Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
15 September
ANTI-ARAB RACISM AT THE HEART OF ZIONISM
On this day in 2018, Zionist Organisation of America National President, Morton A. Klein tweeted about “filthy Arabs” and subsequently defended his choice of words against criticism. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee called Klein “a racist and a bigot” and called for him to be “shunned by Jewish organisations ” but US mainstream Jewish organisations remained silent. Klein has called for Rashida Tlaib to be removed from United States Democratic Party for anti-semitic comments.العنصرية المعادية للعرب هي في صميم الصهيونية
سبتمبر15
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2018، غرد رئيس منظمة الصهاينة الأمريكية الوطنية مورتون كلاين عن "العرب القذرين" ودافع بعد ذلك عن اختياره للكلمات بعد انتقادها. وصفت اللجنة الأمريكية العربية لمناهضة التمييز كلاين بأنه "عنصري ومتعصب" ودعت إلى "نبذه من قبل المنظمات اليهودية" ولكن المنظمات اليهودية السائدة في الولايات المتحدة ظلت صامتة. دعا كلاين إلى طرد رشيدة طليب من الحزب الديمقراطي في الولايات الامريكية بسبب تعليقاتها المعادية للسامية.
Facing criticism over his use of the slur “filthy Arab” in a tweet, Zionist Organization of America national president Morton Klein repeated the phrase in a voicemail to the Forward — and pointedly refused to back down. Klein asserted in the lengthy voicemail that he had meant that “Arab murderers are filthy Arabs,” and that he had been referring to the Palestinian killer of Israeli-American Ari Fuld in the offensive tweet, which he has not deleted.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s national legal and policy director, Abed Ayoub, called Klein a “racist and a bigot” in a statement to the Forward, and called for him to be “shunned by Jewish organizations and pushed to the fringes where he belongs.”
Mainstream US Jewish groups remained all but silent. The Anti-Defamation League, which emphasizes its work opposing hate speech of all forms, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from journalists.
The ZOA is a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, members of which are party to a secret agreement not to attack each other in public. The Forward first revealed the existence of the secret agreement in a report this past March.
Online, young Jewish activists have been increasingly critical of the mainstream organization’s silence on Klein’s slurs. Yonah Lieberman, a leader of the upstart anti-establishment Jewish activist group IfNotNow, asked on Twitter if left-leaning members of the Conference of Presidents would ask for the expulsion of Klein’s ZOA from the organization. “Every day you don’t speak out against Mort is a stain on your organization,” Lieberman wrote.
Click here to watch the whole of the excellent Israeli film, Defamation, on the exaggeration and manufacturing of anti-semitism. The section 17m to 20m is a must-view.
