The Mapping Project, a directory of online pages of Jewish organizations and other Massachusetts establishments that its creators say harm Palestinians, has sparked concern and concern among some members of Boston’s Jewish community. Jeremy Burton, executive director of the Greater Boston Jewish Community Relations Council, joined Jeremy Siegel, host of GBH’s morning edition, explains why he sees the online page as an incitement to violence. clarity and length.
Jeremy Siegel: Earlier this month, an anonymously produced map gave the impression online. It’s called The Mapping Project, and it’s meant to illustrate the Massachusetts organizations and establishments that say they are to blame for the harm done to the Palestinians. The graph shows a series of dots and lines of other colors, connecting not only pro-Israel organizations, but also schools, cultural centers, teams of other people with disabilities. Since its publication, the map has been promoted through the anti-Israel organization Boston BDS and the left-wing massachusetts nonprofit Peace Action. This led the FBI to monitor the scenario in Boston, and temporarily condemned it through lawmakers from across the ideological spectrum and Jewish leaders like Jeremy Burton.
Jeremy Burton: I’m not very surprised to see something like that. It is the herbal continuation of a very dark trend towards which we are heading in our society. We live in a time when other people feel encouraged or agitated by the things that concern them. watch online. And that obviously points to day schools, cultural centers, disability service teams and says, “This is your direction. Here are the names of their staff. Here are the names of your board. Démantelez-les. Et that’s the word they use: dismantle.
Siegel: When you hear a word like dismantle, what does it mean to you?What comes to mind?
Burton: Well, I’m not going to pull out a dictionary, but obviously they’re saying let’s dismantle the Jewish community, our infrastructure, our engagement with civil society in Boston. That’s obviously what they’re looking to do for us as a community. , is to be part of the broader civic fabric of this city.
Siegel: Let’s talk about some of the express languages used on this map and the literature they have online surrounding it. They use words like surveillance, they use some of those Jewish organizations in relation to words like white supremacy, colonization, systemic prejudice, oppression, ruling class. I’m curious to know what you think the effects of such redacted descriptions like this can have on how other people react to this list, without the context surrounding it.
Burton: I mean, it’s just dangerous. They use incendiary language. They interact with ancient anti-Semitic tropes who blame Jews, Jewish institutions, Jewish influence, all the ills of society. And then they point their finger at us and say “go for them. “
Siegel: What became of your brain when you first saw this?When did you first see it?
Burton: Well, apparently, the site was put in place just before a three-day Jewish holiday weekend [Shavuot]. So while other people started noticing that it was coming on Friday afternoon, I think on June 2, I first heard about Monday night. when I went back online to get a lot of emails and text messages about it from involved members of the network and other people.
My first thought, and I say this as someone who feels quite visibly in the public space, is that while I’m somewhat used to harassment, death threats, and other types of communication directed at me, I appreciate the worry and anxiety of many. members of our network who were discovered on this list for the first time, and especially to parents in schools who were concerned about what this would mean for their children.
Siegel: Have you won death threats?
Burton: Oh, absolutely. You know, if you’re going to be there as an advocate, for example, for LGBTQ equality or gun prevention or the Jewish community, you’re going to get other kinds of threats and harassment. I receive them all at once. time or other.
Siegel: You recently wrote an op-ed in The Times of Israel in which you said that they only named pro-Israel defense teams on this list, but that they stand out in schools, which stand out among police departments, adding Malden, Everett, and Somerville police departments; Governor Charlie Baker; the Greater Boston Jewish Teen Foundation; organizations that explicitly oppose the occupation.
And I need to communicate a little bit more about that broad brushstroke here, because as a Jewish person, it’s all I’ve experienced: the confusion between identity and religion, and politics, the State of Israel. I’m curious, you know, looking at this factor with a little bit more nuance, let’s say it wasn’t a broad list of those things and if that were the case, hypothetically, it was just about distinguishing pro-Israel groups. Is it different, in your opinion?
Burton: If those other anonymous people came right after, say, the Anti-Defamation League and the JCRC for the kinds of trips we hired civic leaders on, or came here later, especially organizations like AIPAC that advocate for the United States: security by dating Israel, we’d have another verbal exchange today. As I said over the past week and in this article, this is a moment of clarification. They have taken on organizations like New Israel Fund and J Street that are explicitly against the occupation and we devote abundant efforts and resources to this timeline and help for a two-state solution. By the way, like us, we help the two-state solution.
They have taken on organizations like Yachad, an organization of people with disabilities, which at most has a tangential relationship with everything related to the defense of U. S. -Israel relations and whose only sin, so to speak, is to provide systems for young Jews with disabilities, identity, and connection. to the world’s largest Jewish network in Israel.
it is clarifying. It is very transparent that what the BDS motion in Boston, as represented at least here, and among those who amplify, celebrate and publicize it, seeks the dissolution of the State of Israel, the withdrawal of the rest of the Jewish people from our homeland. This goes far beyond the realization of two states, or equality, or the rights of Palestinians. They call for the removal of the Jewish network from Boston’s public square.
Jeremy Siegel is co-host of Morning Edition at GBH News.
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