the intercept maybe the floor is yours
for ten ladies and gentlemen we have
been witnessing tonight a deeply cynical
proposition deliver a farrago of straw
men distortions deflections false
accusations
and of course straight-up
pro-israel propaganda
then again hearing
Melanie Phillips come here in champion
the rights of gays in Israel in order to
defend Zionism was well worth the entry
ticket in and of itself so let's be
clear about what this motion is tonight
because it's the motion you all have to
vote on in good conscience the motion
says quote anti-zionism is anti-semitism
it doesn't say some anti Zionists are
anti-semites which is true it doesn't
say anti-zionism can sometimes turn into
anti-semitism which is true it doesn't
say that anti-semites often use anti
Zionism as cover as an excuse for their
bigotry and racism which is true I
wouldn't oppose any of that but that's
not what the motion says the motion says
ridiculously sweepingly offensively a
historically that anti-zionism is anti
sermons that merely being opposed to
Zionism a political ideology remember is
inherently by definition it's so facto
anti-semitic which is absurd think about
the implications of voting for that
tonight you'd be saying every anti
Zionist every anti Zionist is a bigot a
racist and an anti-semite by definition
even the many Jewish and Israeli
anti-zionists so Elon Jewish historian
born and raised in Israel served in the
Israeli military he's an anti-semite
that's what they want you to believe
that's what they want you to vote for
tonight so is the former speaker of
Israel's own Parliament the Knesset
avraham burg melody would say he's a
self-hating Jew so is my intercept
colleague Naomi Klein D acclaimed author
and climate change activists so his Noam
Chomsky he's an anti-semite as well they
want you to vote for them and say that
the thousands of heredia ultra-orthodox
anti Zionist Jews who oppose Zionism for
religious theological
reasons they're on T Semites - that's
what they want that is what they are
asking you to vote for tonight it's
absurd and it's a historical don't take
my word for it listen to the 35 top
Israeli Jewish scholars and academics
historians of the Holocaust who came
together just a few months ago and
published an open letter in which they
wrote and I quote many victims of the
Holocaust
opposed Zionism on the other hand many
anti-semites supported Zionism it is
nonsensical and inappropriate to
identify anti-zionism with anti-semitism
and quote
are they anti-semites - really all 35 of
them by the way in terms of the history
they refer to in their letter it is an
undeniable indisputable fact that many
many European anti-semites has Ilan
alluded to did support Zionism at the
outset they did embrace the founder of
Zionism Theodor Herzl because for their
own selfish racist reasons they shared
his goal of treating Jews as a foreign
separate nation and getting them out of
Europe take British Foreign Secretary
Arthur Balfour author of the 1917
Balfour Declaration in favour of Zionism
Balfour dismissed Jews as quote an alien
and hostile people he sponsored
legislation to keep Jewish refugees out
of the UK the only Jewish member of the
cabinet at that time said edwin samuel
montague opposed a vow for declaration
and called Zionism a mischievous
political Creed yet apparently according
to the proposition tonight Montague's
the anti-semite and Balfour isn't that's
the madness that you're going to vote
for tonight this motion is not just a
historical not just absurd not just
offensive it's a distraction
it's a dangerous distraction from the
very real and murderous anti-semitism
that is on the rise and that comes not
from the left
not from anti-zionists not from the BDS
movement as Melanie would have you
believe but from a resurgent far-right
in Germany according to official figures
in 2017 nine out of ten anti-semitic
hate crimes were carried out by far
right or neo-nazi groups I live in the
u.s. to synagogue attacks in the space
of six months twelve innocent Jewish
Russia was murdered in cold blood
by far right white nationalists and yet
the proposition tonight like the
Netanyahu government like the Trump
administration want you to ludicrously
believe that the threat to Jews right
now the real rise in the new
anti-semitism comes from the
anti-zionists from the BDS movement from
the Palestinians and not from the
murderous far-right when the irony is
that Netanyahu prime minister of the
world's only Jewish state has been
cozying up to some of the worst
anti-semites on the right who also
happened to be proud scientists let's be
clear about that many of the most
prominent influential right-wing
anti-semites today Donald Trump Victor
Orban Steve Bannon they're not
anti-zionists they're hard right hard
cause I honest and powers of Netanyahu
let's also just deal with some of the
can ads we've heard tonight from the
proposition II doubt mentioned that it's
anti-semitic to suggest Israel is born
in sin every black American I know says
to me incest to everyone else that the
United States was born in sin slavery
was a sin at the start of the United
States no one accuses them of being anti
white racists or anti-american racists
it's just a statement of a historical
fact they say the proposition that when
you oppose Zionism you're denying Jews
and no one else a right to
self-determination which is just flat
false not every nation or ethnic group
wants a state gets a state has a state
ask the Kurds ask the Catalans asked the
Scotch there are more than 5000 ethnic
groups in the world today but only 193
member states at the United Nations take
the Druze an Arab ethnic minority group
hundred thousand also live in Israel do
they have a right self-determination if
they create a Druze state inside of
Israel is a net okay with that if any
that says no you can't have a Druze
state if she races towards the Druze
national self-determination doesn't
always correspond with statehood Melanie
says it's not racist for the Kurds to
aspire to statehood she's right it's not
but the flipside of that is true as well
the British government the American
government most of the EU governments do
not support Kurdish statehood does that
mean the British government all of us
are racist towards the Kurds people have
legitimate debates about where state
lines should be drawn which states
should be created how those states exist
it's not racism or
Kotori to have that legitimate date it
can be but it's not by definition the
issue is not whether Jews deserve a
homeland or have a historic connection
to the land of Palestine of course they
do the issue is whether those historic
and religious claims justify creating
and expanding a Jewish majority state in
which one ethnic group is privileged
over another while another group is
permanently disenfranchised dispossessed
and subjected to endless military
occupation that's what we're here to
oppose tonight nothing more nothing less
and has the proposition even stop to ask
what it means to say to that oppressed
group the Palestinian people to say to
them that you're either a Zionist you
either subscribe to the ideology of your
oppressor or you're a racist what kind
of choice is that
Melanie says tonight that denying Jewish
nation hood is racist it's anti-semitic
and yet she has no issue erasing the
Palestinian people from the face of the
planet she said in her speech that only
the Jews have a unique right to
nationhood and state do it in that part
of the world not the Palestinians what
is that is that not bigotry is that not
racism is that not wiping of people off
the face of the planet but this is what
you'll be voting for tonight if you vote
for the proposition this is what the
Israeli pro-israeli argument has always
been to silence the Palestinians to
silence their opposition to occupation
to silence their resistance as
Palestinian citizens living inside of
Israel to a nationalistic ideology which
treats them like second-class citizens
which denies them any of the rights and
privileges of the majority and one thing
I want to make clear to you tonight you
don't have to be an anti Zionist to vote
with me in Ilan tonight you don't even
have to be a critic of Israel you can be
the biggest supporter of Israel in the
world and vote with the opposition all
you have to be someone who recognizes
that it is an egregious smear a naked
slur to claim to label those of us Jews
and non-jews alike who oppose a
political ideology in good faith because
we think it's unjust iniquitous
oppressive to label us as anti-semites
for holding that political view all you
have to be is someone who recognizes
that the claim that we hate or are
opposed to Jews simply because we don't
agree with the idea of a state the
privilege is one group over another
makes us racists so let me repeat to be
clear tonight's debate is not about
Israel per se it's not about whether you
support or oppose Israel or the
occupation it's about whether you
believe the proposition have made the
case that those of us who oppose Israel
in its current form who opposed the
political ideology underpinning it that
we're racists that's the bar that has to
be crossed tonight it's that simple and
I'll tell you this for free those of us
who value our free speech who don't want
to see anti-semitism cynically
weaponized by supporters of Israel who
oppose
that ideology of Zionism in good faith
with good reason
we will not go quietly into the night we
will not be silenced we will not be
bullied
we will not be cowed we will not be
smeared so ladies and gentlemen stand
with us against this unjust inaccurate
irresponsible dishonest ludicrous
simplistic
sweeping motion which conflates Judaism
a great and ancient religion with
Zionism a very modern political ideology
and in doing so risks emptying
anti-semitism of all meaning ladies and
gentlemen stand with us tonight oppose
this awful motion
thanks all for listening and thank
