Eve Barlow addresses AUJS
Speaking on Israel/Palestine, Barlow said, 'it's a propaganda movement and so it attaches itself to popular causes of the day'
“Anti-Zionism to me is a popular, new sort of hyper intellectual way of framing anti-Jewish hate,” said activist and journalist Eve Barlow during her talk with the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) last Thursday.
Hosted by AUJS and sponsored by the United Israel Appeal (UIA) Victoria and the Zionist Federation of Australia, the Q&A event featured Los Angeles-based, Scottish-born Barlow, for a discussion on all things activism, Zionism and the current climate for Jewish students at Australian universities.
During the discussion Barlow highlighted that anti-Zionism “manifests itself in so many ways”.
She explained that more inventive ways to express anti-Zionism are appearing, and “it doesn’t look like hate; it looks like a fight for freedom and a fight against injustice, and that’s why it’s really appealing to the non-Jewish world and to many Jews, unfortunately.”
Speaking on anti-Zionist Jews, Barlow said some may take it up to “perhaps naively fit in with the non-Jewish world”, however, added: “If you are prepared to leave your Zionism at the door, then further down the line, you will probably be asked to leave something else at the door.”
In the wake of several controversial university motions in support of Palestine, Barlow discussed how the success of the Palestinian cause, in relation to other movements such as Black Lives Matter (BLM), is due to “the amazing power that the Palestinian narrative has to be able to kind of bestow itself on to other causes”.
“I don’t find it a surprise that … Israel/Palestine has become a matter for climate change, that Israel/Palestine has become a matter for LGBTQ-plus spaces,” she said, adding, “It’s a propaganda movement and so it attaches itself to popular causes of the day.”
Talking again on BLM, Barlow explained, “We’ve created a binary about black oppression versus white supremacy, and the Palestinian cause has done a brilliant job of reframing itself so that Israel is the white supremacist and the Palestinians are the oppressed black communities.
“We know that this is factually incorrect,” Barlow emphasised.
AUJS president Natalie Gunn told The AJN, “It was extremely important for us to give students the opportunity to speak with and listen to a young Jewish activist, who is using her platform to advocate for the global Jewish community.”
Gunn added, “It was really reassuring for our leaders to hear directly from Eve that they are doing a good job, and to continue with the important advocacy work that they are doing.”
Barlow also spoke at a WIZO Victoria function last Wednesday.
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