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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/biden-launches-new-plan-censor-criticism-israel">electronicintifada.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Biden launches new plan to censor criticism of Israel</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">May 26, 2023<br></div>
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<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2023-05/fw_5bobwias4-qn.jpeg?itok=YoHcDQPf×tamp=1685113575" alt="Man stands at podium flanked by other officials" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="261"></span><p>Douglas
Emhoff, center, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, launches the
Biden administration’s national strategy to combat anti-Semitism, at the
White House in Washington, DC, 25 May. (<a href="https://twitter.com/SecondGentleman/status/1661829496679411715">via Twitter</a>)</p><p>The Biden administration on Thursday <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-releases-first-ever-u-s-national-strategy-to-counter-antisemitism/">launched</a> what it is billing as the “first-ever US national strategy” to counter anti-Semitism.</p>
<p>The initiative, spearheaded by Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice
President Kamala Harris, received a warm welcome from Israel lobbyists
who helped shape it, and who will play a key role in implementing it.</p>
<p>That’s not surprising since what it amounts to is a high-level
attempt by President Joe Biden to further ostracize and censor support
for Palestinian rights and criticism of Israel’s increasingly fanatical
regime of ethno-religious supremacy, occupation and apartheid, all
underpinned by the brutal settler-colonization of Palestinian land.</p>
<p>What is more surprising is that the plan has also been endorsed by
CAIR, a prominent Muslim American group that purports to support
advocacy for Palestinian rights.
</p>
Although it never uses the word Zionism, the Biden strategy further
cements a key Israel lobby goal: equating criticism of Israel and its <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/why-zionism-racism">racist state ideology</a>, on the one hand, with anti-Jewish bigotry and persecution of Jews, on the other.
<p>A lengthy “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-releases-first-ever-u-s-national-strategy-to-counter-antisemitism/">fact sheet</a>”
released by the White House states that in launching the strategy, the
Biden administration “reaffirms the United States’ unshakable commitment
to the state of Israel’s right to exist, its legitimacy, and its
security” and “makes clear that when Israel is singled out because of
anti-Jewish hatred, that is anti-Semitism.”
</p>
By this standard, calling for a single, democratic state in all of
historic Palestine, where Palestinians and Israeli Jews would enjoy full
and equal rights, could be construed as “anti-Semitism” because it
denies Israel’s alleged “right to exist.”
<p>Similarly, telling the true history of Israel’s creation as a “Jewish
state” – the carefully planned and executed ethnic cleansing of
Palestine’s non-Jewish Indigenous majority in 1947-49 by Zionist
militias and the Israeli army – could be interpreted as questioning
Israel’s “legitimacy.”
</p>
<h2>Crackdown on campus</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/U.S.-National-Strategy-to-Counter-Antisemitism.pdf">60-page strategy document</a> itself goes even further in blurring the lines between criticism of Israel and discriminating against Jews.</p>
<p>Citing a survey from the pro-Israel group the Anti-Defamation League,
the White House plan asserts that “over 50 percent of Jewish students
feel they pay a social cost if they support the existence of Israel as a
Jewish state.”</p>
<p>“On college campuses, Jewish students, educators and administrators
have been derided, ostracized and sometimes discriminated against
because of their actual or perceived views on Israel,” the plan claims.</p>
<p>“All students, educators and administrators should feel safe and free
from violence, harassment and intimidation on their campuses,” the
strategy says. “Far too many do not have this sense of security because
of their actual or perceived views on Israel.”</p>
<p>These assertions endorse the long-standing Israel lobby claim that
supporting Zionism and the brutal policies Israel uses to enforce what
the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid">accurately describes</a> as apartheid and Jewish supremacy is a part of Jewish identity.
</p>
By this logic, criticizing Israel and its horrifying abuses of
Palestinian rights and violations of international law becomes an
impermissible attack on the identity and feelings of Jewish students or
educators, requiring intervention.
<p>While no one should face violence or unlawful discrimination for
their views, neither do they have a right to express racist and bigoted
views without paying a “social cost.” In a free society, people rightly
express their disgust when others voice their bigotry in public.</p>
<p>It cuts little ice when people who display the Confederate flag claim
this is merely an expression of their “heritage” and not a signifier of
their racism.</p>
<p>Similarly, just because a Jewish or non-Jewish person defines their
support for Israel’s institutionalized anti-Palestinian bigotry and
violence as part of their “identity” or “faith” does not exempt them
from criticism.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the Israel lobby’s favored tactic for enforcing
pro-Israel discipline on campuses has been to file bogus complaints
against various universities to the US Department of Education under <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/title-vi-civil-rights-act">Title VI of the US Civil Rights Act</a>.</p>
<p>The complaints generally assert that school administrators are
failing to protect Jewish students by not cracking down sufficiently on
Palestine solidarity activism.</p>
<p>In legal terms, this tactic has been a failure as the complaints have <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/trump-administration-moves-curb-campus-criticism-israel">invariably been thrown out</a>.</p>
<p>But they still have a potential chilling effect by embroiling
colleges in lengthy and costly federal investigations with all the
attendant bad publicity that comes with being accused of facilitating
anti-Semitism.</p>
<p>The intent appears to be to make school administrators over-cautious
and proactively limit speech related to Palestine so as to avoid such
investigations.</p>
<h2>Who gets to feel “safe”?</h2>
<p>The White House strategy actually turns reality on its head.</p>
<p>While emphasizing the right of pro-Israel Jewish students to express
their anti-Palestinian racism without suffering any opprobrium, the
strategy ignores the very real harassment, punishment, <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/harvards-reversal-ken-roth-decisive-defeat-israel-lobby">censorship</a>, <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/court-tosses-israel-lobby-lawsuit-against-us-scholars">nuisance lawsuits</a> and <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/israel-lobby-smeared-palestinian-american-professor-then-got-him-fired">firings</a> that have for decades targeted both Jewish and non-Jewish students and educators who support Palestinian rights.
</p>
Few if any university administrations have taken any action to protect
their students from the smear campaigns of Zionist organizations like <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/canary-mission">Canary Mission</a>, which aim to <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/censored-film-names-adam-milstein-canary-mission-funder/25356">sabotage</a> their future career prospects if they have the temerity to express solidarity with Palestine.
<p>Don’t those students and professors have a right to feel “safe?”</p>
<p>Yet the new Biden administration approach endorses Israel lobby
censorship tactics by underlining that in the context of “fighting”
anti-Semitism, the Department of Education will be “reminding schools of
their legal obligation” under Title VI “to address complaints of
discrimination.”</p>
<p>We can therefore expect a new flurry of such complaints backed by
Israel lobby groups targeting students who advocate for equality for
Palestinians.</p>
<h2>Social media censorship</h2>
<p>The Biden push for more censorship not only targets campuses, but the internet as well, where the White House strategy <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-releases-first-ever-u-s-national-strategy-to-counter-antisemitism/">calls</a> on online platforms to ensure that terms of service and community standards “explicitly cover anti-Semitism.”</p>
<p>It also urges a policy of “zero-tolerance for hate speech” and calls for online platforms to “permanently ban repeat offenders.”</p>
<p>The White House calls on Congress to pass a slew of legislation
encouraging this form of censorship – one of the few Biden
administrations proposals likely to be met with bipartisan support.</p>
<p>Given that Israel lobby groups <a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/technology-science/1668609945-180-ngos-call-on-elon-musk-to-fight-antisemitism-on-twitter">have been pressuring</a> social media firms to adopt the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ihra-definition-anti-semitism">so-called IHRA definition of anti-Semitism</a>,
it is no mystery where a further online crackdown will lead: more
suppression and censorship of voices supporting Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>This is because the controversial IHRA “definition,” which is
promoted by the Israeli government, aims to systematically conflate
criticism of Israel and Zionism with anti-Semitism.</p>
<h2>Muslim American group gives endorsement</h2>
<p>Biden’s national anti-Semitism strategy has been <a href="https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-welcomes-biden-administrations-commitment-to-comprehensive-approach-to-combating-antisemitism-islamophobia/">endorsed</a>
by numerous organizations including CAIR – the Council on
American-Islamic Relations – which praises the administration because it
supposedly “does not adopt the disputed IHRA definition of
anti-Semitism as binding policy.”</p>
<p>The White House strategy acknowledges that there “are several
definitions of anti-Semitism, which serve as valuable tools to raise
awareness” – something CAIR spins as a victory – but the strategy does
explicitly state that the United States government has “embraced” the
IHRA definition.</p>
<p>Underscoring that position, 25 Israel lobby groups immediately put out a <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/joint-statement-25-jewish-communal-organizations-response-white-house">statement</a> – that the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/26/what-they-are-saying-bipartisan-state-and-local-leaders-faith-based-organizations-and-advocates-applaud-release-of-white-house-national-strategy-to-counter-antisemitism/">linked</a> from its website – to “welcome the embrace” by the Biden administration of the IHRA definition.</p>
<p>CAIR also asserts that the White House document uses language “which
makes clear that these national strategies should not be used to either
infringe upon the constitutional guarantees of free speech or to
conflate bigotry with human rights activism, including advocacy for
Palestinian freedom and human rights.”</p>
<p>The Muslim American group also expresses relief that the Biden
strategy “does not declare that criticism of or opposition to the
Israeli occupation is inherently anti-Semitic, as some civil and human
rights groups feared the strategy would.”
</p>
But CAIR appears either not to have carefully read the document or to be
willfully ignoring its contents, perhaps in pursuit of a seat at the
proverbial table. (As <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-releases-first-ever-u-s-national-strategy-to-counter-antisemitism/">part</a>
of the White House strategy, CAIR will be launching “a tour to educate
religious communities about steps they can take to protect their houses
of worship from hate incidents.”)
<p>In an effort to market Biden’s policy, CAIR focuses on the strategy’s
assertion that “when Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or
their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish
hatred, that is anti-Semitism. And that is unacceptable.”</p>
<p>CAIR claims: “This clear distinction based on the motivation for
criticism of Israel highlights the administration’s commitment to
combating anti-Semitism while safeguarding free speech and the right to
engage in human rights activism.”</p>
<p>But it does no such thing. The distinction CAIR celebrates is utterly
meaningless when major Israel lobby groups such as the ADL <a href="https://twitter.com/JGreenblattADL/status/1659686448138706946">increasingly assert</a> that any opposition to Zionism and Israel is flat-out anti-Jewish hatred.</p>
<p>Israel lobby groups impute anti-Jewish motivation to virtually all criticism of Israel.</p>
<p>Cracking down on Palestinian solidarity activism does not necessarily
require the federal government itself to put people in prison or ban
their speech.</p>
<p>All it needs is for the government to foster a favorable environment
for the Israel lobby, private companies, universities and social media
platforms to escalate censorship, intimidation and repression – and that
is exactly what this strategy seeks to do and how Israel lobby groups
will use it.</p>
<p>But now they will have the cover and endorsement of CAIR.</p>
<h2>Targeting Black athletes</h2>
<p>The Biden administration <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-releases-first-ever-u-s-national-strategy-to-counter-antisemitism/">boasts</a>
that its strategy includes “over 100 new actions and over 100 calls to
action” to combat what it calls anti-Semitism on campuses, online and in
the “whole of society.”</p>
<p>This will include various major sports leagues such as the NBA.</p>
<p>According to the White House fact sheet, the basketball league will
take players on tours “combining travel to places like Selma, Alabama,
Auschwitz, the Japanese Internment Camps and Yad Vashem in Israel,” all
supposedly to help them “examine issues of race, anti-Semitism and the
historical legacy of discrimination.”</p>
<p>After visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, the
players will undoubtedly be treated to a full-court Israeli propaganda
tour.</p>
<p>This Biden-backed attempt at re-education and pro-Israel
indoctrination of NBA players is no doubt driven by the Israel’s lobby’s
growing alarm at the willingness of top athletes, many of whom are
Black, to <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/israel-causes-american-sports-stars-break-their-silence-here-s-n1267179">speak out in support of Palestinian rights</a>.
</p>
Despite the fanfare around this “first-ever” national strategy, there is
little substantially new in it in terms of Israel lobby tactics. Most
of what the strategy calls for is already in place.
<p>But with the full support of the Democratic Party leadership, the
lobby is demanding an intensification of this censorship and
intimidation, as support for Israel <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/polls">continues to erode</a>, especially among younger Americans.</p>
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