On Sunday November 8, there is going to be a protest in Philadelphia that has generated enormous controversy.
A gathering of folks on bicycles will be doing a restaurant crawl, protesting eateries that they accuse of having supported the genocide in Gaza.
Pro-Israel forces seized on this action to disingenuously characterize it as nothing but antisemitism, completely ignoring—in fact, opportunistically burying—the connection to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the overall apartheid and ethnic cleansing that Palestinians under Israeli rule are enduring.
I have examined statements and held some private conversations with people in and around Palestine activism in Philly (none of whom, I should make clear, are directly involved with the action, since I don’t know those folks). From everything I can see, the framing I laid out above is accurate.
And it paints a picture of an ill-conceived protest action that is going to do a lot more harm than good.
At this point, when the likes of the ADL, Josh Shapiro, John Fetterman, and even more explicitly racist groups like StandWithUs call something antisemitic, it has lost a lot of its power. They’ve done it spuriously so often while Jews continue to thrive, participate, and enjoy security in the United States that it has become a dangerous cry of wolf, one that is already beginning to affect Jewish safety because it has become so associated with dishonest political manipulation.
So, is the protest antisemitic?
The bicyclists are targeting support for Israel, not simply any Jewish-owned business. Three of the six targets—Goldie, K’Far Cafe, and Dizengoff—are owned by Chef Michael Solomonov, who explicitly describes his mission as promoting Israel through his restaurants. That’s a particularly fraught arena, given the level of appropriation of Arab and Palestinian cuisine, mixing it with traditional Jewish foods from other parts of the world to create “Israeli cuisine.”
Solomonov has chosen to make his restaurant business a part of pro-Israel proselytizing. While that is his right, and he should be able to pursue his business as he sees fit, it also opens the door to protest, especially while Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
But activists have opened themselves to accusations of antisemitism by also targeting Marti Lieberman’s Mac Mart for no discernible reason, as ide from her being identifiably Jewish. There is nothing in the public record indicating her connection to Israel, and the groups themselves have not explained her targeting.
Solomonov has been a target of protest before. And the owners of the other two restaurants being targeted—Allan Domb who owns Schlesinger’s and Yehuda Schiel who owns Huda—are explicitly pro-Israel, but nothing in the public record indicates their support has been particularly active or impactful. At best, these businesses, aside from Solomonov’s, are being targeted because of the owners’ personal political views.
To call that slim basis is an understatement. It invites accusations of antisemitism, disingenuous though they may be.
The accusations are given extra weight by the timing of the event, two days before the anniversary of Kristallnacht. During that pogrom, Jewish businesses were the specific target of action, raising obvious parallels that no one associated with the movement for Palestinian rights in their right mind wants.
There is no reason to believe the organizers knew about the coincidence of the date. Even most Jews would have to look up the dates of Kristallnacht.
Organizers have said that the date was chosen for reasons of practicality and that makes perfect sense, one of the few things about their planning that does. It is right after the midterms, which you would want to do because the election would have certainly made it impossible to get the same amount of attention to the action. And delaying it further in Philadelphia risks running into inclement weather as winter approaches, making a bicycle protest difficult or impossible. They may well have had other, practical reasons.
That made sense. But once they started getting criticism around the Kristallnacht anniversary, they should have rescheduled it. Because of the similarity of the actions of the protest—targeting Jewish-owned businesses—indifference to that echo raises a reasonable accusation of antisemitism, in contrast to the usual willful conflation of antisemitism with all criticism of Israel.
I don’t know the organizers, and nothing in their rhetoric is distinctly antisemitic. There is a disturbing tone to their anti-Zionism that is also dehumanizing, but that tone can be reasonably debated. It doesn’t make them antisemitic in any way.
But this protest has become exactly what must be avoided in Palestine solidarity action. It has become its own controversy that will be argued rather than discussing the genocide in Gaza.
More than that, it gives fodder to those very disingenuous accusations of antisemitism that it claims to be defying.
And it does those things for what, exactly? So that these activists can feel good about themselves for raising a voice against Zionism and the horrific crimes Israel is committing?
Because beyond that, the protest will accomplish nothing. It’s not going to raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinians; it’s inconceivable that anyone is going to learn more about that loathsome reality because of this.
Doubtless, the patrons of these restaurants—which cater to a market that is likely to be sympathetic to Israel—will not be hurt by the action. Indeed, if reports are accurate, there is already a concerted effort to increase their business that seems to be succeeding.
Unless, of course, the protests turn violent. I have no doubt the organizers have no such intent, but that doesn’t always matter. There will, inevitably, be high tensions whether they want it to lead to acts of vandalism and violence or not.
And we can be certain, given the wide publicity this event has generated, that right wing pro-Israel forces will be out to confront the protest, and they know very well that turning the event violent serves their interests. And, as always, police violence is a potential factor.
This action is a political stupidity. It is all cost and no benefit. It is performative and centers the protesters instead of the people of Gaza and Palestine, albeit doing so unintentionally. It will help to blur the distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
I make no assumptions about the motives of the organizers. Some accuse them of antisemitism, some dismiss the charge and I don’t have enough knowledge to say one way or the other.
But if I have learned anything from decades of anti-racism education and work against both Israeli apartheid and antisemitism, it is that actions can be bigoted even if they are not carried out by bigots. Indeed, more often than not, anti-racism teaches us, bigotry is expressed through unconscious means.
That dynamic is reinforced these days by all the spurious accusations of antisemitism in defense of Israeli crimes.
Holding this protest so close to the anniversary of Kristallnacht is antisemitic, but that does not mean that is the intention of the action. Indeed, I would argue that there is a very good chance that we could much more easily convince the organizers that this is a bad look and that it disrupts the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism if not for the pandemic of false, cynical accusations of antisemitism that have been hurled at people who simply want to see Israel stop killing Palestinians and destroying the lives of those that survive.
I can only hope that the organizers realize, at the last minute, what a terrible idea this action is and how much damage they will be doing to the movement for Palestinian rights with it.