Interview

Emma Watson Smeared for Standing With Palestinians

Did you know that posting a Palestinian flag makes you an anti-Semite? Emma Watson did that and the former Israeli ambassador to the UN called her an anti-Semite.

Usually the Israelis will wait until you criticize Israel—THEN try to smear you as an anti-Semite. But she didn’t even say anything about israel. At all. She literally just posted a Palestinian flag.

As you can see, Emma is clearly a member of the SS.

What does that even mean? Palestinian flags are antisemitic? solidarity with Palestinians is antisemitic? 

Saying: “hey I don’t think Palestinians should be kicked out of their homes, and murdered and live under apartheid” is not antisemitism.  Criticizing Zionism—a political ideology—has nothing to do with criticizing or hating Jews. Judaism is a religion that’s thousands of years old.

But the Israelis know this. They’re not stupid. They just don’t like their crimes being exposed, so if you criticize israel they try to attack you and destroy you. 

The problem with doing this over and over – to people who are not anti-Semites — is that the word loses its meaning. This cynical weaponization of antisemitism, makes fighting actual antisemitism more difficult. 

There are real problems in the world with racism and antisemitism. Emma Watson’s Instagram isn’t one of them. 

Funnilly enough, when Netanyahu met with a Ukrainian politician whose party has actual neo-Nazis in it, I don’t recall the Israeli ambassador complaining.

Also, the word “Semite”. Did people just decide to forget that Palestinians and Arabs are also semites? They are a Semitic people who speak a Semitic language and indigenous to the Middle East. These people who are making a mockery of the word “antisemitic” and trying to monopolize it like Netanyahu and Bennett –  they’re not even from the Middle East. They’re settlers and colonizers who came from Poland, from the United States.

This attempt to silence Emma Watson backfired. Several movie stars wrote a letter in support of her, including Mark Ruffalo, Aragorn, and of course shout out to Susan Sarandon. You might not have seen that 10 years ago. But more and more people are speaking out against Israel’s crimes.

The Palestinian struggle has always been about national liberation. Not antisemitism. The Palestinian flag is a symbol of resistance against Israeli occupation, settler colonialism and racism. That’s why the Israeli ambassador got offended. Not because it’s antisemitic.