An event of Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UC Irvine, May 22, 2024.
Panelists: Mari Cohen, Emmaia Gelman, Stephen Rea, & Dylan Rodríguez
Moderator: Yousuf Al-Bulushi
QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THE CHAT
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Q: I would like to hear about the ADL’s opposition to critical race theory if you have time.
A: Emmaia Gelman
I’ll happily discuss, and also here’s a recent article about it! https://manifold.umn.edu/read/ces0802-09/section/6ee631f3-bbda-4567-8203-3db1babea41c
Q: Can we imagine a network of decentralized community participatory defense volunteer groups who can process local violence to give it context in their own self-determination? Instead of the non-profit industrial complex co-opting and branding the data? Or does the “social justice ensemble” narrative persist down to grassroots levels?
A: Emmaia Gelman
Before the rise of the hate crimes industry, this is exactly what existed. Jewish communities — Zionist or not — looked carefully at antisemitic incidents, hoping to understand what was actually behind them and resolve them. Queer organizations did their own anti-violence organizing. Unfortunately, the invitation to “be protected by police” was too enticing to groups that had historically been ignored.
Q: Discuss ADL’s involvement in Countering Violent Extremism initiative?
A: Mari Cohen
Not sure if it goes specifically into CVE but Darryl Li has a great report on the role of the ADL in molding modern counterterrorism legislation: https://ccrjustice.org/anti-palestinian-core-origins-and-growing-dangers-us-antiterrorism-law
Q: Does ADL have a relationship with Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)?
A: Mari Cohen
I think no, at least not publicly—I presume the ZOA is a bit too hard right and CEO Mort Klein’s antics a bit too erratic for them.
Q: Though I do understand the commitment to settler colonial nationalisms in both Israel and the US, I continue to get whiplash from the neo-Nazi support for Israel. Watching Proud Boys dancing with Chabad members yelling “I love being Jewish!” at the pro-Palestine encampment on my campus of Indiana University was bewildering. Can someone help me understand how non-elite MAGA white supremacists understand their relationships to Jews today?
A: Stevie Rea
I can’t explain all of it, but a lot of it has to do with the “ethnostate” aspect of it all: white nationalists in particular envy Israel’s ethnostate, wanting to replicate that here in the US and in other parts of Europe, the global North, etc. Plus, Trump loves Netanyahu, so…
A: Mari Cohen
There are also interesting divides on the right today— with right wing Christian zionists (some of whom see the jews gathering in israel as an important part of their end times theology) and those who see israel as a model ethnostate diverging from those who see Israel as a nefarious bastion of Jewish influence and who take a nativist “America First” perspective. Some more here: https://jewishcurrents.org/the-rights-anti-israel-insurgents
Q: I was wondering if Dylan might comment on state counterinsurgency methods serving to delegitimize the state despite their purpose to preserve or to enforce/reinforce state legitimacy
A: Dylan Rodriguez
i’d love to think with you and others about this in an extended way. i think this begins to get at a tactical and strategic framework for exposing the logic of counterinsurgency and potentially destabilizing and denormalizing its state and state-adjacent technologies
QUESTIONS FOR FUTURE DISCUSSIONS (not answered on the webinar)
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How does ADL define “extremism”?
What was the explanation for ADL’s Israel office early on?
Will you provide a more accurate definition of antisemitism?
Has the ADL ever disclosed the basis for their audits, those individual-level reports?
Building on Prof. Rodriguez’ counter-insurgency perspective … what can we do to counter the counter-insurgency techniques?
The attempted co-optation of longterm Indigenous sovereignty movements to oppress Palestinians has been appalling. Are there efforts to bring in Native leadership/movements as window dressing, similar to Dylan’s description of TAAF?
I am learning about neoliberalism and neopopulism. How do these ideologies interact with ADL’s counterinsurgency tactics?
What are effective ways that employees can counter the negative influence of the ADL at corporations? The ADL may be a partner or customer or preferred non-profit.
Please say more about the role of Hillel in all this. They are the ones who are targetting me on my campus. Where do they function in this repressive ecosphere?
[Identifying info redacted] I’ve been thinking a lot the usefulness of asserting and reasserting Jewish identity in antizionist organizing. Given the counterinsurgency nature of the social justice ensemble and its use of liberal identity politics, is this framework of asserting Jewish identity in antizionist organizing worthwhile work?
I’d like to hear more from Dylan about the “ensemble” part of the social justice ensemble and why he chose that phrasing? Thank you all so much. This is so helpful and brilliant.
Based on your interpretations and experiences, what do you view as the implications for resistance and transformation? What are the new practices, discourses, and tactics (and the updates/modifications of conventional ones), that are required and called for in this new(-ish) context of counter-insurgencies?
RESOURCES SHARED
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Emmaia Gelman – “The world upside-down: Zionist institutions, Civil Rights Talk, & the New Cold War on Ethnic Studies”: https://manifold.umn.edu/read/ces0802-09/section/6ee631f3-bbda-4567-8203-3db1babea41c
Emmaia Gelman, “The Anti-Defamation League is not what it seems”: https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/emmaia-gelman-anti-defamation-league/
Emmaia Gelman, “Astroturf Antisemitism Watchdogs”: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/45918/Astroturf-Zionism
Dylan Rodríguez “How the Stop Asian Hate Movement Became Entwined with Zionism, Policing, and Counterinsurgency”: https://www.criticalethnicstudiesjournal.org/blog/2024/4/10/how-the-stop-asian-hate-movement-became-entwined-with-zionism-policing-and-counterinsurgency
Drop the ADL: droptheadl.org
Ben Lorber, “The Right’s Anti-Israel Insurgents”: https://jewishcurrents.org/the-rights-anti-israel-insurgents
Mari Cohen, “The ADL’s Antisemitism findings, explained”: https://jewishcurrents.org/the-adls-antisemitism-findings-explained
Alex Kane, “How the ADL’s Israel advocacy undermines its civil rights work”: https://jewishcurrents.org/how-the-adls-israel-advocacy-undermines-its-civil-rights-work
Unpacking Zionism podcast series: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unpacking-zionism/id1735212813
Elon Musk, the Jews, and the ADL (Know Your Enemy podcast with Mari Cohen, Alex Kane, & Peter Beinart): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-your-enemy/id1462703434?i=1000629217497
Foundation for Middle East Peace, “Legislative Round-Up: April 12, 2024”: https://fmep.org/resource/fmep-legislative-round-up-april-12-2024/
Lara Friedman, “Targeting Free Speech & Redefining Antisemitism: How Pro-Israel Actors Are Using US Laws to Attack Palestinian Activism & Solidarity” : https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1473&context=uoplawreview
On the IHRA definition of Antisemitism: criticalzionismstudies.org/noIHRA