Not Just Islamophobia, but Anti-Palestinianism

Wadea al-Fayoume was an cute 6-year-old Muslim boy — killed by his landlord in his suburban Chicago residence on October 14, with 26 stab wounds. Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ali Ahmad are three school college students — shot over Thanksgiving weekend in Vermont final yr; Hisham is paralyzed from the chest down. Zacharia Doar, a 23-year-old Muslim father dwelling in Texas, was stabbed in Austin on February 8 after a protest.

Politicians, particularly distinguished liberals, have responded to those and different violent assaults with somber statements condemning Islamophobia. To mark the beginning of Ramadan, President Joe Biden reminded Individuals that “Islamophobia has completely no place in the US.” Just a few weeks after al-Fayoume’s brutal killing, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris introduced “the First-Ever Nationwide Technique to Counter Islamophobia.” On the native degree, New York Metropolis Public Colleges Chancellor David Banks established an “Interfaith Advisory Council,” and a number of other different private and non-private faculties have established Muslim affinity teams.

On the floor, these look like substantive, optimistic strikes taken by officers who seem genuinely involved a few rise in anti-Muslim violence since October 7.

But Wadea al-Fayoume wasn’t killed simply because he was Muslim. Hisham, Kinnan, and Tahseen weren’t shot as a result of they’re Muslim. And Zacharia wasn’t stabbed simply because he’s Muslim. They have been all focused for being Palestinian.

The responses to this wave of violence haven’t emphasised that truth. It’s politically safer to talk generically about “countering Islamophobia” than to confront the phenomenon that has gripped America even tighter since October 2023: anti-Palestinianism.

Obscuring the victims’ Palestinian id permits liberal politicians to profess decency and nod to id politics. Biden, as an illustration, dispatched his administration’s top-ranking Muslim, Dilawar Syed, to al-Fayoume’s memorial service. Dilawar is just not of Palestinian heritage, and even Arab. And he’s the deputy administrator of the Small Enterprise Administration; the killing of the small baby has no connection to the administration of small companies.

The willingness to let anti-Palestinianism go unmentioned is on extra stark show in conditions that don’t generate as many headlines as a slain baby. The identical liberal officers who paid homage to al-Fayoume usually select silence when Palestinians or supporters of Palestinian freedom are focused with harassment and retaliation for his or her activism.

The sleight of hand that will elevate the combat to remove anti-Muslim bias, however not anti-Palestinian animus, might be seen in a number of the teams that stand as much as Islamophobia. Even teams with a observe document of opposition to pro-Palestinian activism are prepared to leap on the anti-Islamophobia bandwagon. The Anti-Defamation League, as an illustration, isn’t any pal of Palestinian freedom, but it responded to al-Fayoume’s demise very similar to Biden: by condemning Islamophobia whereas ignoring his id as a Palestinian baby.

By focusing as a substitute on Islamophobia, liberal American politicians consider they will preserve the balancing act of supporting Israel’s assault on Gaza whereas showing to care for his or her home constituencies. If these liberals have been to confront anti-Palestinianism head on, it will put them on a collision course with America’s highly effective anti-Palestinian faction, an extended present drive in American life that was kicked into overdrive after October 7.

It’s precisely the pressures dropped at bear by these pro-Israel forces that will shunt the mere phrases “Palestine” and “Palestinian” to oblivion — not to mention the notion of Palestinian individuals. A well-meaning liberal can entice controversy by, say, simply mentioning “Gaza” or “the occupation” in an Oscar speech with out a lot as uttering the phrase “Palestine.”

That Palestinians shouldn’t, can’t, or don’t exist is a typical chorus of pro-Israel figures. The Zionist motto of “a land and not using a individuals for a individuals and not using a land” has been round for greater than a century and a half. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir declared in 1969, “There have been no such factor as Palestinians.” The mantra will get repeated in every single place from the Israeli halls of energy to up to date American campus disputes. Ignoring anti-Palestinianism can’t be separated from this marketing campaign of whole erasure.

Avoiding anti-Palestinianism is not only incorrect; it additionally has damaging unwanted effects. The shortage of acknowledgment casts the Israeli–Palestinian battle as a battle between Jews and Muslims. It’s ahistorical, reductive, and silly to view the troubling current cases of anti-Palestinian violence within the U.S. via this lens. And even probably the most well-intentioned liberals can fall prey to it. Whereas not the fault of his visitors, Jon Stewart’s “The Day by day Present” episode on Israel–Palestine didn’t characteristic any Palestinians: solely an American Muslim and an American Jew.

This harmful sectarian narrative additionally negates Palestinian Christians. An influential minority roughly divided between orthodoxy and Catholicism, Palestinian Christians are simply as enthusiastic about their liberation as Palestinian Muslims. As are non-Palestinian Individuals — together with Arab Individuals of different nationwide origins, African Individuals, Jewish Individuals, Asian Individuals, non-Muslim LGBTQ+ people, and numerous others — who’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with their Palestinian compatriots. (In an instance of how the conflation of Palestinians and Islam will get tough, the three school college students shot in Vermont haven’t been recognized by their faith in media studies.)

Many of those individuals have additionally suffered private {and professional} penalties that will not entice the help of officers who’re “confronting Islamophobia.” Viewing the implications meted out to this numerous coalition shines a lightweight on the unifying issue: not that they took Islamic positions, however relatively pro-Palestine stances.

Islamophobia, after all, may be very actual. It existed earlier than the assaults of September 11, 2001, and intensified afterward. It’s a world drive so robust that, marking the fifth anniversary of the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shootings, the U.N. Common Meeting voted two years in the past to acknowledge March 15 because the Worldwide Day to Fight Islamophobia. Within the U.S., anti-Muslim bigotry has constantly boiled beneath the floor, with incidents spiking periodically following incitement associated to numerous, typically contrived, present occasions, from the marketing campaign towards the “Floor Zero Mosque” to Donald Trump’s ascension to energy.

Israeli bombs don’t distinguish between Palestinian Muslims and Christians.

There’s usually overlap between anti-Palestinianism and Islamophobia. When former Obama administration official Stuart Seldowitz repeatedly harassed an Egyptian meals cart vendor in New York, his bigotry reduce throughout each.

Liberals ought to by all means fight Islamophobia and be recommended for it when applicable. (Right this moment’s MAGA-era conservatism is at its core so anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian that an enchantment to them can be silly.) The liberal physique politic, although, ought to acknowledge that Israeli bombs don’t distinguish between Palestinian Muslims and Christians. The occupation and its hateful vigilantes executed care whether or not they’re subjugating believers or nonbelievers. And right here at residence, the enforcers of pro-Israel norms rail towards Palestinians and non-Palestinians, Jews and Christians, Muslims and atheists; as long as they combat for Palestinian rights, they’re targets.

This is the reason liberals should acknowledge anti-Palestinianism for what it’s. If they’re legitimately involved, they need to fight it nevertheless they will. One place to begin can be by opposing Israel’s battle on Gaza.