Malinda Words: Semitism: unadulterated, unclothed and unvarnished

Reporter vertelt tijdens live-verslag dat volledige familie gestorven is bij Israëlische aanval: “Mijn moeder zei nog dat ze me miste” | Conflict Israël-Palestina | hln.be

Words have meanings. Names have meanings too. Words and names have values. Words have definitions. Not always is there agreement on what they mean. String words together and you get sentences. Sentences are read. They can be read in multiple ways. Some definitions and interpretations are privileged. They are valued more. Indeed they are taken to be the most logical and accurate. One thing has to be kept in mind. Those who have the power to thrust definition and interpretation down the throat of others are not necessarily grammarians. Typically their power is obtained from wealth (typically ill-gotten) and control over coercive apparatuses.

Let’s consider some nouns, improperly understood though they are and used unabashedly for the most pernicious of purposes.

One. Semite. a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs. Underline the obvious that is consciously ignored: NOT ONLY HEBREWS. In other words, Jews don’t have a preserve on this noun.

And yet, the world is told repeatedly that not only are Jews Semites, they are the only Semites. This is done by ignoring the fact that ‘Semite’ also refers to Akkadians, Phoenicians and Arabs. Thereby by this deliberate erasure and with reference to the politically-restricted definition of the term if you object to anything that any jew does or anything done in the name of Jewry would be ‘anti-semitic.’

It makes sense. If you went along with the true definition, Arabs targeting Israel and Israelis could be described as Semites being Anti-Semitic. The brutal attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023 in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, including 40 children, and 240 were taken hostage could, technically, be described as such.

In just two months since then, Israel's military operations have resulted in over 17,000 Palestinians being killed, including 4,237 children. Yes, we need to add, ‘and counting.’ This too would be Semites being Anti-Semitic. Given this definition, the innumerable crimes against humanity that Israel has perpetrated against Palestinians during 75 years of occupation would also be Semites being Anti-Semitic.

So shall we drop it there and go with the definition preferred by the USA and Israel and of course others, especially European nations, that have offered silent consent to this name-twisting game? Shall we say, ‘yes, Jews and only Jews are Semites’?

Hold on to that. Let’s talk about semitic and semitism.

Semitic: Se· mit· ic. sə-ˈmit-ik: of or relating to the Semites. Yes, yes, since we are going with ‘Jew=Semite’ or rather ‘Semite=Jew,’ we could define semitic as follows: of, relating to, or characteristic of the Jews. Hold on to that too.

Semitim. Policy or predisposition favorable to Semites. Yes, yes, ‘favourable to Jews.’

Now ‘favourable’ is pretty subjective. There are, for example, many Jews who consider the actions of the State of Israel against Palestinians over the past 75 years and in particular the last two months to be extremely unfavourable to Jews. They would claim, then, that the State of Israel, which brands itself as a Jewish State and in word and deed insist that it represents Semites (as per the politically restricted definition), has in fact been atrociously Anti-Semitic.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his staunch approvers, especially Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak, however would insist that the State of Israel has done nothing else apart from unequivocally combating anti-Semitism. In other words what the State of Israel has ‘accomplished’ over the past two months (killing over 17,000 civilians, reducing hospitals and universities to mounds of rubble, doing everything possible to make it impossible for the sick to be treated, children to be fed and the most basic relief reaching a population held hostage) is in fact the affirmation of Semitism, i.e. designing and executing policies favourable to Semites.

Nouns. Names. Here’s one. Momen Al-Sharafi, resident of Gaza and a journalist working for Al Jazeera. Al-Sharafi has been reporting on the situation in Gaza where Israeli forces have from the air and on the ground executed the clearly expressed genocidal policies of the State of Israel.

No journalist would wish upon anyone in their tribe the task thrust upon Al-Sharafi a few days ago. He had to break to the entire world the news that had broken his heart into a thousand pieces: the ‘news’ that his entire family of 21 members had just been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

‘Last night my family evacuated to this area. A few hours later the Israeli Air Force, eyewitnesses from the area said, dropped a barrel bomb on the building that my family was in which led to the killing of the entire family. And everyone in the home, 21 people were there, have been killed. My father Mahmoud and my mom Amina and my brother Ayman, his wife Khetam, their son Mohamed, a medical student, their daughter Amina, a medical student, Maria, all three children, and Fathima and Hanin and my brother Amar’s wife and her children, his children, my auntie Asthma and her husband Naji, an engineer, my nephew Ahman, an engineer, my youngest auntie, Sabah, and her husband, Hussein’s father.

‘My mom sent me a voice memo a few days ago. She said she missed me and that she was praying for me to be safe and the safety of my colleagues. She said she misses me a lot because it has been two months of war and I have not seen her for over a month. I also didn't hear her voice. It is the single message that I got over WhatsApp. I am even denied a dignified burial because of the Israeli siege prohibiting residents of the south and those who were forced to be in the south, all prohibited from going to the north to bury their loved ones, their wives, mothers, aunts, loved ones.’

This is just one story. One of a million or more. Each a manifestation of unadulterated, unclothed, unvarnished, unimaginable and yet absolutely true…what? Semitism. It horrifies me. I cannot condone it. I will not applaud it. I object, vehemently. How could anyone not?

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 290th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below]

13 December 2023

Semitism: unadulterated, unclothed and unvarnished

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