama).