No platform for delegitimisers
THE battle against the delegitimisation of Israel will be won when people holding anti-Israel and anti-Zionist views have the same social acceptability as neo-Nazis, former Knesset member Dr Einat Wilf said in Sydney earlier this month.
A senior fellow with the Jewish People Policy Institute and an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the former Labour MK is at the forefront of attempts to counter delegitimisation.
Speaking at an Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) breakfast, she said, “we are not even beginning to address” the challenges it presents.
“We need to mobilise resources on a completely different scale, and it’s not just about financial resources – it’s about people, it’s about leadership,” she said.
“To train young people around the world, to understand the motivations, but to master as well the arguments, to be able to pick apart issues – we’re not even close to where we should be.”
She said we need to “reverse the social acceptability equation”.
“Right now, social acceptability is with those who are anti-Israel and anti-Zionist,” she said.
“My definition of victory is the day that those who hold anti-Israel and anti-Zionist views will have the social acceptability that neo-Nazis enjoy today.”
Wilf warned that what is now a war or words and ideas could lead to something far more sinister.
She explained that words and phrases used in anti-Israel protests – such as “colonialism”, “racism”, “ethnic cleansing”, “apartheid” and “genocide” – serve to create an environment in which people of goodwill begin believing Israel to be “evil” and a threat to world peace.
“Ultimately, what you see is that people of goodwill are saying, ‘well if something is so evil, then it is incumbent upon us to make sure that the evil is erased from this Earth,’” she said.
“And I believe that if you create an intellectual environment in which it becomes a good idea to rid the world of Israel and Zionism, ultimately you have physical action that follows.
“Some of the world’s greatest atrocities have almost always been preceded by the preparation of people’s minds.”
And while she stated that her personal view was Israel would have been better off if it had not built any settlements, she said the “global obsession” with the idea that settlements are the prime obstacle to peace is part of the “narrative of lies”.
While in Australia, Wilf also spoke at other functions in Sydney and Melbourne, addressed a meeting of 20 federal MPs in Canberra and met with shadow foreign affairs spokesperson Tanya Plibersek.
GARETH NARUNSKY
Dr Einat Wilf speaking in Sydney. Photo: Gareth Narunsky
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