Antizionism: A Plot to Kill a Nation

Phyllis Chesler  

"We must reclaim them unapologetically. Zionism is a mainstream political movement advocating for Jewish self-determination and protection in the state of Israel"**. 

. . . "These redemptive scripts are already operating inside feminist spaces, and they are reshaping whose suffering counts, whose testimony is believed, and which women qualify for solidarity.

"A case in point is the denial or minimisation of sexual violence on October 7th. Many feminist organisations or advocates publicly cast doubt on rapes committed by Hamas against Israeli women, because acknowledging these crimes introduces moral complexity and undermines the idea that eliminating Israel is a universal emancipatory act. A few examples will illustrate this.

"UN Women, for example, initially failed to acknowledge the sexual violence, issuing only generic statements about civilian protection. It was only weeks later, under pressure, that they explicitly condemned the October 7th attacks and the reports of gender-based atrocities. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch delayed or hedged their statements, questioning the evidence. Influential voices in the international women’s rights movement amplified narratives dismissing the reports as ‘propaganda’. And feminist networks, too many to mention - groups that normally insist “believe women” - suddenly applied caveats and warnings that complaints of rape were being weaponised. In response, the hashtag #MeTooUnlessYoureAJew began trending.

"Sexual violence as a weapon of war is well-documented and recognised globally. It is used to terrorise populations and destroy communities. Yet when Jewish women were the victims, the world fell silent – unable to confront what this brutality meant for a narrative that equates Palestinian resistance with liberation.

"Another example of Antizionism in action in feminist spaces comes from Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls – who also denied that any rapes occurred during the October 7th massacre in a conversation on X with one of our co-founders. She then went even further on a platform known for amplifying Antizionist voices, by claiming that Israel is “normalising state violence” globally. She blamed it for violence in countries like Iran and argued that this prevents her from holding those governments accountable:" . . .  More...