“This is like a panel to fight anti-Semitism featuring Goebbels, Himmler and Goehring,” a Twitter user responded.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
After an announcement that outspoken BDS supporter and Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI) is set to speak on a panel about anti-Semitism, the event’s organizer, the far-left Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), is facing heavy backlash on Twitter.
In 2019, Tlaib was banned from visiting Israel alongside her colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN) for supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The other speakers on the panel, titled “Dismantling anti-Semitism, Winning Justice,” include Professor Marc Lamont Hill, who called for “a free Palestine from the river to the sea” in a 2018 speech to the UN.
The phrase is often used by groups who reject negotiations or compromise with the Jewish state. Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, also uses the phrase.
Hill later apologized for his choice of words.
Alongside Tlaib and Hill, Barbara Ransby, a historian and writer, is scheduled to speak on the panel.
After participating in a 2011 women’s delegation to “occupied Palestine,” Ransby wrote that the Palestinians are “living and struggling…against the Israeli project of apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”
In July, Peter Beinart, the sole Jewish panelist, wrote a New York Times op-ed titled “I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State.”
Beinart explained in the piece that he is no longer in favor of a two-state solution. He wrote that best solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict is a new state, encompassing Israel and the Palestinian areas, which would be a democracy and have a non-Jewish majority.
“Come hear @RashidaTlaib, @PeterBeinart, @BarbaraRansby and @marclamonthill
discuss how to fight antisemitism – and how to fight back against false charges of antisemitism that seek to undermine progressive movements for justice,” tweeted JVP.
“This like a panel to fight anti-Semitism featuring Goebbels, Himmler and Goehring,” a Twitter user responded.
“You forgot to invite David Duke and Louis Farrakhan,” wrote another.
“You want to know how to dismantle anti-Semitism? Start by not speaking over Jews about what anti-Semitism is,” tweeted prominent Mizrahi activist Hen Mazzig.
When Twitter users asked Hill why he felt qualified to speak on a panel about anti-Semitism, he deflected.
“How would you react to a ‘Dismantle Racism’ panel excluded POC [people of color], excluded individuals who are scholars on combatting racism, and have publicly displayed different levels of dog whistling/anti-semitism?” Ethiopian-Israeli activist Ashager Araro asked Hill.
Hill did not answer Araro.
“Ashager, Marc won’t engage with you or me, he knows what he’s doing,” Mazzig replied.
“He doesn’t want to speak with an Ethiopian Israeli Jewish Woman nor with a Mizrahi Israeli. The narrative they’re setting up for Jews is all about erasing people like you and I.”
JVP “is the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. “Despite the neutral tone of its name, JVP works to demonstrate Jewish opposition to the State of Israel and to steer public support away from the Jewish State.”