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Monday, October 06, 2008

The secular Neturei Karta

What do you do if you are ethnically Jewish, hate Israel but hate the Jewish religion too?

You make your own tiny, ineffective organization to find people like you so you can kvetch about Israeli crimes!

The "International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network" just started and it is a funny case study on wacky Israel bashers:
For the past two years, we have been building an international network of anti-Zionist Jews to support existing and seed new Jewish anti-Zionist organizing in solidarity with Palestinian resistance. The enemy we face is international, and what we can do is limited unless we find ways to work together across boundaries and regions.

We are building an international voice which challenges Zionism and its claim to speak on behalf of Jews worldwide. As an international force, we can contribute to the movement to defeat Israeli colonialism. Click here to read more about the history of IJAN.

The site, which has more than its share of broken links, naturally has nothing "Jewish" about it, as to these people the only purpose of Judaism is to use it to gain legitimacy in their joining the masses of anti-semites in their quest to destroy Jewish self-determination.

Just like the Neturei Karta, only without the black hats.

So you will not find reference to anything Jewish at all on this site; nor will you find anyone who also wants to fight for human rights in the Arab world (for Jews or anyone else.) Although they will pretend to have a vague sort of "spirituality."

It used to be called the "International Jewish Solidarity Network" but apparently that was too generic for these wackos, plus it is easier to pronounce IJAN than IJSN or IJAZN.

But the funniest part of this organization is the new niche in Jewish Israel-bashing that it attempts: it pretends to be fighting for the rights of Mizrachi Jews (from Arab countries) in Israel!

Yes, the IJAN is dredging up Israeli racism from five decades ago in an attempt to say that Israel is racist against some Jews today.

We are a network of Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Arab and African descent), Jews from the global South, and Jews of Color living in Western countries. The IJAZ Network is committed to challenging the white racism within Jewish communities and the privileging of Ashkenazi Jewish traditions, history and culture.

As such, the JoC-Mizrahi Network seeks to promote the voices, cultural work, writing and activism of Jews of Color, Jews from the global South and Mizrahi Jews. IJAZ is committed to confronting the role of white anti-Zionist Jewish activists and activism in undermining alliances between Mizrahi Jews and Palestinians in their struggles against Zionism.

Purpose and goals: Some of the project ideas have included:

  • Increase visibility of the voices, cultural work, writing and activism of Jews of Color, Jews from the global South and Mizrahi Jews
  • Support the building of joint Mizrahi-Palestinian struggles against Zionist colonialism and racism
  • Support the inclusion of Mizrahi anti-Zionist voices and perspectives in anti-imperialist movements

Current projects: Building of off interest from our Mizrahi Jewish organizers in Israel, there is interest in an international digital storytelling project to capture the histories and perspectives of Mizrahi anti-Zionists, anti-Zionist Jews of Color and anti-Zionist Jews from the global South.

As far as I can tell, this "network" has approximately one person, give or take one.

If any segment of Jewish society in Israel is anti-Arab, it is the Jews from Arab countries. They are the ones who know what it is like living as real second class citizens in Arab countries and the idea that they would prefer to live in an Arab-dominated "Palestine" is beyond absurd.

There are, unfortunately, no shortage of Jews who care nothing about their own culture except to use it as ammunition against their own people. Watching them flail is amusing but ultimately these people end up sinking and disappearing in their own sea of hate.