On Wednesday 8th May 2024, Anonymous Geographer 2 emerged on the e-list of the critical geography academic forum (Crit-Geog-Forum) to, following Anonymous Geographer, call out anti-Jewish racism in the discipline. Their words (in full below) are, like those of Anonymous Geographer, insightful, measured, and very much worthy of engagement.

All too often the accusation of antisemitism is interpreted by the academic Left as an underhand force to shut down academic freedom. And all too often, the point becomes lost: it is more, rather than less, academic freedom which is needed to consider, challenge and overcome the racialised essentialisation of ‘Jews’. This is the path both Anonymous Geographers are attempting to forge. Solidarity.

Dear Crit Geog, 

As another diaspora Jew (Australia-based) who has a) never been to Israel, and b) has felt deep pain for, and solidarity with, the people of Gaza who have faced untold horror every day since 7th October 2023, and c) noticed with dread how ancient anti-Jewish tropes are once again being digested in the mainstream, often uncritically, I am joining ‘Anonymous Geographer’ in urging critical geographers to call out anti-Jewish racism. Like the other poster, I do not feel comfortable sharing these thoughts non-anonymously, and have stayed silent for months, but now feel the need to speak up, if only to provide support to this conversation and given the continuing tone of discussion on the forum. 

Namely, I would hope that critical geographers would:

1) Try and understand that the vast majority, if not all, of those who identify as Jewish and critical Geographers, are horrified at the continued violent Israeli response (backed by the US and other world powers) to the events of 7th October. There are many shades of “Jewish”, but the underlying lesson in any Jewish education is the notion that life is Sacred. All life. Not just Jewish life.

And, the idea that we should all make the world a better place than when we left. It is a shame that some on the Jewish far-right – and the broader far-right – have co-opted and tarnished these values for nationalist and supremacist aims. They do not stand for, do not speak for, and do not represent, the overwhelming majority of Jews who would be members of this listserv and who are your colleagues and peers. 

At the same time:

2) Some of us have been sidelined from being able to be effective, active and vocal allies since 7th October, because many of us have felt like we’ve had to completely disavow any connection, whatsoever, to Israel – indeed, in some cases, feeling the need to affirm that Israel should not exist at all. 

Many Jews in the diaspora and in Israel are, or are the children or grandchildren of, refugees (from Russia; from Europe; from North Africa; from Central Asia; from Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East – all places Jews have needed to flee, for various reasons, since the 19th century (and long before)). It is worth mentioning that in the 1930s, before the Final Solution was implemented and Jews in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were being encouraged to emigrate – many countries (the US, Canada, Australia and Britain, including Mandatory Palestine) imposed quotas and actively prevented Jews from entering. 

Israel, as flawed, imperfect and in many ways unjust as it is – has offered refuge. As has Australia, the United States, Britain, Canada, Shanghai, Cuba, Sweden, Argentina, et al., at different moments and during different anti-Jewish crises. 

Ethiopians sought safety in Israel in 1991 when nearly 15,000 were airlifted, facing danger to life. As were the Yemeni Jews in 1948-1950, facing persecution and violence in Yemen. They now live in a flawed and unjust Israel. But calls to eliminate Israel leave un-answered questions about what happens to them, or, for that matter, millions of other Israelis. 

The notion of Jews, many of them who have never been considered ‘white’, as ‘rootless’ colonizing settlers denies the reality of their expulsion from a multitude of places where they were (at best) made to feel unwelcome and (at worst), murdered at industrial scale. 

To be clear: unlawful and violent settler colonization is occurring in the West Bank and the ongoing occupation of that, and Gaza, must end. And the Nakba of 1948 unjustly displaced many thousands of Palestinians from their homes, a wrong that in some way, must be made right. But to declare that ALL Israelis are part of a European colonial whitening project not only negates the fact that many are not white; that many have origins in the region (and broader MENA); but it also minimises and ignores the historical realities of why so many Jews needed to seek refuge in Israel (or ANYWHERE safe) in the first place. 

3) At other moments, some of us have felt like we have been associated with Israel, and / or more broadly, Israel’s ‘agenda’, even if we do not wish to be. This, as most of you understand already, is antisemitism, or anti-Jewish racism, or whatever you wish to call it. As is, as the previous poster pointed out, falling prey to long-standing (centuries-old!) conspiracy theories, tropes, caricatures. Including, as the previous poster mentioned, recycled ‘blood libel’ fallacies like the mis-represented and out-of-context anecdotes about organ harvesting. 

Furthermore:  ‘Israel’  – the polity, its symbolism, what it represents – is not a singularity. Just witness the hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the streets since 7th October, demanding a cease fire, NOW. I speak only for myself in saying that as much as I identify, on some levels, with global Jewishness – as much as any member of any diaspora might with others in the diaspora – the commonalities end there. We (Jews) do not agree on much of anything – that, also, is one of our unifying aspects: our tendency to (dis)agree and argue. 

The same goes for Zionism, which was hotly debated from its earliest days and which has never had a consensus across various Jewish groups or individuals. And it still doesn’t. Even taking the view – which many Jews do – that Zionism is inherently flawed and must be abandoned, the same is not asked of any other aggressor nation (e.g., as others have said, Russians are not asked to disavow Russia’s right to exist; we Australians can recognize our unjust history of colonial displacement, and acknowledge the stolen land that we live on and where our universities are located –  without questioning Australia’s right to exist, and so on). To call for the destruction of Australia and the removal of all non-Aboriginal Australians would be seen as extreme. To do so for Israel seems to be encouraged in this space, and in many campus discussions. Or at least, those who do not agree with this seem not to want, or be able to, speak up. 

Anti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic (or anti-Jewish at all) – as exemplified by the thousands of inspirational Jewish activists present in the solidarity encampments. 

But is calling for the destruction of Israel and the removal of the Jews living there something that the Crit-Geog forum endorses? If so, perhaps those brave enough to say it can do so, rather than hide behind complete silence? Unmask yourselves?

4. Fourthly:  It must be recognised on this forum, and ideally, acknowledged by some of you, that the most mainstream and currently-acceptable anti-semitic trope – the idea that ‘global Jews’ are somehow ‘pulling the levers’ – is not only false, but it’s also borne out of the deliberate fiction of virulent anti-semites from the 19th century onwards. As was (thankfully) done with the POLLEN posts – this must be called out for what it is, what it has always been: old tropes in new clothes. 

5. Finally: I hope some of you might, at long last, understand how difficult it is to read the same posters, over and over again (no names, but ahem ahem, usually a small cadre of White British Men), waxing on, endlessly, about what is, or isn’t ‘ok’ to say, post, or think about Israel; about Jews; about what does, or doesn’t constitute anti-Jewish racism. They seem gleeful in fact, when they respond to posts like this (which are always called ‘aggressive’, or out of line in some other way). They claim these posts are divisive and pointless, even offensive – and then they will post away with impunity. Are they allies? In any liberation struggle? Or just bloviating Orientalists?

In sum: During this Holocaust Remembrance Week – in which we remember not only the Holocaust of 1941-1945, but humanity’s awful and evil propensity to commit genocidal violence – Armenia, the Boer War, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, and now Gaza – and others, across time and place – can we at the very least as a critical geographical community agree to speak with care and empathy across all forms of racism, including that directed at Jews. 

In solidarity and hopeful for an end, immediately, to the violence in Gaza.

(Image from Wikimedia Commons: “The Geographer” by Hanno Karlhuber)