Passover 2002: A Tale of Two Massacres
The Use & Misuse of the Term “Massacre” Today
The term “massacre” is a powerful rhetorical tool, conjuring up feelings of moral disgust and revulsion in the face of wanton cruelty and depravity.
Thus, when Israel referred to the Park Hotel suicide bombing as the “Passover Massacre,” it was not only an appropriate designation but also meant to convey the enormity of the attack’s cruelty and monstrosity.
Similarly, when the Palestinians falsely claimed that a massacre had taken place in Jenin, this was intended to not only besmirch the Jewish state but also to provoke a visceral emotional reaction against Israel and in support of the Palestinians.
Over the past 20 years, there have been a number of similar cases where the word “massacre” is thrown around so as to provoke an emotional reaction against Israel and its actions, even when the incident in question does not qualify as a massacre.
This includes Al Jazeera’s use of the term “Passover Massacre” to refer to the killing of violent rioters along the Israel-Gaza border in March 2018, the claim of a second “Jenin Massacre” during clashes between the IDF and Palestinian gunmen in January 2023 and the allegations of a massacre in Nablus during clashes between the IDF and Palestinian gunmen at that time.
When the word “massacre” is used haphazardly in order to make a political point rather than accurately describe a violent incident, it not only weakens the import of the word but also lessens the severity of events that can correctly be termed “massacres,” such as the Baruch Goldstein massacre of Muslim worshippers in 1994 and the Kafir Qasim massacre in the Arab town in 1956.
Thus, it is important that, when reporting on incidents of violence, journalists are careful with their words so as to not aid in the spreading of false libels or diminishing the import of events that can correctly be deemed a “massacre.”
Jonathan Tobin: An obsession with diversity leaves plenty of room for hate
DEI education is now inextricably linked to critical race theory teachings in which all people are divided into two groups: oppressors and victims. In the mindset of CRT ideology and intersectionality, Jews and Israel are falsely depicted as white oppressors of people of color. That’s because intersectional thinking falsely analogizes the Palestinian war on Israel with the struggle for civil rights in the United States.
Diversity is therefore merely a matter of empowering designated minority groups who are deemed victims. Since in the leftist mindset of those who have been indoctrinated in woke doctrine Jews are the bad guys, their rights are trashed, and smears aimed at boosting efforts to destroy Israel are naturally promoted.
As a study conducted by the Heritage Foundation discovered, diversity officers are making college campuses a hostile environment for Jews because of their anti-Zionist attitudes.
In this manner, CRT teaching gives a permission slip to antisemitism. That’s reflected not just in debates on college campuses, where these noxious theories had their origins. But it has also influenced a wide range of educational activities, as a lawsuit aimed at exposing the Jew-hatred in the so-called “liberated ethnic studies” programs being used in California schools has shown.
Nor has the ADL shown itself immune to these awful trends.
As a Fox News Digital exposé showed last fall, the curricula the ADL has been handing out to schools as part of its “No Place for Hate” program included CRT teachings about “white privilege”; the need to address the problems of “whiteness”; praise for the antisemitic Women’s March group; and support for the idea of contemporary American paying reparations to those whose ancestors were enslaved.
The ADL claimed that it was a mistake, but the presence of this material in their work was entirely in keeping with the organization’s actions and decisions under Greenblatt as he has made it a priority to stay in sync with fashionable radical ideas about race in order to avoid being tagged as reactionaries by their left-wing allies.
When placed in this context, how can anyone be surprised that a “No Place for Hate” school would wind up being the setting for an outrageous incident of open antisemitism?
The question now is not so much how to fix the mess at Bloomfield Hills High School that the obsession with a particular idea about diversity has caused. It’s whether the ADL itself and its entire massively funded apparatus of anti-hate education is now so badly compromised by woke ideas that it cannot be salvaged. While the mission of the group is still vital, the available evidence leads to the inescapable conclusion that at this point, the ADL may be doing a great deal more harm than good.
Jews entering an Arab town are risking their lives.
— Common Sense (@barry100CA) March 30, 2023
What Happens When a Muslim Women Enters a Jewish Town in #Israel#FreePalestine from the brutal corrupt dictatorships of the #PalestinianAuthority & #Hamas pic.twitter.com/zIfErsXBEV
New Executive Director of Human Rights Watch has Anti-Israel History
Human Rights Watch, an NGO with a history of anti-Israel advocacy, announced its interim executive director Tirana Hassan will now hold the position permanently.Unpacked: 4 Things The BDS Movement Doesn't Want You To Know
“Different leader, same antisemitic, Israel-obsessed, Jew-hating,” Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, tweeted of Hassan’s appointment.
In 2014, Hassan tweeted: “When Israel strikes ‘targets’ and takes out large civilian casualties it’s sloppy, reckless and illegal.”
“My commitment to justice and human rights is drawn from lived experience. My family—from Pakistan to Jaffna in Sri Lanka to Singapore—faced the kinds of threats to their human rights that we are combating today in communities around the world,” Hassan said in a video that the NGO posted on Twitter.
“We are living in an era where facts are up to debate,” she added.
Throughout modern history, boycotts have proven to be a powerful tool for defeating oppression and advancing change. Yet, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement that aims to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel actually hurts the Palestinian economy and disrupts efforts towards peace.