Infinitesunrise is wrong to place the emphasis on the Jewish part and not the Zionist part, but I will say this: in Israel there is economic inequality between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim. Ashkenazim come from Europe and have paler skin. Mizrahim come from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and often have darker skin. If you compare the income of Ashkenazim and Mizrahim in modern day Israel, Ashkenazim control much of the country’s wealth. Which is the same pattern you see in the rest of the world with white privilege.
Now, why does Israel want to compete in Eurovision? Israel isn’t in Europe, it’s in Asia, so how does that make sense? Well, the big clue is Australia. Australia isn’t in Europe either, but it has a very European cultural identity, mainly represented in the fact that it was founded as a racist colonial project and it has a European king. So what Israel is culturally signalling through its investment in competing in Eurovision is “we are culturally European.” And we can see that in the fact that Israel is a colonialist state, just like Australia. Israel is performing whiteness. They’re trying to tell the western world “we are colonisers like you”. And that’s why a lot of people object to Israel’s participation in Eurovision. Because it’s a piece in their plan to colonise Palestine. They’re using it to gain political legitimacy and maintain alliances.
So, are Jewish people white? No. But, are there Jewish people who benefit from white privilege and seek to use white privilege to further colonialism? Yes, but not because they’re Jewish. It’s because they’re bourgeois racists.
I wrote jewish zionist only because I had just written rastafari zionist, so needed differentiation. Nothing I wrote was incorrect, but there are so many potentially triggering words in my comment that I think people’s brains just took off running without reading carefully. Read my other reply to the comment above, too.
Infinitesunrise is wrong to place the emphasis on the Jewish part and not the Zionist part, but I will say this: in Israel there is economic inequality between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim. Ashkenazim come from Europe and have paler skin. Mizrahim come from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and often have darker skin. If you compare the income of Ashkenazim and Mizrahim in modern day Israel, Ashkenazim control much of the country’s wealth. Which is the same pattern you see in the rest of the world with white privilege.
Now, why does Israel want to compete in Eurovision? Israel isn’t in Europe, it’s in Asia, so how does that make sense? Well, the big clue is Australia. Australia isn’t in Europe either, but it has a very European cultural identity, mainly represented in the fact that it was founded as a racist colonial project and it has a European king. So what Israel is culturally signalling through its investment in competing in Eurovision is “we are culturally European.” And we can see that in the fact that Israel is a colonialist state, just like Australia. Israel is performing whiteness. They’re trying to tell the western world “we are colonisers like you”. And that’s why a lot of people object to Israel’s participation in Eurovision. Because it’s a piece in their plan to colonise Palestine. They’re using it to gain political legitimacy and maintain alliances.
So, are Jewish people white? No. But, are there Jewish people who benefit from white privilege and seek to use white privilege to further colonialism? Yes, but not because they’re Jewish. It’s because they’re bourgeois racists.
I wrote jewish zionist only because I had just written rastafari zionist, so needed differentiation. Nothing I wrote was incorrect, but there are so many potentially triggering words in my comment that I think people’s brains just took off running without reading carefully. Read my other reply to the comment above, too.