ADL Has Lost Credibility as Anti-Hate After CEO’s Harmful Reference to Fundamental Symbol of Palestinian Culture – the Keffiyeh – Story Breaks Wider – Maybe We Helped?
The picture is me, the editor of FightBackBetter.com – a news site micro focused on support for Palestine in the state of NJ.
I am wearing a Keffiyeh in the picture, holding my hat and my head is bowed. I am at a park in West Orange and students are reading a list of names of children who had been murdered in Gaza – and the whole group was absolutely silent. The readings went on for 10 – 15 minutes – this was back in November 2023!
No ADL! Before you jump to conclusions, I am NOT a hater. I could never be a person that would wear a swastika as the CEO of ADL has suggested.
It must have been one of those days or an Opposite Day, like in the children’s game, because recently on the Morning Joe show, ADL (Anti-Defamation League) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt defamed the entire Palestinian nation and people as well as folks who support humanity all over the world when he claimed that wearing a Keffiyeh is equivalent to wearing a Nazi armband.
No Jonathan Greenblatt, take a look in the mirror and you will see that your comments are defamatory and hateful. With these words, the ADL has completely lost its credibility.
It’s not like the ADL has not come close before. The ADL has always participated in the conflated definition of Anti-Semitism, i.e. anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism. I recall back in the 80s when our struggle was opposing US support for death squads in Central America and the ADL made statements that the antiwar movement was anti-Semitic because Israel was providing military training and armaments to the death squad governments. The ADL has always conflated Israel and Judaism. The ADL also deceitfully abuses the term anti-Semitism and this practice damages the struggle against very harmful and REAL anti-Semitism.
But now – by equating a keffiyeh to a Nazi armband – the ADL has Itself become A HATE ORGANIZATION!
They are calling for people and for the USA to confront the pro-Palestinian – pro-humanity – anti-genocide struggle AS IF WE ARE ALL NAZIS! That is the implied messaging that the CEO of the ADL is promoting. He wants a purge on US streets! He is making a dog whistle call for state and vigilante violence! Remember what happened to the 3 young men, all university students, who were shot, many believe, because they were wearing keffiyehs? If it results in furthering such actions and people are harmed for wearing keffiyeh’s the ADL could even be legally liable for conspiracy to encourage hate crimes.
It is similar to the situation in which Congressman Tim Walberg, who sits on a committee making false smears of anti-Semitism directed at pro-Palestine faculty and college students, while Walberg calls for nuking – he used the terms Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the suffering people of Gaza.
Both Congressman Walberg and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt fit the definition of haters to a T.
The Keffiyeh is one of the fundamental elements of Palestine culture and dress. It is also an emblem of solidarity worn by supporters of Palestinians and supporters of humanity. It has nothing to do with the swastika. Anyone who says it does HAS LOST ALL RIGHTS TO BE CONSIDERED A CREDIBLE SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT HATE OR ANTI-SEMITISM.
The ADL’s smear of the Keffiyeh is a tacit call to bring the genocide to US streets – he wants massive government action against the Keffiyeh wearers in the US: Palestinians, Arabs and others.
This FIghtBackBetter.com editor says “Rock the Keffiyeh – Dance the Dabke.” It does NOT make you anti-Semitic – it makes you a human being in touch with your humanity who is not afraid of the thuggish behavior of Israel and its minions here in the US who want to bring the genocide to our streets in America.
It took the Israeli slaughter of an aid team led by a formerly pro-Israel chef to finally make the US administration that has done everything possible to enable, support, fund and arm Israel to bring about the depraved horror of Gaza since October to finally pause – but the mask is off. The mask is also off on loose Nazi and Hamas baiting for any and every one that has a critical word to say about the US arming the genocidal Israeli war machine. People are not going to buy your attempt to smear the Palestinian people or their supporters with irrelevant hateful accusations lacking of a shred of merit.
When I wrote this I searched and other news outlets had yet to cover this story but since at least 2 have broken – I might or might not have played a role in helping it to break further but I have seen the power of this news site to lubricate spreading of news – even with its current small level of following. I am confident as the following continues this power of the site will increase – and I invite all motivated to this struggle to join in that experience!
Jonathan Greenblatt’s racist keffiyeh smear is another chapter in the ADL’s war on Palestinians
