When It Comes to Slogans, Pro-Palestinian Activists Should Stick to Those Whose Meanings Aren’t Disputed
As a result, the phrase “from the river to the sea” sounds like a call for the destruction of Israel, the country that now occupies that location.
Which is why antisemitism watchdog groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee understand the phrase to mean calling for the removal of Jews from Israel, while others — particularly on the Palestinian side — hear the slogan as an expression of hope for Palestinian unity and autonomy.
Uygur’s critics are pointing out that, when it comes to problematic political rhetoric, he might need to get his own house in order.
He wrote: “We can all see the genocide in Gaza with our own eyes. Yet, almost every one of the politicians in Washington is pretending that it isn’t happening. And that we should send $14 billion to help Israel commit obvious war crimes because they are being oppressed by the Palestinians.”
In another post, Uygur accused the U.S. government of hypocrisy for reprimanding college administrators who have allowed anti-Israel rhetoric on campuses while supporting what he called Israel’s so-called genocide in Gaza.
Uygur, like numerous others on the left, uses words such as “apartheid” and “genocide” to describe Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. As a journalist who reported in apartheid South Africa on the Soweto uprising in the 1970s, I learned firsthand how real apartheid worked for — or against — those of us who deemed the underclass by that regime.
Gaza, you’re no Soweto, although the difference surely isn’t meaningful to those whose neighborhoods are being bombed.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
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