Dr John Mohan Razu
Whoever talks in derogatory mannerand thus questions the apartheid regime that believes in apartheid, occupation and settlements of the Palestinians are in fact branded as antisemites by the fanatic and corroded minded Jews, Israelis, and Zionists. Jews. The Zionist Jews and fanatic Israelis cleverly used the WW-11holocaust to their advantage inflicting ‘historical guilt’ on those and thus takes advantage of it gaining sympathy and all kinds of favors and benefits. In this war against the Palestinians,we have seen countries such as the United States which shows unflinching solidaritywith the State of Israel because of the fact that Jews, a sizeable number settled in the United States dominate and influence particularlythe American polity, economy, technology, and education. Great Britain,a colonizer of that region gave Israelis the right to settle, and Germany is still caught up with historical guilt which Israel takes advantage.
The Zionist Jews under the garb of antisemitism throttle those who protest and demonstrate or raise slogans against the Jews, particularly in the universities that are located in Israel, United States, Great Britain, and Germany. In recent times in the universities especially in the United States and Israel we have been witnessing a spate of attacks who protests for the Palestinians’ freedom and imposition of ceasefire against the state of Israel eventually meted out with arrests, suspensions, and dismissals of the students. Four months after a contentious congressional hearing have subsequently led to the resignations of two Ivy League presidents, Columbia University’s president appeared before the same committee on the 17th of April, 2024, and unequivocally denounced antisemitism on her campus, rebutting claims that she has allowed Columbia to become a hotbed of hated.
Nemat Shafik said: “Antisemitism has no place on our campus, and I am personally committed to doing everything I can to confront it directly.”Shafik was called before the committee to address questions of antisemitism and the school’s response to conflicts on campus over the Israel-Hamas war. She was originally asked to testify at the House Education and workforce Committee’s hearing in December, 2023, but she declined citing scheduling conflicts. With the advantage of hindsight, Shafik acknowledged there has been a rise in antisemitism in Columbia, but said it’s far from pervasive describing instead a campus split mostly over political differences. She said that “Vast majority” of demonstrations have been peaceful and officials have worked to unite students. “We brought in extra security expertise and had regular contact with NYPD and the FBI.”
Herclaims seemed to have been clashed with one presented by Republicans in Congress and some Jewish students who say antisemitism has gone unchecked at Columbia by citing how a Jewish student was hit with a stick, while displaying posters of Israeli hostages. December 2023 hearings featured the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and the MIT whose responses drew backlash. The presidents of Penn and Harvard have since resigned. In Columbia, those who participated in the protests and demonstrations and pitched tents on the campus have been either arrested or suspended. Some of the students’ scholarships have been terminated. Despite arrests protests and demonstrations across the United States in more than 200 universities and in the world are spreading like wild fire. Similarly, a prominent Palestinian academic Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian who is a professor at Hebrew University specialized on state crimes has been suspended by the authorities after ‘abolish Zionism’ comments. He has also been booked under ‘incitement’ criminal charges. In Germany is still worse. Because of the historical guilt in Germany everyone is supposed to take an undertaking not to get involved in the usage of antisemite rhetoric against the Jews. Israel being an occupying power and apartheid state is involved in all kinds of criminal and inhumane activities.
Notably, the Jews brought the term ‘anti-Semite’ that describes as “a person who is hostile to or prejudiced against Jewish people— “he was not just a bigot, but also an anti-Semite”. This came into prominence after the WW 11 holocaust of the Jews. Since then, the Jews have been using this term as a protective mechanism to guard against.The ironyis barring a few teachers, in most of the theological colleges and institutions teach the first five books of the Jewish Bible in Old Testament (Torah) eulogizing ‘Chosen People’ and ‘Promised Land’ and the Jews/Israelis which tantamount to the perpetuation of the interpretation of the dominant as against the subaltern communities. This in-turn is reflected in the churches and amongst the Christian communities who blindly support the Jewish Zionism. There are some who are against Zionism, but not antisemites. Zionist Jews tends to equate as: Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism, which is an aberration and distortion.
Those who oppose Zionism and its ideological underpinnings based on certain parameters do not hate the Jews and Israelis. Within the Jewish community there are those who do not subscribe to Zionist ideology who the Zionists call them as antisemites. Therefore, the construction of “Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism” is dubious and therefore should be fought out. These two are different and ought to be seen in distinct ways. Interestingly, those from Global South went for higher theological education especially to specialize in Biblical Studies and more specifically in the areas of Old Testament have assimilated the Biblical history of the Israelites in toto and continues to base their Old Testament theologies especially while exegeting and interpreting on themes such as ‘Promised Land’and ‘Chosen Race’, ‘Exilic and Post-Exilic periods’, ‘Yahweh, the Protector’ revolve around the Western Zionist interpretations that pitches heavily on colonial methods and methodological consideration.
Similarly in the biblical disciplines we have an array of methods such as Post-Colonial or Post-Modern or Post-Critical Re-constructionist that went beyond Western traditional methods, but hardly have we seen application of critical methods in their writings in the context of Israel’s war on Palestinians. By and large, in India Christian Zionists have grown in substantial number because of their teachings in the Indian theological colleges and preaching in the churches by offering enormous credence to the Israelites’ biblical history. The inter-play between academia and ecclesia in pushing a cozy picture of Israel by ignoring critical theories of Zionism and anti-Semitism have not dented into. More and more discourses and writing keep emerging on Jewish Zionism and Anti-Semitism. There are expatriates serving in theological academia in USA, UK, Germany, and Canada in particular tow the lines of these countries—for survival.
