Jonathan Cook
The year ended with two terrible setbacks for those seeking justice for the Palestinian people.
One was the defeat in the British election of Jeremy Corbyn - a European leader with a unique record of solidarity with Palestinians. He had suffered four years of media abuse, recasting his activism as evidence of antisemitism. The second was a new executive order issued by US President Donald Trump that embraced a controversial new definition of antisemitism. It sought to conflate criticism of Israel, Palestinian activism and the upholding of international law with hatred of Jews.
The year ended with two terrible setbacks for those seeking justice for the Palestinian people
The order was designed to chill speech on campuses, one of the few public spaces left in the US where Palestinian voices are still heard. These moves have recently been replicated elsewhere in France and Germany.
There are more such curbs on the horizon.
Boris Johnson, fresh from winning the UK election, has promised to ban local authorities from supporting a boycott of Israel, while his antisemitism adviser is threatening to shut down online media outlets critical of Israel - ones that also happen to have been supportive of Corbyn.
Two political constituencies are behind these laws and resolutions - and neither is concerned about protecting Jews. One faction includes western centrist parties that were supposed to have overseen a quarter of a century of peacemaking in the Middle East. Not only did their limited, Israel-centric version of peace fail, but it achieved the opposite of its proclaimed goal. Israel exploited western passivity to entrench and expand the occupation, and to intensify racist legislation inside Israel.
The other is the resurgent, racist right and far-right. They can point to their love of Israel, emulating its brand of Jewish nationalism, as they whip up a wave of white nationalist, anti-immigrant fervour at home.
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