Letters to the Editor: Is anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism? Readers debate
To the editor: Is it antisemitic to be anti-Zionist? The answer should be a resounding no. (“Is Zionism patriotism or racism? Big disagreements over a word in use for 125 years,” May 22)
It is important to distinguish between the compelling case for a Jewish homeland after centuries of Christian oppression of Jews in Europe, and the questionable method by which this homeland was established.
Totally absent from current discourse is the time between the ending stages of World War II and 1948, when the state of Israel was established. There is no mention of the Zionist terrorist gangs whose deadly acts were no less hideous and far more effective than those of Hamas. Several future Israeli prime ministers were leaders in these gangs.
I consider myself pro-Jewish, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian, but anti-Netanyahu, anti-Hamas and anti-Zionist. The campaign of intimidating those who oppose the “keep Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of jail” government is doing a great disservice to Israel.
Jamshed Dastur, Newport Beach
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To the editor: Here is all we need to know about the meaning of Zionism.
Have you ever noticed that Hamas spokespeople never say the word “Israel” or “Israeli”? They do this deliberately because they do not recognize the legality of Israel, and to say the country’s name would bestow legitimacy upon it.
They say “Zionist” to refer to Israelis, and they often refer to the country as “the occupation.” Non-Israelis who support the legitimacy of Israel are also called Zionists.
In polite society, where people are constrained from using epithets to describe Jews, “Zionist” is an acceptable alternative. This gives people the opportunity to hate Jews under the guise of criticizing Israel.
Larry Shapiro, Calgary, Canada
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To the editor: At the risk of being called an antisemite, I want to offer an alternative view regarding your article on Zionism.
A genocide is occurring against the Palestinians in Gaza right now, but your article does not mention that. Palestinians in the West Bank are being displaced to make way for Jewish-only settlements.
The article focuses on the Jewish people’s right to have a homeland. OK, Israel has a right to exist. But if the Jewish people have a right to a homeland, why not acknowledge that the Palestinians also have the same right?
The consequences of Zionism have been the displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. So to continually highlight the need for a homeland for Jews while diminishing that same need for the Palestinian people has caused enormous outrage and despair.
Jane Demian, Los Angeles
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To the editor: In one of your articles about UCLA Chancellor Gene Block’s testimony to a House committee, we’re told the following:
“Almost as soon as activists set up a Palestinian solidarity encampment ... Jewish students and faculty complained that demonstrators established checkpoints restricting access to many students, at times singling out students they identified as Zionists. But other Jewish students helped set up the camp, arguing it was not antisemitic, but anti-Zionist.”
The slide from the topic of discriminatory checkpoints to the Jews who helped establish them illustrates Orwell’s observation, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”
You don’t have to be a Zionist or an anti-Zionist to see that these checkpoints evoked the ghettoizations, expulsions, cleansings and exclusion systems that non-Jewish communities have inflicted upon Jews for thousands of years.
The fact that only some Jews were targeted for dehumanization doesn’t absolve these officious, yellow-vested students of publicly abusing and humiliating Jewish students. If that isn’t antisemitic, what is it?
Jo Perry, Studio City
