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Senior ACLU Official, Who Called for Israel Boycott, Says Israeli Leaders “Exploit” Anti-Semitism

by TheTower.org Staff |

An official with the American Civil Liberties Union used Twitter to blast Israeli officials and deny the connection between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on Sunday.

Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU’s Human Rights Program, retweeted a segment that appeared on Al Jazeera denying links between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and wrote, “Israeli leaders exploit horrible acts of anti-Semitism to encourage Jews to move to Israel.” He punctuated his remarks with two equations: “Judaism ≠ Zionism

Anti-Zionism ≠ Anti-Semitism.”

While it is true that Zionism isn’t Judaism, numerous observers and experts have recognized that anti-Zionism—which rejects Jewish rights to national self-determination—is anti-Semitism. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, noted in May 2016 at a symposium at the United Nations, “racism in all forms is intolerable. Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Both are unacceptable.” Jonathan Sacks, the previous chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, similarly observed in September 2016 that “anti-Zionism is the anti-Semitism of our time.”

Dakwar has previously worked for Adalah and Human Rights Watch, both of which are associated with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign to delegitimize Israel. He also expressed his support for BDS, whose leaders explicitly call for the destruction of the Jewish state, in a 2016 op-ed in Haaretz.

Perhaps more concerning is that Dakwar, an official with the ACLU, would favorably promote an item from Al Jazeera, which has been described by a U.S. ambassador to Qatar as “an informal tool of [the Government of Qatar’s] foreign policy.” Qatar is currently under fire for keeping migrant workers in a state of virtual slavery as they build venues for the 2022 World Cup.

[Photo: University of Chicago Law School / YouTube ]

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