Try reading the comments on Israeli media sites.
1 Like
They’re releasing the entire corpus for machine-learning and other study.
5 Likes
But how would you know that? Was it by reading the entire one paragraph original post? That’s a clever trick!
7 Likes
I was wondering about that as well. It’s definitely possible to be critical of the concept of Zionism without being anti-Semitic, but it doesn’t seem like it’s possible for these Twitter users. I read their example tweets, and most are crazily over the top anti-semitism. There were a few that almost seemed like borderline legitimate criticism (even if way out there), except when I asked myself, “Do I believe the person who wrote this is anti-Semitic?” In all cases, the answer was a resounding yes.
What’s surprising to me about the numbers here are that they have just 4.2 million tweets from 3 million accounts. The reason that’s surprising to me is that the example tweets seem like they come from fanatically obssessed anti-semitics, who seem like they would pump out several of these per day and never shut up about it. For the average to be 1.4 per account, it seems like some of these accounts would need to have a negative count.
3 Likes
I think that an aggregate of pro- Palestinian tweets would be subject to a similar questioning of how many anti Semitic tweets were included. I don’t think that reflexively questioning most things is bad and does not call into question the honesty of those fighting anti semitism. The methodology linked clears the question of anti Israel vs anti Semitic up for most people. However given the topic some people are going to believe or not believe before they even read it.
I hear people use “jew me down” on a disturbingly regular basis, but it is the only thing I can think of that I’ve heard in the last couple years other than the occasional kids calling each other Jews as some kind of insult (along with gay… which given I live in San Francisco, is rather shocking) and once in a super great while, a swastika.
Online, it is a lot of “globalists” and “cultural marxism” coded crap.
4 Likes
Give up. That’s a worn out twisting of words and pure whataboutism
2 Likes
Only 4.2M? I’m pretty sure I get exposed to a quarter of that per month.
1 Like
3 Likes
But I’m not a tech company.
I doubt there’s anything preventing any of the tech companies from releasing it, and these research corpi tend to make their way into the public domain one way or the other. Remember, it’s not only Google and Facebook that will get this. It’s also Twitter and Amazon, in addition to many other companies.
3 Likes
Considering how Jews over the years have been accused of basically everything it’s very hard to criticize Israel without getting close to at least one antisemitic trope. Unfortunately, if you criticize Israel you will have to get used to be called an antisemite repeatedly, perhaps not by ADL, but by Israel supporters, to the point where the word starts to lose its meaning. It’s like when people to the right call everything they don’t like ‘socialism’.
2 Likes
The idea of using an ADL study to train others to detect antisemitism is deeply alarming. Here is just one example of the problem: Many organizations AND individuals self-identify as Zionist. So it it a legitimate descriptor, not a pejorative term. As a Jew I am very troubled by Zionism, which says that even though my parents and grandparents etc. never got within a thousand miles of Israel I have the “right of return” simply because of my Jewishness – but people who lived there, and their children and grandchildren who have spent their whole lives within 50-60 miles of their family homes, cannot return because they are Arabs. That is why Zionism is a racist ideoloty. Yet if I criticize Zionism by name, I am in danger of triggering ADL’s “antisemitism detector”.
If I add to that a criticism of what highly recognized scholars call “The Israel Lobby” and point out how much Adelson has given to Trump, I’m DEFINITELY going to trigger it. We need to have a way of talking about this system of control and influence without playing into really antisemitic discourse – and ADL’s blurring of these lines does not help.
8 Likes
So they are shifting focus away from Roger Waters now, apparently.
ADL has no credibility.
Here’s the thing, pretty much always I see that particular trope followed by blood libels, threats to me, my family or friends. It’s not something to bring up as if “I thought we were past all that”.
Please try and explain that to any of my Mizrachi, Sephardi or Ethiopian Jewish friends from Israel.
Also if you point the “right of return is racist” finger you have to point it at multiple nations that have the same statutes.
It also so happens that some Sephardim get a right of return to Spain. I’m not holding my breath but if Britain ever does the same since they once expelled us, I might try just for fun since my ancestors stopped over there for a few years after escaping the pogroms.
6 Likes
In the UK the current use of anti-semite seems to include any comment against Israeli foreign policy.
Its perfect for the outrage brigade.
Im not an anti-zionist but if I opinionated my attitude towards Israel’s foreign policy I expect Id be considered an anti-semite.
“if you point the “right of return is racist” finger you have to point it at multiple nations that have the same statutes.”
So if nobody points at those other nations, Israel can not be a racist nation? Spot your flaw.
Also, if national laws exclude certain people that have roots in the geographical area of that nation, and include others, that is a clear indication of racism/apartheid.
Not a flaw. The issue is whether it is one right of return law or the principle of right of return laws in general. Its one of those funny topics that very few bother to even look up in wikipedia. Jus Soli and Jus Sanguinis as well.
If in this particular instance citizenship by birth or naturalization were as you describe then yes. Given that 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs (which includes judges and MKs and other members of the body politic) and that the laws concerning naturalization outside the context of the law of the right of return say nothing at all about ethnicity or place of birth, the charge just doesn’t apply.
Had you pointed to specific legal issues, court cases or something where actual criticism made sense, maybe for example the economic policy expressed in tax law which favors certain corporate groups or the immature finance industry which drives startups to re-headquarters themselves or seek seed funding in the US, those things might be actual criticism. Something real. Unfortunately it seems you didnt even do your basic research.
1 Like
Actually, Zionism is the idea, endorsed by the entire non Arab world and authorized by by the League of Nations, the United Nations, and Britain who administered the territory that Palestinian Jews would be granted their own homeland just as enjoyed by Arabs in the Middle East. Virtually simultaneously, the same auspices created Trans-Jordan as a homeland for any displaced Palestinian Arabs.
It is post-Zionism Israel which extends the right of Jews all over the world the right to settle in Israel. Not too surprising and certainly not despicable following centuries of pogroms and The Holocaust.
3 Likes
“Not a flaw”.
Keep on telling yourself that. The real or imagined racism of Israel is not lessened by laws that could be construed as racist in other countries.
“that the laws concerning naturalization outside the context of the law of the right of return say nothing at all…”
Well, that is very convenient. So how many displaced non-jewish people, and their children, from the former British mandate of Palestine, are allowed to return to the areas from whence they were cleansed? If a grand-child of a victim of the Deir Yassin massacre wants permanent residence and his/her property back, do the laws of return give him/her that right?
1 Like
