An editor of the left-wing Haaretz daily chastised French President Emmanuel Macron for calling anti-Zionism a form of anti-Semitism, praising anti-Zionism as “resistance” against racism and apartheid.
Asaf Ronel, the world news editor for Haaretz, criticized Macron’s recent statement that anti-Zionism was a ‘reinvention’ of anti-Semitism.
“We will never surrender to the messages of hate; we will not surrender to anti-Zionism because it is a reinvention of anti-Semitism,” said Macron on Sunday.
Responding to Macron’s comments via Twitter, Ronel rejected the comparison, and denounced Zionism as being ‘inherently racist’. Ronel also praised anti-Zionism for ‘resisting’ the evils of modern Zionism.
“Dear president Emmanuel Macron, you are wrong – anti-Zionism is resisting the racism inherent in today’s Zionism. It’s not antisemitism.”
In a back and forth with French-Israeli foreign policy expert Emmanuel Navon, Ronel later accused Zionism of apartheid.
Do you know “what is the difference btwn blaming Zionism 4 oppression&apartheid & believing the protocols of the elders of Zion,” Ronel asked rhetorically, later answering his own question by writing that as opposed to the mythical Protocols, Zionist ‘apartheid’ was “reality”.
But unlike many radical left-wing critics of Israel, Ronel did not cite Israel’s 1967 liberation of Judea and Samaria as an example of the alleged ‘apartheid’, instead denouncing the very establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.
“& the apartheid refers to 48, not 67.”
On Monday, Ronel took to Twitter again to complain about criticism of his comments after Honest Reporting documented his aforementioned tweets.
“Pro-Israel activists attack my newspaper for something I wrote. Explains a lot about their understanding of free media & freedom of speech.”
Ronel raised the issue again with a tweet Tuesday morning, attacking the “conflating” of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, while accusing Israel of “whitewashing Zionist anti-Semites”.
“Conflating antiSemitism w antiZionism only hurts the fight against antiSemitism. Also true for Israel's whitewashing of Zionist anti-Semites.”