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Anti-semitism has no place in the Palestinian movement but many Pakistanis haven't gotten the memo

Anti-semitism has no place in the Palestinian movement but many Pakistanis haven't gotten the memo

PTI MNA Kanwal Shauzab's recent glorification of Hitler shows we are ignorant of the differences between Judaism and Zionism.
20 May, 2021

Pakistan is standing in solidarity with Palestinians but many people don't seem to understand the difference between supporting Palestinians and being anti-semitic. For many, these are two sides of the same coin but this is far from the truth.

The most recent example of this is PTI MNA Kanwal Shauzab's hate speech in the National Assembly. In her speech she glorified Adolf Hitler and said he left some Jews alive during the Holocaust as a lesson. A video of her speech was posted by the South Asia Media Research Institute on Twitter but has since been removed as it violated the platform's rules.

You don't need to listen to her speech to get the gist of it — Jews are bad and Hitler wasn't so bad after all.

It should be common sense for anyone, most of all a public representative, to not glorify a maniacal dictator responsible for the genocide of millions. Don't fight hate with hate and, for God's sake, don't try to justify genocide. But this sudden glorification of Hitler isn't new to Pakistan.

Veena Malik praised Hitler recently (though she later retracted it and said she had been hacked) and countless Tweeps have been vocal in their abuse of Judaism and Jewish people.

To make it clear, Hitler is not someone to praise: praising a homicidal maniac isn't helping Palestine. It's detracting from the cause and is adding to claims that opposition of Israel is anti-Semitism. Israel does not represent Judaism anymore than the Taliban represent Islam. We must learn to separate the religion from the people committing human rights violations.

We also need to separate Judaism from Zionism. One is a religion and the other is an ideology and nationalist movement for the re-establishment of a Jewish state. These past few years we have seen how nationalist movements such as those espoused by Trump in the US and Modi in India are breeding grounds for hate.

Hating one group of people is not the solution. Jews aren't doing this, Israelis are and not all Jews support Israel. Palestinians are the victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing but that doesn't mean people should be justifying the genocide of millions of Jews.

The Palestinian movement isn't benefitting from your bigotry and anti-semitism. It's being discredited.

Thankfully, people called out the misguided MNA on Twitter.

People asked if this is the level of the elected representatives who are supposed to represent us.

Anti-semitism has no place in the Palestinian movement.

This is a time to help Palestine and focus on amplifying Palestinian voices rather than spreading bigotry and hatred. The world has enough of that, as we are witnessing today. We don't need to add to that by damning an entire religion because of the actions of a group of hateful people.

Comments

Daredevil May 20, 2021 11:41am
Get them out of their offices, come on, someone?
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Chrís Dăn May 20, 2021 12:16pm
The author is completely correct.
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M. Emad May 20, 2021 12:33pm
Most Pakistanis don't understand the difference between supporting Palestinians and being anti-semitic, anti-India / anti-Hindu, supporting Army/ anti-Bengali. 'For many, these are two sides of the same coin but this is far from the truth.'
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israr May 20, 2021 12:51pm
tell me one jew who is against isreal killing palestinians ... one please
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Tariq May 20, 2021 01:08pm
We need to educate ourself and must check things before we utter in public or any medium because it can backfire. so education.
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Shad May 20, 2021 01:33pm
No doubt Islamophobia and Anti Semitism have no place in the conversation around Palestine but both are being used frequently around the world to spread hate for both the communities. Zionism and ISIS are equally bad for the world. Muslims and Jewish communities should condemn the evils within their ranks.
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Akil Akhtar May 20, 2021 01:45pm
We seem to have an agenda to bring down our legitimate positions by focusing on some minor issue.....no one in the west cares about Islamophobia as long as their side is winning....this is the attitude of slaves.
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JFG May 20, 2021 01:47pm
Thank you Dawn - statements like those of Veena Mali just reinforce fears among the Jewish people in Isreal that Muslims mean them harm in the same way as the Nazi's did. There is danger redefining the Palestinian conflict from one over borders, in which compromise may be a solution, into a religious war in which compromise is heretical. The implications for future peace are ominous if it becomes a war of religion. We too need to remember this lesson in our own local troubles over Kashmir.
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M. Saeed May 20, 2021 02:03pm
Anti-semitic people are those who despise Jews, while Jews consider themselves superior to all other human races for being the children of Noah. Germans hate Jews because, they consider them having no deep roots and continuity like them being of Aryan race.
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Changez Khan May 20, 2021 02:12pm
Anti-semitism should be condemned.
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Omair May 20, 2021 02:24pm
About half of this piece comprises of Twitter screenshots. Journalism at it's peak. Keep it up!
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AZAM AKBAR May 20, 2021 02:28pm
There is a difference between Judaism and Zionism. Israeli brutality is Zionism.
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Wolf May 20, 2021 02:29pm
Successive governments have used religion to achieve their political objectives and it ha become part our political discourse and will take generations to remove that association.
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Ahmed May 20, 2021 02:59pm
Ignorance of the real issue at its worst and that from a representative of the national assembly. She has harmed the Palestinian struggle more than helping it.
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Faraz May 20, 2021 03:08pm
So much of Pakistani support for Palestine but I am yet to see any Palestinian support for Kashmir
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Hasan Malik May 20, 2021 03:12pm
Hitler was a racist. He has killed millions not because of their religion but because of their race. He was a believer of superior Aryan race concept. Hitler has killed more than 2 million Romas as well because in his view they looked like Indians or like current Pakistanis. So PTI office bearers and general public of Pakistan should get some knowledge. Their rant is ignorant and dangerous.
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Alusa May 20, 2021 03:54pm
Not to defend her statement but all the haters of anti-Semitism should also be aware of how free speech is being controlled by using the anti-Semitism excuse. In other words, any criticism of Israel is now being labeled as anti-Semitism. There needs to be an article on that as well. Also, Palestinians are also Semite (check the definition) and hence crimes against the Palestinians are also anti-Semitism. Additionally, does killing children by bombs any better than in gas chambers? Is Gaza not a modern day Auschwitz? Does that not make Netanyahu today’s Hitler?
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Multani May 20, 2021 04:29pm
Since PMIK calls Modi Nazi Hitler you think he is worthy of praise? No, what Hitler did was incorrect, Jews too have right to live but not as occupiers but as good peaceful neighbors with Muslims who are letting them live on their Arab land.
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Umar May 20, 2021 04:52pm
@israr Noam Chomsky for one. Einstein himself for another. Yes, the latter was a proponent of Israel and a Zionist but wanted peaceful coexistence between the Jews and the Arabs (read his letter to NYT after the Deir Yassin massacre for instance). I'm not familiar with many Jewish political thinkers but there are tons of ordinary Jewish folk in America willing to call out Israel for its excesses. Matter of fact, I just googled "Jews supporting Palestine" and the first headline that popped up was about Jewish workers at Google insisting that Google end their contracts with the IDF. So do both the Jews and the Palestinians a favour, and cut out the cheap rhetoric: it does nothing besides giving Israel an opportunity to play the victim.
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Umar May 20, 2021 04:55pm
@Omair I know! Images is a weird part of Dawn, man. More akin to Buzzfeed rather than actual news. But then again, here I am.
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Rick May 20, 2021 05:45pm
Fact Hitler was not a dictator, he was elected by the people
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Tuk May 20, 2021 06:07pm
@israr there are many. Heard about Bernie Sanders? Protests against Israel are bigger in the West than in Muslim countries.
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Conservative May 20, 2021 06:36pm
@israr there are hundreds of Jews joining the plastenian rellies to condemn Israeli terrorism against innocent plastenians. Israel is a zoinest country and many Jews even living in Israel sympathise with the Plasteninean cause.
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well-wisher May 20, 2021 06:42pm
Push for PAST UN RESOLUTIONS on Palestinian issue to be implemented. The world must know exactly what they were and need to take action. 2 states must co-exist. U.S continues to take side and support one in words and spirit and actions such as moving embassy to contentious Jerusalem. Fairness and justice must prevail.
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Truth be told May 20, 2021 06:50pm
@israr there are many, in fact 2 million jews out of the total 9 million who don't support Zionism.
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Shadab Anwar May 20, 2021 07:46pm
Beautiful article . Very sensible. A lesson to learn for the ignorant haters of humanity. I live in the West and have always got along with my Jewish friends very well. Most of them are very decent. You give respect and you get it back. Hate creates more hatred.
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Chrís Dăn May 20, 2021 11:20pm
@Shadab Anwar true.
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Siddhartha May 21, 2021 03:56am
@M. Emad Agree!
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Alih Kazmi May 21, 2021 05:43am
Hitler is not much different than most Western leaders of early 20th century or Early 21st century.
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Alih Kazmi May 21, 2021 05:47am
@Tariq You need to understand the difference between the educated and English medium illiterates.
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Imran May 21, 2021 06:28am
@Rick so was Trump,and so is Modi and Netanyahu!
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Usman Khan May 21, 2021 07:36am
@israr You must not have met many Jews.
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Salman May 21, 2021 07:40am
The author is correct. I hope he/she also wrote an article on Israel's brutalities.
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Anonymouseee May 21, 2021 09:09am
Hitler didn’t kill any Muslims. Israel has been killing Muslims for the past 60 years, along with complete blockade of the land. It’s simple math and no rocket science.
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Ameer May 25, 2021 04:44pm
The clarity is appreciable. Well defined the two terms anti-Semitism and pro-Palestinian. Also the light shed on glorification of Hitler's ideology is also plausible. We, generally, do not want to retract from our thoughts or perceptions.
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Tahir May 26, 2021 09:43am
@Conservative so those Jews are also ant-semetic?
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