Comparing the old "blood libel" myth with the harvesting of organs is an incredibly tenuous association.
The blood libel dates back to the Christian persecution of the Jewish diaspora in Europe, way back in the 13th to 15th centuries. The myth is virtually unheard of among gentiles today, excepting the racist, fascist, neo-nazi groups on society's periphery. The vast majority of gentiles haven't even heard of the blood libel.
Levelling an accusation at Israeli aid groups for harvesting organs is no different to levelling an accusation towards some American aid groups, or British, or Iranian. These accusations are not projected further onto the Israeli or even Jewish cultures as a whole. It was simply the behaviour a group of people who needed investigation, and the fact that they were Israeli is completely irrelevant.
It is also time, I believe, that we see anti-semitism for what it really is: plain racism. The word relates to racist sentiments levelled towards one particular group of people. When we isolate this word to just one race, it becomes a form of racial discrimination in itself. I have had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting a number of these racists in the gentile community, and their prejudices are rarely isolated to the Jewish people.
It's time we called anti-semitism what it really is - simply racism.
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Comparing the old "blood libel" myth with the harvesting of organs is an incredibly tenuous association.
ReplyDeleteThe blood libel dates back to the Christian persecution of the Jewish diaspora in Europe, way back in the 13th to 15th centuries. The myth is virtually unheard of among gentiles today, excepting the racist, fascist, neo-nazi groups on society's periphery. The vast majority of gentiles haven't even heard of the blood libel.
Levelling an accusation at Israeli aid groups for harvesting organs is no different to levelling an accusation towards some American aid groups, or British, or Iranian. These accusations are not projected further onto the Israeli or even Jewish cultures as a whole. It was simply the behaviour a group of people who needed investigation, and the fact that they were Israeli is completely irrelevant.
It is also time, I believe, that we see anti-semitism for what it really is: plain racism. The word relates to racist sentiments levelled towards one particular group of people. When we isolate this word to just one race, it becomes a form of racial discrimination in itself. I have had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting a number of these racists in the gentile community, and their prejudices are rarely isolated to the Jewish people.
It's time we called anti-semitism what it really is - simply racism.