THREAT TO FREE SPEECH

ISRAEL & ITS FANS ARE THE BIGGEST THREAT TO FREE SPEECH

Words by Stasi Kapetanos

The State of Israel was established in 1948 by the Zionist movement with the goal of creating a homeland for the

Jewish people in light of centuries of

European and to a lesser extent Middle Eastern antisemitism, in particular the Holocaust of World War Two. While many Zionists and supporters of Israel claim that their detractors take issue with this history, that being the seemingly noble if not understandable goal of finding a refuge for the Jewish people and the Jewish ‘right to self-determination’. However, the vast majority of Israel’s critics and anti-Zionists are vehemently opposed not to a Jewish homeland per se but to the fact that this one is constructed on top of another one – that of the Palestinians.

Not unlike other settler countries established in the wake of colonialism, including Australia, Israel by enlarge, did not obtain its territory with consent, but rather stole it from the people that previously lived there. I say stole as a past tense but Israel to this day continues to do so, by regularly absorbing and de facto annexing Palestinian land; evicting Palestinian families; , destroying Palestinian livelihoods and ending Palestinian lives. The Palestinian people are the real victims of Israeli Zionism, this should be undisputed.

To cover for Israel’s unconscionable and illegitimate activities, many of its supporters and indeed its own propaganda arms, such as state twitter accounts, diaspora organizations and political lobbying groups whom are unable to actually defend Israel’s actions on their own merits shift the conversation to more favourable terrain or try to shut it down altogether. One infamous example of this is Bari Weiss, a former New York Times oped editor who is synonymous with complaining about the first world problems of cancel culture and political correctness. This is despite the fact that Weiss herself began her life in the spotlight as a Columbia University Zionist student activist who participated in campaigns to discipline or remove Arab and Muslim academics whose stance on Palestine had offended her

pro-Israel sensibilities and what she deemed to be antisemitic. This was all despite an investigation not only exonerating them but finding that they were victims of incivility and intimidation. This future cancel culture victim’s efforts to silence pro-Palestinian voices were even opposed by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Weiss is not alone here, much of the very top of American politics and media is thoroughly committed to the silencing of pro-Palestinian voices. Indeed, America’s Congress even has proposed bills suggesting fines and even jail time for government contractors who participate in boycotts of Israel, unsettling levels of support among both Republicans and Democrats. This sort of thing is not limited to just America and Israel with the Working Definition of Antisemitism often being used as a tool for censorship in more relatively normal parts of the world.

This situation is extra sticky, as there is no problem with the definition of antisemitism provided but unfortunately among the examples of antisemitism listed is ‘…claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor’. This is a dubious standard to impose as a definition of racism of any sort but particularly so, in the vitally important case of what should and should not be regarded as antisemitism and the potential linkage to anti-Zionism. Even the author of the Working Definition of Antisemitism, Kenneth S Stern, is against its overly broad application as he wrote it primarily for European data collection purposes not as a hate speech code for places such as university campuses. Yet this has not stopped countries and institutions all around the world from adopting the Working Definition nor has it discouraged many Zionists and supporters of Israel from demanding its imposition and berating its critics. Former UK Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, even threatened to cut funding to universities who failed to adopt this definition. It is important to note that any threat Zionist groups, and supporters of Israel, pose to free speech on campus is not due to any sort of Jewish, Globalist or Illuminati world-wide cabal with serious international power as such suggestions are ridiculous and actually antisemitic.