I was having a conversation with some people on a leftist Jewish subreddit about this.
Jews, despite being a minority, are a relatively privileged group. At least regarding western Ashkenazim.
Compared to the average population, Ashkenazi Jews tend to be more educated and have more wealth.
Collectively speaking, Jews in the west have a tremendous amount of wealth and influence. The fear of this wealth and influence is a cornerstone of antisemitism, where Jewish power is exaggerated to comical proportions.
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However this privilege is still very much real. And when Zionist Jewish activists make claims like “antizionism is antisemitism”, they are speaking from a place of privilege.
Whereas black activism focuses on police brutality and mass incarceration
Whereas lgbt activism focuses on anti lgbt laws passed by the government
Zionist Jewish activism is not focused on structural injustice but rather on stopping people from criticizing Israel.
This is entitled privileged people behavior.
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historically, Jewish wealth and influence has been weaponized against Palestinians.
Zionist organizations like the JNF used Jewish wealth to buy land from absentee landlords and disposses the Palestinians living on that land.
Rich and influential Jews like the Rothschilds were lords in Britain and used their influence to get the British government to support the Zionist cause. This led to the British promising Palestine to the Jews, a land which was never the British’s to promise. And it led to the British being complicit in the nakba where Zionist terrorists brutalized Arabs that the British, as the occupying power at the time, had the obligation to defend.
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Ultimately I got a lot of positive feedback on Reddit for my critique, which I think is good. It means that there is a growing consciousness within the Jewish community about the relationship between Zionism and privilege.
I think this is important because it challenges a fundamental Zionist narrative. One in which Israel is always the victim and always defending itself.
When irl, the Zionist movement was from the start a colonial movement funded by rich white peoples like Lord Rothschild.