Time to unite under the banner of ‘Jewish Lives Matter’

The question that needs to be addressed is what the difference is between institutional racism and institutional antisemitism?

By WALTER BINGHAM
SWASTIKAS ON a graveyard in France. (photo credit: REUTERS)
SWASTIKAS ON a graveyard in France.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
There is hardly anybody who has not heard of the sadistic action by a white police officer against George Floyd 46, an unarmed black man. Officer Derek Chauvin, 44, held his victim on the floor of a city street in Minneapolis by pressing his knee onto his neck. Despite repeated calls by Floyd that he could not breathe and “you are killing me” three more police officers on the scene were aiding and abetting by doing little to assist Floyd, while Chauvin persisted for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd lost consciousness and subsequently died. He had reportedly been apprehended for the nonviolent crime of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a food store. Whether he knew the note to be false has, I believe, not been established.
All four police officers involved have been dismissed from the force and arrested. One of their defense counsels argued that his client could not criticize the actions of their senior colleague. Is that not reminiscent of the excuses offered by Nazi perpetrators that were never accepted?
During the same week, a video emerged showing a police officer pushing a 75-year-old man who then fell backwards, his head hitting the concrete. That officer, who prevented his colleague from attending the victim, is also under arrest.
The Floyd killing sparked continued demonstrations, not only in the US, but also in many cities around the world, caused by yet another tragic case of police brutality in the United States. Every right-minded person will strongly condemn the action of those officers.
The reason why many demonstrations have turned into riots is a subject for another time, except to say that the instigators are alleged to be from Antifa, so-called anti-fascists, who themselves behaved exactly like fascist hordes.
It has long been the view of a significant percentage of the population, not only in the US but also in other European countries, that the police forces are infested with institutional racism.
That is why the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis is causing ongoing demonstrations in the streets of several European capitals, with the theme “Black Lives Matter.”
THE QUESTION that needs to be addressed is what the difference is between institutional racism and institutional antisemitism?
Where was the world in the mid-1930s when in Germany physical attacks on Jews were never prosecuted, when often the police looked on, or at best looked the other way? Where was the world when in 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were blatantly targeting Jews? Was that not racism? Where were the demonstrations for human rights in New York and Los Angeles and the placards and chants that Jewish Lives Matter?
While this week in the United States there was a “Buy Only from Black Owned Stores Day,” in the 1930s Germany the placards read: “Don’t Buy from Jews.”
People around the world saw this in the newsreels that played in every cinema, but they were left unmoved.
Ironically, among today’s demonstrating blacks are many who particularly target Jewish stores. Fox news showed that when their news reporter suggested to one New York demonstrator that they have made their point loud and clear and isn’t it time to go home, the reply was, “No. Our next target is the diamond district and petrol is cheap!”
Most of those stores are Jewish owned and his implication is clear and need not be spelled out. So can racism be selective?
While it was not possible for Jews in Germany under Nazi domination to organize protests, the Jewish communities in the US and the other parts of the free world did little to draw attention to the plight of their brothers and sisters who suffered abuse and the slow strangulation of Jewish life in 1930s Germany. For those of us in Germany, it seemed that our lives did not matter to Jewish communities in the free world. Yes, I lived there and have vivid memories.
The Jewish lobby in both the US and Britain could have brought much more pressure to bear on their respective governments to allow increased Jewish immigration, but neglected to act, because “too many Jews will cause antisemitism” was the known sentiment of the then-Jewish leadership. A good example is when following the 1938 Kristallnacht, the British government permitted 10,000 Jewish children to enter the UK on condition that they were “unaccompanied” – without either parent. The war was imminent and the parents suffered the inevitable fate.
THE LEADERS of the American black population must be commended for using every possible occasion to bring the racism that they are undoubtedly subjected to and feel, to the notice of the widest public by peaceful means.
While Jews understand this plight and lend support, it is regrettable that a sizable element of blacks, while holding signs against racism, make the illogical distinction of singling out Jews as legitimate targets.
Today’s perception of racism seems to refer exclusively to hostile actions against people of dark skin. Although Jews are not a race but a people with many skin shades, antisemitism makes no such distinction. It acts like a virus without an antidote. Those who engage in it have no logical explanation other than perhaps envy of our success.
Now is the time for our most influential organizations like the World Jewish Congress, World Zionist Organization, Conference of Presidents, European Jewish Congress, AIPAC, Global Jewish Advocacy, etc. who are representing world Jewry to abandon their separate agendas and unite as one, in a worldwide public relations campaign that “Jewish Lives Matter.”
These organizations should pool their fundraising efforts, and with the help of our generous philanthropists explain the Jewish contribution to medicine, science and technology used today by the whole world, including the antisemites – and most of all, that All Lives Matter.
The writer is 96, came to England with the Kindertransport and today lives in Jerusalem. He holds the Guinness World Record as the oldest working journalist. He hosts “Walter’s World” on Israel National Radio and “The Walter Bingham File” on Israel Newstalk Radio both in English and the podcasts are heard worldwide.