Human rights icon Natan Sharansky told a special event on anti-Semitism that too many so-called progressive voices regard Jews as ‘oppressors’ and are not protecting individual freedoms and human rights. Sharansky was speaking at an event countering yesterday’s panel on anti-Semitism headlined by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Prof. Marc Lamont Hill and Peter Beinart.
Sharansky was joined by US Assistant Special Envoy to Monitor & Combat Anti-Semitism, Ellie Cohanim and a range of high-level speakers and activists. The online event was organized by the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement, in partnership with the Tel Aviv Institute.
It took place in the aftermath of Tuesday’s “Dismantling Anti-Semitism: Winning Justice” panel, which featured Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who is a strong supporter of boycotting Israel, Temple University Prof. Marc Lamont Hill, who has endorsed the Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea” commonly viewed as a call to destroy Israel and the panel’s sole Jewish participant, Peter Beinart, who has publicly rejected the need for a Jewish state.
Natan Sharansky said, “Today, there is an attempt to hijack the cause of human rights from Jews by so-called progressives... For the so-called progressives, all the world is the fight between ‘oppressors’ and ‘oppressed.’ ‘Oppressors’ are always wrong and ‘oppressed’ are always right. There is no such thing as individual justice, it has to be for the group.”
He explained that in the eyes of these progressive voices, “Jews are guilty of belonging to the wrong state, the State of Israel, the wrong group,” and that “Jews are accused as a group and Israel is accused as a Jewish State.” He concluded, “It is not the struggle for human rights, it is not the struggle for individual freedom.”