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It's often said that antizionism is a disguise for antisemitism, & while that's certainly a conversation worth continuing, I think now is a good time to talk about how the toxicity of antizionist spaces, particularly online, enables predators like Dominic Mitchell. 1/?
This is a type of situation I know only too well, unfortunately - but as a Zionist from a place of distinctly Jewish Zionism & with a different type of "predator."
I participated in the worst excesses of many Jwitterati &, subsequently, began to exhibit them myself. 2/
I participated in the worst excesses of many Jwitterati &, subsequently, began to exhibit them myself. 2/
It was only after having said horrendous things to my fellow Jews & some of our allies, that I allowed myself to become an unwitting participant in a bigoted deception that I am still undergoing teshuvah for... one that is still harming Jewish women of color in our community. 3/
While it would be easy to tell myself that, after having learned the truth & publicly apologizing immediately, I should feel no sense of guilt or responsibility for acting with good intentions in defense of a person I thought of as a friend... it would also be wrong. 4/
I have existed online for a long time. As an #ElderMillenial, I still remember the excitement of building my 1st computer with a #Pentium processor, logging into #Battlenet to play #Warcraft 2, lounging in #AOL chatrooms (a/s/l?), & exploring all of cyberspace's early years. 5/
In that time, I've been part of good online communities, where I made friends, shared similar interests, & grew as a person. I'm also ashamed to say I've been part of incredibly toxic communities, where I emulated trollish, flaming, even bigoted & downright abusive behavior. 6/
It was only through distance of time or space, or a reckoning by others, that helped me turn away from the latter & find more of the former. Yet, I'll admit I was (am?) a stubborn, cocky person with intentions as good as my occasionally misplaced loyalty & rash choices. 7/
Nowadays, I accept the consequences of my actions, the bad, the neutral, & the good. (Yes, even in my foolishness, somehow more than a few good things grew from them.) But more importantly, I recognize the capacity to make these mistakes again in the future - the why & how. 8/
Just as I repeated those mistakes among my fellow Zionists on Jwitter, so am I seeing those same mistakes congealing among antizionists - as they have for a while now. It's more than just disagreement & passion. It's a self-righteousness that's turned to cruel zealotry. 9/
It's in attacking people for their complexity as individuals, for chasing others' good faith with bad, in trolling & pile-ons & abuse & harassment, for building people (anonymous strangers even) & their opinions into cults of personality complete with their own sects. 10/
This is something Jews have experienced in progressive spaces. (Indeed many minorities have, gallingly.) But in these trying times of hyper political partisanship, this toxicity has taken root in a way that my generation & younger have rarely (if ever) experienced. 11/
Still, it's hard not to feel a unique chagrin & even dread that this toxicity has found a home in the progressive spaces that have always felt like home to Jewish people - subverting our language of social justice, our values of understanding, compassion, equity, & diversity. 12/
While there are a myriad of contributing factors to this development in #antizionist spaces, from antisemitic & Islamophobic bigotry to people like Hamas & Benjamin Netanyahu, the ultimate result is an environment where all negative things feed, where they flourish. 13/
It is precisely *that* toxicity that allows predators like Dominic Mitchell to gain followers, enablers, & victims. It's where we look the other way, despite having been told troubling accounts more than once, despite even seeing something suspicious ourselves. 14/
It's where we betray our deepest principles & gut feelings for fear of the shame, the embarrassment, or - in my case - lost sense of certainty, the impossibility of bias or mistaken explanation, & instead follow terrible people into their terrible choices that become ours. 15/
