Page 37 - October 7 - Teresa Pirola

Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They are easily manipulated and oblivious to the fact that there are sinister forces in the world today that are reactivating latent antisemitism and giving it social licence as a tool to pursue a political agenda.
What follows is a set of ‘talking points’ for parents who are concerned about young minds being unable to distinguish between a legitimate social justice cause for the rights of Palestinians and the violent antisemitic goals of a terrorist organisation like Hamas. My hope is that parents will teach and discuss these points with their children at an appropriate age.
1. What is antisemitism? At its root, antisemitism is hatred of Jews. Antisemitism is expressed through thoughts, words and deeds. In every case, antisemitic prejudice is harmful and unjust to Jewish people. It also diminishes the humanity of the antisemite and of the societies in which antisemitism is tolerated.
2. Prejudice against Jews has existed for more than two millennia, which is why antisemitism has been called ‘the world’s oldest hatred’. It is a prejudice that has a habit of reappearing, especially in a crisis, whenever people are looking for someone or a group to blame.
3. Antisemitism is a poisonous attitude that twists human thinking and even infects causes that seek human progress. For example, over the centuries we have seen toxic distortions of Christianity (Jews depicted as ‘Christ killers’), science (Jews described as a distinct, inferior, biological ‘race’), and sociopolitical causes (Jews blamed for “global dominance” ). These generalisations are designed to dehumanise Jews: to conceptualise Jews as a collective abstract ‘other’, instead of seeing each person’s uniquely human individuality.
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