introduction
our micah mandate
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
~ Micah 6:8
The "Micah Mandate" addresses the question of how people of faith should act in situations of injustice. It’s not just Micah. And it’s not just a recommendation. We are called over and over in our scriptures to “love one another” and “let justice roll like an everflowing stream.” As people of faith, we do work for justice; yet when it comes to Israel and its policies, our advocacy for justice frequently sparks vitriol, hate, and misguided accusations of antisemitism.
This is not accidental. There has been a professional, multi-million dollar effort underway since 2006 to shut down criticism of Israel. Also targeted has been the global BDS movement, likely due to its record of success in churches, on college campuses, and historic victories in academic institutions. There has also been success with corporations complicit in violations of international law and Palestinian human rights. What do we know about this effort? How do we expose its actual motivations and real agenda? How do we heed the call of Micah and “do justice” against this overwhelming tide of well-funded propaganda and public relations efforts?
Navigating the sea of professionally organized and funded campaigns against Palestine solidarity, we come up against at least four hurdles that attempt to throw us off course. By identifying them, we can see them clearly, learn how they function, expose them, and thereby limit their ability to obstruct our work for justice.
They are:
A well-organized multinational, multi-million dollar campaign to fight BDS
Accusations of antisemitism by “pro-Israel” groups and individuals, and through proposed legislation against Palestinian rights
The discriminatory and exceptionalizing nature of Zionism, as well as its reflection in White Supremacy
Dishonesty, the Ecumenical Deal, and the antisemitic ideology of Christian Zionism and finally, what is the endgame?
Spelling of antisemitism
The hyphenated spelling with a capital S “allows for the possibility of something called ‘Semitism’, which not only legitimizes a form of pseudo-scientific racial classification that was thoroughly discredited by association with Nazi ideology, but also divides the term, stripping it from its meaning of opposition and hatred toward Jews. ...The unhyphenated spelling is favored by many scholars and institutions in order to dispel the idea that there is an entity ‘Semitism’ which ‘anti-Semitism’ opposes. Antisemitism should be read as a unified term so that the meaning of the generic term for modern Jew-hatred is clear.” For more, see: HolocaustRemembrance.com