An Open Letter to Iyad Afalqa, Chair of the Arab American Caucus of the California Democratic Party

Posted today February 22, 2019, by the Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party, a group working feverishly to save the Democratic party from the rampant anti-Semitism that  plagues the UK's Labour party, way across the pond.

An Open Letter to Iyad Afalqa, Chair of the Arab American Caucus of the CDP:

We, members of Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party (CDP) condemn the hateful and false depiction of Zionism and the unmistakably antisemitic tropes in the article you chose to share in the CADEM Delegates page on February 18, 2019 entitled “All Zionist roads lead to genocide.”

Here, for example, are excerpts that contain some of the most dangerous slanders we have seen trafficked in Democratic Party leadership circles:

“Zionism and its denialism appeals to white supremacists in the United States who similarly are in denial of the American genocide of Native Americans and enslavement of black Africans.”

“Zionism has always been a white supremacist, settler colonialist, anti-democratic, right-wing ideology, which has demanded a loyalty based on nationalist racism. Zionists of all sorts, including of the liberal kind, have collaborated with anti-Semitic forces towards a mutual goal of global apartheid, often at the expense of Jews who live outside Israel."

The article frames Zionism as responsible for an international conspiracy of global apartheid. This is clear and unbridled antisemitism found in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a famously false and hateful pamphlet alleging international conspiracy by racist, global Zionists. By itself, this trope has been responsible for the deaths of literally millions of Jews. This is the language we see being normalized in the article you shared.

It is historically inaccurate to claim that Zionism is a white supremacist ideology, as Zionist ideals are an embedded element of Jewish life—regardless of race or ethnicity. This is evidenced by the fundamental importance of Zionism as an aspirational ideal for Middle Eastern Jewish communities, or “Arab-Jews” for centuries. The hope of the return to the indigenous Jewish land of Israel was a central element of Jewish prayer and thought in Arab countries since the Babylonian exile—when Jews were forcibly taken as slaves from Jerusalem to modern day Iraq some 2,500 years ago.

In the 20th century, under the color of law, Arab governments routinely employed anti-Zionist tropes and laws against Jews in order to incite pogroms and state sanctioned persecution which ultimately led to the ethnic cleansing, dispossession and displacement of close to one million Jewish refugees from countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Fortunately, 650,000 of these victims found refuge in Israel, and today their descendants comprise half of Israel’s Jewish population. Many came to America and our own state of California. They are your constituents, however, the language you perpetuate here fundamentally undermines their safety.

We believe you are a good person who cares deeply about justice for the oppressed. We also believe that your desire in posting this egregious opinion piece was not due to hatred of any people or persons, but rather to a misunderstanding of what Zionism means to the majority of Jews in Israel and the diaspora, particularly those from MENA lands.

Because you are an important leader in the CDP, we ask of you the following:

1. That we set up a respectful conversation with you and Jews from the Middle East and North African diaspora to learn more about the personal experiences of former Jewish refugees, to understand the critical role of Israel in the lives of Jews from Arab countries, and to explore opportunities and points of connection.

2. That you work with them to help bring their stories to the Arab American Caucus meeting at the CDP Convention in San Francisco in May/June to share what the Democratic Party means to them as former Middle Eastern refugees.

Thank you for your attention to these critical and pressing matters. We look forward to helping to restore the discourse to one of fairness, truth, and decency, and ask for your help in doing so.

Sincerely,

Founding Members of Progressive Zionists
of the California Democratic Party

Andrea Beth Damsky
Matthew Finkelstein
Susan George
Paul Kujawsky
Micha Liberman
Lauren Rose

State Assembly Candidate Maria Estrada embraces NOI bigot Louis Farrakhan

Democratic Candidate for California State Assembly in District 63, Maria Estrada,  has publicly praised Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan. Ms. Estrada said, “I, for one, enjoy listening to Farrakhan’s sermons.”

Dubbed the Black David Duke, Farrakhan's sermons are filled with anti-Semitism  and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.  

Louis Farrakhan's vitriolic anti-Semitism has been well documented, by the ADL, and by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  There's nothing more damning than his own words.

“The Jewish media has normalized sexual degeneracy, profanity, and all kinds of sin.”

Louis Farrakhan  The Time and What Must Be Done, Part 20: Making Satan Known, May 25 2013

"The Jews, a small handful, control the movement of this great nation, like a radar controls the movement of a great ship in the waters … the Jews got a stranglehold on the Congress."
Louis Farrakhan, Saviour's Day speech, Chicago, Feb. 25, 1990

"The powerful Jews are my enemy."

Louis Farrakhan  Chicago, February  2018

"White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God's grace, has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew and I'm here to say your time is up, your world is through"

Louis Farrakhan  Chicago, February  2018
 

"And you do with me as is written, but remember that I have warned you that Allah will punish you. You are wicked deceivers of the American people. You have sucked their blood. You are not real Jews, those of you that are not real Jews. You are the synagogue of Satan, and you have wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government, and you are deceiving and sending this nation to hell. But I warn you in the name of Allah, you would be wise to leave me alone. But if you choose to crucify me, know that Allah will crucify you."

Louis Farrakhan, Saviour's Day speech, Chicago, Feb. 25, 1996

"Jews know their wickedness, not just Zionism, which is an outgrowth of Jewish transgression." Louis Farrakhan, Washington D.C. July 1985

"[T]he Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He wasn't a great man for me as a black person, but he was a great German. Now, I'm not proud of Hitler's evils against Jewish people, but that's a matter of record. He raised Germany up from nothing. Well, in a sense you could say there's a similarity in that we are raising our people up from nothing."
— Louis Farrakhan, radio interview, March 11, 1984

"These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength. … It's the wicked Jews, the false Jews, that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality. It's the wicked Jews, false Jews, that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!"

— Louis Farrakhan, Saviours' Day speech, Feb. 26, 2006

"And the Christian right, with your blindness to that wicked state of Israel … can that be the holy land, and you have gay parades, and want to permit to have a gay parade in Jerusalem when no prophet ever sanctioned that behavior. How can that be the Israel, how can that be Jerusalem with secular people running the holy land when it should be the holy people running the holy land. That land is gonna be cleansed with blood!"
Louis Farrakhan, Saviour's Day speech, Chicago, Feb. 26, 2006

"We can now present to our people and the world a true, undeniable record of the relationship between Blacks and Jews from their own mouths and pens. These scholars, Rabbis and historians [that Nation of Islam researchers studied] have given to us an undeniable record of Jewish anti-Black behavior, starting with the horror of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, plantation slavery, Jim Crow, sharecropping, the labor movement of the North and South, the unions and the misuse of our people that continues to this very moment."
Letter sent by Louis Farrakhan to Jewish leaders and the Southern Poverty Law Center, June 24, 2010.

Earlier this week, the Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party exposed Maria Estrada's praise of Farrakhan, writing:

Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party Concerned about Candidate Maria Estrada

July 6, 2018 Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party is concerned about candidate for Assembly Member in District 63 Maria Estrada’s public support of notorious homophobe and antisemite Louis Farrakhan and her repeated and extreme antisemitism in the guise of “criticism of Israel"...

Estrada saying that she “enjoy[s] listening to Farrakhan’s sermons”, a known and noxious public figure, is a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community and women as well as Jews. Farrakhan’s sermons are littered with homophobia and misogyny. The SPLC and the ADL label him as a hate figure. A truly progressive leader would spurn him from their spaces to make it as safe and inclusive for all identities.

Both the ADL- Los Angeles

and the National ADL have condemned Estrada's words

Maria Estrada's embrace of Farrakhan has been covered widely in the press.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Dr. Harold Brackman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, writing in the Jewish Journal note how "bigots from the far Left and the far Right" are "wending their way into the mainstream of our society."

Farrakhan’s Bigotry Finds Traction Across the Political Spectrum.

Yair Rosenberg, writing in Tablet Magazine stated:
Maria Estrada promotes Louis Farrakhan and attacked a Jewish politician over his religion. She also claims she’s just ‘anti-Zionist.’
Combating this dangerous dynamic is a challenge that progressives and the Democratic Party must meet. If both groups intend to be credible voices on antisemitism and on Israel, they’re going to need to learn to spot bad actors like Estrada who use Israel as an excuse for their unreconstructed Jew hatred. Identifying and casting out these bigots will not only marginalize the bigotry, but it will also open up a constructive space for criticizing Israel that isn’t tainted by antisemitism. 

From the Times of Israel:
Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party calls on Maria Estrada to resign and apologize for 'blatant anti-Semitism' which 'disqualifies her from public office'

From the Jerusalem Post:

Maria Estrada, a candidate for California’s District 63 representing the southeast suburbs of Los Angeles, offered her support for anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

The inclusion of Maria Estrada as a Democratic Candidate for California State Assembly in District 63 is nothing less than the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism in the Democratic party.  Its time for the DNC to denounce and distance themselves from Estrada.