By their own definitions, anti-Zionists are racist ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

By their own definitions, anti-Zionists are racist

Over the past few years, a new term has emerged from the anti-Zionist activists: the idea that being against a Palestinian state is a form of racism.

The most prominent definition of "anti-Palestinian racism" comes from a monograph by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association:

WHAT IS ANTI-PALESTINIAN RACISM?
Anti-Palestinian racism is a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives. Anti-Palestinian racism takes various forms including: denying the Nakba and justifying violence against Palestinians; failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an Indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine; erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians; excluding or pressuring others to exclude Palestinian perspectives, Palestinians and their allies; defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently antisemitic, a terrorist threat/sympathizer or opposed to democratic values.

"The Meaning of Nakba," 1948

This means that if I note that there were no people who self-identified as "Palestinian" before the 20th century, or that the "nakba" should be defined the way that it was originally defined by the person who coined the word in 1948, or that a majority of Palestinians trace their ancestry back to the Arabian Peninsula or elsewhere outside the Levant, or that the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs support terrorism against Jews in Israel, I am a racist.

That is absurd, since all of those assertions are correct.

In fact, the first example given in the paper says that a media company not allowing someone to refer to "Palestine" as an existing political entity is also an anti-Palestinian racist.

Here's the hypocrisy: if speaking out against Palestinian nationalism or pointing out historic truths about Palestinian history are racist, then what exactly is anti-Zionism?

Zionism as a national movement pre-dates Palestinian nationalism. In fact, Palestinian nationalism wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Zionism - it is entirely a response to Zionism and has no coherent positive vision for a Palestinian state.

How can opposing Palestinian nationalism be racist - and opposing Jewish nationalism, which calls for the safety of a well-defined people who've existed for 3,000 years, be principled?

How can opposition to a Palestinian state which has never existed be racist, but calling for the dismantling of the existing 77 year old Jewish state not be racist?

True, Israelis aren't a race. But neither are Palestinians.

Indeed, Palestinianism is inherently antisemitic, since from its inception the only consistent way to explain their activities is their opposition to Jewish sovereignty. The percentage of Palestinians who accept the idea of a Jewish state side by side with a Palestinian state is pretty close to zero, since they all insist on the "right of return" to Israel, not "Palestine."

The insistence that purely political opinion or even historic fact can be racist, while they claim that their own opposition to Israel is political and not antisemitic, proves their hypocrisy as well as anything can.