What “Conflating Advocacy for Palestinian Rights with Hatred of Jewish People” Spawned

Share

JOSH RUEBNER, josh at progressupconsulting.com, @joshruebner
Ruebner is author of the books Israel: Democracy or Apartheid State? and Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace.
President Trump commented Tuesday: “Where has the Democratic Party gone? Where have they gone where they’re defending these two people over the State of Israel? I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat — it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

Ruebner tweeted: “Trump is a vile white supremacist. But every organization, politician (including Dems), and talking head who decided it was a good idea to weaponize anti-semitism by conflating advocacy for Palestinian rights with hatred of Jewish people owns a tiny little piece of his comments.”

Ruebner wrote the piece “Republicans push BDS bill to paint Dems as anti-Semites, and party leadership falls for the trap,” for Mondoweiss in May. He wrote: “A spokesperson for [Democratic Majority Leader Steny] Hoyer confirmed to Mondoweiss that the legislation he referred to is H.Res.246, introduced by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) in March and supported currently by 256 other Representatives. In addition to formally putting Congress on the record as being opposed to boycotts for Palestinian rights, the resolution also opposes ‘all efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel,’ a phrase often utilized to equate criticism of Israeli policies with anti-Semitism.”

See also his followup piece last month “U.S. House of Representatives condemns boycotts for Palestinian rights” for the Electronic Intifada.