Letter of the day: fight anti -Semitism

The fight against anti -Semitism is a fundamental social, political and moral issue, in the same way as the anti -discriminatory and anti -racist struggle. Unfortunately, inter-community coordination against anti-Semitism and defamation (CICAD) uses and abuses amalgams to attack the movements denouncing the crimes committed in Gaza, thus turning into a simple meadow of the Israeli regime.

At a time when many Jewish voices are expressed to denounce the genocide in progress and the more than 60,000 killed – including at least 16,000 children -, the secretary general of the cicad, continues a logic of systematic denigration of groups and movements committed for respect for human rights. He attacks the press, associations, elected officials, artists, always waving the same anathema: anti -Semitism.

In a recent interview with the “Tribune de Genève”, the secretary general of the cicad is indignant that “people, because they are Jewish, are summoned to distance themselves from Israeli politics”. But was he not the one who continued to generate the confusion between Jewish identity and inflexible loyalty to Israel? Is it not he who, with each questioning of the ethnic purification committed by Israel, systematically speaks of “hatred of the Jews”, trying to make believe that to denounce Israel is equivalent to attacking the Swiss Jews?

In the same interview, the secretary general of the Cicad expresses his “stir and his sadness” in the face of organized famine, carnage, destruction and forced displacement of 2 million Palestinians, as if it were a natural phenomenon or a divine disaster. But he does not say a word about the fact that this genocide, day after day, is coldly executed by the country’s army which he defends against and against everything.

Yes, the fight against anti -Semitism is necessary. However, to assimilate any form of anti -Zionism with anti -Semitism is more than problematic and is largely debated. The cicad calls outright to the ban on anti -Zionism! To condemn the colonial and supremacist dimension of Zionism has nothing to do with the hatred of the Jews. By thus instrumentalizing anti -Semitism, the cicad trivializes the scourge that it is supposed to fight – and even ends up feeding it.

And when the cicad intervenes in schools, how can we imagine that the students – witnesses, like the rest of the world, of the horror which takes place in Gaza – can accept that with one hand, one denounces an abominable crime of the past, but that on the other, we tolerate – even supports – an equally unacceptable crime, which takes place live in our eyes?

The secretary general of the CICAD bombers the authorities of prohibitions for prohibiting demonstrations, exhibitions or conferences, sticking to a prosecutor and judge of democratic and legitimate movements. On WhatsApp, he manages a group intended for the political class, where certain elected officials are targeted and disparaged while others are cajolated and invited to special events.

Is that how we fight anti-Semitism? We don’t think so. We defend fundamental right to criticism, constitutional law for freedom of expression and that of manifesting. For all these reasons, we call on the authorities to demand from the cicad that it separates the fight against anti-Semitism from its pro-Israel political lobbying activity, and, moreover, that its accounts be made public and transparent. We also call on the authorities to acquire a neutral and objective indicator concerning the cases of anti -Semitism in Switzerland, and not to rely on an organization which systematically instrumentalizes this serious problem for clean and political ends.

Finally, we call on anyone to commit to a just peace: judgment of the genocide, judgment of colonization and judgment of international crime that constitutes the apartheid regime imposed on the Palestinians by Israel, by refusing any form of intimidation and denigration.

Jacob Berger, filmmaker; Quentin Mouron, writer; Julia Steinberger, professor (UNIL); Sylvain Thévoz, deputy (GE); Dominique Ziegler, author and director.

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