On Anti-Semitism and Zionist Racism
by Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 22.12.2018, http://www.the-isleague.com
The famous black author Alice Walker who wrote "The Color Purple" and is a supporter of the Palestinian people, has been accused of anti-Semitism because last weekend, the New York Times published an interview with her in which she recommended the book “And the Truth Shall Set You Free” by David Icke. It is possible that Icke is an anti-Semite though he denies it. Since I did not read his books I will not take a position on his books. One reason Alice Walker is accused of anti-Semitism is her denunciation of the Talmud. There is a reason why educated black people hate the Talmud. In 1994, a Lenni Brenner letter was published in the NYT. In this letter he wrote:
In "Jews Had Negligible Role in Slave Trade" (letter, Feb. 14), Harold Brackman denies the claim by Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, that Mr. Brackman's 1977 Ph.D. dissertation proved that the Talmud's compilers " 'invented' racism by concocting the so-called 'Ham myth'. " According to Mr. Brackman, "None of my conclusions correspond to this vicious libel."
But this is what the youthful Mr. Brackman actually wrote:
"The opening centuries of the Christian era constituted an interregnum in the native African record of historical achievement separating Cush's era of ancient prominence from the medieval accomplishments of the great Negro states of the Sudan. These same centuries formed the seedbed of rabbinic Judaism. And this fateful coincidence goes far toward explaining why they also formed such fertile soil for the growth of Jewish lore demeaning the Negro. The most famous of these anti-Negro legends cluster about Ham and Noah's cursing of Canaan . . . There is no denying that the Babylonian Talmud was the first source to read a Negrophobic content into the episode by stressing Canaan's fraternal connections with Cush . . . The Talmudic glosses of the episode added the stigma of blackness to the fate of enslavement that Noah predicted for Ham's progeny" ("The Ebb and Flow of Conflict: A History of Black-Jewish Relations Through 1900," pages 79-81).
Mr. Brackman cited what he called an "important" Talmudic "version of the myth":
"Ham is told by his outraged father that, because you have abused me in the darkness of the night, your children shall be born black and ugly; because you have twisted your head to cause me embarrassment, they shall have kinky hair and red eyes; because your lips jested at my expense, theirs shall swell; and because you neglected my nakedness, they shall go naked" (page 81).
I say nothing in defense of Mr. Farrakhan. But this episode demonstrates that his Jewish establishment opponents are no better scholars than he is". (1)
It is important to mention that not only the Talmud justified the slavery of the Afro Americans but the same ‘Ham myth’, "A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." So reads Noah's curse on his son Ham, and all his descendants, (Genesis 9:25) was used for centuries as biblical justification for American slavery and segregation not only by the slave owners but by the Protestant church in the U.S.A, the fathers of the right wing Evangelists of today, supporters of Trump and Israel.
However, the Talmud was written more than 1300 years ago, what does it have to do with Zionism? Should we not see it an ancient book reflecting the early Middle Ages? In Israel there is no separation of the Rabbinate and the state. Religion is a central feature of the country and plays a major role in shaping Israeli culture and lifestyle. Most Israelis are not religious. According to a Gallup survey in 2015, 65 percent of Israelis say they are either "not religious" or "convinced atheists", while 30 percent say they are "religious". Yet the Talmud is not important only for these 30% but for Israel as a whole. For example some Israeli Supreme Court judges use Jewish law (Talmud) even when Israeli law requires the courts to fill lacunas in the law by referring to English common law.
Israel cannot separate religion from the state because the Jewish religion is used to justify the Zionist colonization of Palestine. Though the founders of Zionist movement were mostly secular, they used religious symbols. The Blue stripes of flag of Israel symbolize the stripes on a tallit (The Jewish prayer shaw).
Many of the Orthodox Rabbis of Israel are far right racists not very different from the American Evangelists.
In March this year, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel called black people "monkeys”.
"The Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel called black people “monkeys” during his weekly sermon on Saturday evening. In footage aired by the Ynet news site, Yosef could be seen referring to black people by the word “kushi,” which in Modern Hebrew has pejorative connotations, and then going on to term a black person a “monkey”. His office told Ynet that the comparison was a quote from the Talmud.
In a sermon delivered in May last year, he appeared to suggest during his weekly sermon that secular woman behave like animals because they dress immodestly.
In March 2016, Yosef said non-Jews could live in Israel only if they observe the seven Noahide Laws, which are prohibitions against idolatry, blaspheming God, murder, forbidden sexual relations, stealing, and eating limbs off a live animal, and which prescribe the establishment of a legal system. Non-Jews, Yosef said, are in Israel only to serve Jews." (2)
In June 2016, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Lau, said he would like to see the Jewish temple rebuilt on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Hypocritically to cover up his important part… He added:
"To build it, there was no need to remove any of the Muslim shrines on the Temple Mount, where there was plenty of room for “Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone,” he told the Knesset Channel on Tuesday." (3)
The Talmud is a collection of old Jewish law and it is full of racist statements:
"If a Jew finds an object lost by a Goy (non-Jew) it does not have to be returned"( Baba Mazia 24 a)
A Goy Hits a Jew he must be killed. (Sanhedrin 58 b)
A Jew Murder a Goy there will be no death Penalty (Sanhedrin 57 a)
What a Jew steals from a Goy he may keep. (Sanhedrin 57a)
All children of Goyim are animals. (Yebamoth 98 a)
If you eat with a Goy it is the same as eating with a dog. (Tospoth , Jebamoth 84 b)
These teaching are very dear to many of the Orthodox the Rabbis in Israel. They rely on it to justify their racism. In 2010, Rabbi Dov Domb, the presiding judge in the rabbinical court in Tel Aviv, added his signature to list of rabbis calling on residents of south Tel Aviv not to rent their apartments to foreign workers.
They join the long list of rabbis who use their titles and status to incite racism. Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu issued a call not to rent apartments to Arabs saying that "the ways of life of the Gentiles are different from those of the Jews, and there are those among them who hate us and harass us to the point of mortal danger". Kiryat Motzkin's chief rabbi issued a call not to employ Arabs as a response to terrorist attacks.
These rabbis and many others who preach in synagogues, write in journals and publish racist books are receiving a good salary and benefits paid for by the taxpayer. Yet these racist fanatics do not face any criminal charge but are highly respected in Israel.
The effect of religious teaching in schools contributes to the racism of the Zionists. In 2016, the state comptroller’s upcoming report on coexistence education takes a dim view of the Education Ministry’s efforts in that area. Covering a 20-year period but focusing mainly on the terms of the previous minister, Shay Piron, and the current minister, Naftali Bennett, the report describes more than ongoing failure; it states that the Education Ministry has consciously chosen to bury the issue of education toward coexistence and prevention of racism. (4)
In June this year hundreds of Israelis demonstrated against home sale to an Arab family in Afula. Its former mayor joined protest: "the residents of Afula don't want a mixed city, but rather a Jewish city, and it's their right. This is not racism" he said. (5)
On 17 September 2014, in a 5 to 4 decision, an expanded panel of the Israeli Supreme Court decided to dismiss a petition brought by Adalah (an NGO of the Palestinians citizens of Israel) against the "Admissions Committees Law". The law allows for hundreds of Israeli Jewish communities in the south and in the Galilee in the north to reject applicants for housing based on the criteria of "social suitability" and the "social and cultural fabric" of the town.
As this was not enough, the government wants a new legislation. The proposed legislation would allow the state to “authorize a community (with over 500 people) composed of people having the same faith and nationality to maintain the exclusive character of that community.” In its current state, the draft would also permit Jewish religious law to be implemented in certain cases and remove Arabic as an official language.
Anti-Semitism is a disgusting form of racism. However, the Israeli government and many of the Orthodox Rabbis who love to accuse the non-Jews of being anti-Semites are racists to the core, not only toward the Palestinians but toward the "Goyim" (non-Jews, most people on earth) in general.
Footnotes
(1) Lenni Brenner New York, Feb. 19, 1994
(2) https://www.timesofisrael.com/chief-rabbi-compares-african-americans-to-monkeys/
(3) https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-chief-rabbi-urges-rebuilding-jerusalem-temple/