If you grew up in the inner city in the 1970s and 1980s and were a hippie, black or latino–never mind a hippie who spent most of his time with blacks and latinos–chances are you had occasion to call a police officer a “pig.” Real pigs are actually kind of nice, as Charlotte’s Web, the movieBabeand the fact that people keep them as pets attests.
But at least in places like Paterson, NJ, Harlem or the Lower East Side, cops seemed to behave with regularity the way people generally imagine pigs to be: dirty–as in corrupt, gluttonous–as in often overweight and also corrupt, sniffing into people’s business, and often running amok in the communities they were supposed to “protect and serve.”
Sadly, the rise of Black Lives Matter and the ongoing police brutality and corruption it’s brought to light reminds us that things haven’t changed too much. Is calling a cop a pig today a sign of bigotry or prejudice? Or can the insult, however crude, reflect a reality that needs to be highlighted?
I raise these questions because at its last meeting the Regents of the University of California approved a new Principles of Intolerance which, despite the ongoing epidemic of sexual assaults on UC campuses, decreasing of our pensions, weakening of health care benefits, lowering of educational quality and rise in tuition, focuses on the alleged plight of one of the least vulnerable groups at UC by most measures (including UC’s own “Campus Climate” report) – Jewish students.
As word leaked of the language being considered for the final version of the Principles, which would have explicitly equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism an international uproar ensued that condemned the equation as historically ill-informed and empirically wrong much if not most of the time (to cite the most obvious problem, Jews themselves have been and continue to be anti-Zionist).
Despite all the well-deserved derision the report received, the Regents in their infinite wisdom decided to keep the identification of anti-Zionism as potentially anti-Semitic; the final version of thePrinciplesincludes “anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism” as the new official red line which the University of California is supposed to police.
How UC administrators are supposed to decide what kind of anti-Zionist speech crosses into anti-Semitism is anyone’s guess, but Regent Norman Pattiz put us all on notice after the vote that he and other Regents would be “monitoring” campuses’ responses to anti-Semitism. No doubt hoping to be helpful, he offered two examples of what such speech would encompass: using the phrase “Zionist pigs” or calling for Zionists to be sent to gas chambers.
We can all agree that calling for anyone to be sent to gas chambers is disgusting and bigoted. But what about calling someone a pig? Let’s set aside the fact that “Zionist pig” is not one of the most common phrases in the anti-Semitic lexicon today (“Zio-Nazi” would have been a better choice). Why is the phrase “Zionist pig” inherently anti-Semitic or even anti-Zionist?
Certainly the use of the word “pig” as an epithet against law enforcement has a very long provenance, going back as far as the 17thcentury. “Capitalist,” Fascist” and “imperialist” have also all been attached to “pig” as epithets in the last century, particularly by those of various leftist and/or anti-authoritarian persuasions.
What all these variations of the “pig” epithet have in common is that they evoke behaviors involving greed, abuses of power, harming local communities and corruption that define the groups against whom the insult is being used. That is precisely why the epithet “pig,” like the animal, is so versatile and useful.
But what of Regent Paddiz’s “Zionist pig”? There is no doubt that anti-Semites can and have used the term with anti-Semitic intent. Yet by definition any word or term anti-Semites use to describe Jews is anti-Semitic, so that tells us little about its inherent denotation or connotation. Is it possible for the term to be used without being anti-Semitic? Let’s look at the behavior associated with Zionism, and specifically the state of Israel and Israeli settlers during the half century of the Occupation.
Who can argue with a straight face that Zionism and Israeli state policy haven’t been defined by precisely the behaviors that we associate with the term “pig”? Israel’s rapacious and insatiable greed for territory is undeniable; not a week goes by in which more land, resources and even homes are expropriated, stolen, destroyed and occupied either officially or by settlers protected and even encouraged by the government. How about sowing chaos and destruction across the Occupied Territories? Let’s not even go there. Corruption and abuses of power? Pretty much describes the Occupation and even Israelilocalandnationalpolitics more broadly, as anyone who peruses the Hebrew press can confirm.
In other words, there are many reasons one could use the term “Zionist pig” and not be an anti-Semite, or even necessarily anti-Zionist. After all, Israel has systematically behaved in a piggish manner for decades. Nor does the fact that pigs are treif (non-kosher) mean the use of pig with Zionism is anti-Semitic; the well knownlove affairof secular Jews withbaconand other pork products, puts the lie to such an automatic equation. One can even find Zionists who have adopted the term “Zionist pig” as a positive term, as at leastone twitter accountdemonstrates. If the owner of that account applied to UC, would Pattiz like us to reject him?
If the UC Regents have a problem with equating Zionists with pigs, or the use of any other intense and even indelicate characterization of Israeli behavior, their time would be better spent helping to change Israel’s behavior – say, by disinvesting from companies that profit from the Occupation – than sniffing out anti-Semites among the growing number of UC students and faculty, including many Jews, who have grown tired of Israel’s brutal Occupation and greed for territory and will no longer stay silent.
As Passover approaches it might be a good idea for Paddiz to avoid reading the Bible; the epithets launched by the Prophets against Israel in response to immoral behavior by its leaders and people are enough to make even an anti-Semite blush. Tell me Norman, should we stop teaching the Prophets?
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Mark LeVine is acontributingeditor of Tikkun. He is musician and professor of history at the University of California Irvine and author of numerous books, most recently Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books, 2009).
Do you ever consider the opposition to its existence Israel faces in the region. It includes Hamas, Hezbollah and elements of the Palestinian Authority. Have you considered the oppression Palestinians face under Hamas. No, because you choose to use “pig” as an insult. When you start protesting about other occupations and unresolved territorial conflicts around the world, you might be taken seriously. Start with calling Turkey a pigs for their occupation of 1/2 of Cypress. Consider calling Russia a pig for its occupation of Crimea. Finally consider calling Morocco a pig for its occupation of the Western Sahara. Otherwise consider yourself an anti Semite. I am critical of Israeli government policies but I would never call Israel a pig.The Palestinians could have had a state of their own in 2000 but Arafat decided to go on a killing spree instead.
Well Manny, perhaps you haven’t been reading Tikkun very long, as I’ve been writing about these things for 2 decades. However, you’re way off on most of your claims. First of all, the PA fully accepted Israel’s existence and in fact so has Hamas numerous times. As for Hezbollah, it is a creation 100% of Israel’s illegal and brutal invasion and occupation of Lebanon. As for whether I’ve considered the oppression of Palestinians under Hamas, I’ve in fact written about it in my book “Impossible Peace” and in numerous articles, especially for al-Jazeera. as for “protesting about other occupations,” of done that innumerable times, from Western Sahara to Tibet to Kashmir to Iraq and on and on. So you got the wrong person to try the “why are you picking on Israel argument” out on. As for calling Israel a pig, well, you can put lipstick on it, but its policies are still pretty ugly. Perhaps you might take a minute to actually read what someone writes before making putting out words you have to eat, never mind you never address the core argument, which is that Israel is engaged in a brutal and illegal occupation for half a century. Or are we living on different planets?
Cheers and Hag Sameah.
Mark, the PA has gone back and forth on its recognition of Israel, but given a chance to have a star, it failed. Arafat started a very bloody intifada after he walked out of Camp David. This is not the its time the Palestinians. In an interview , President Abbas has acknowledge that the Palestinian and Arab world made a mistake not accepting partition.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-israel-abbas-idUSTRE79R64320111028
Regarding Hamas, you are seriously delusional. They have NEVER recognized Israel. The furthest they have ever gone was to offer an 10 year cease fire in exchange for a withdraw form occupied territory. That is 10 years where Hamas would be take over those territories and rearm for a full scale invasion. Cease fire is not a peace just like the 1949 Armistice agreement is not a peace. Final status agreements are peace.
Your biggest failure is the absence of the recognition of the security needs of Israelis. I’m not talking about the government, I’m talking about citizens within the 1967 borders. Many Israelis do not feel secure under the current situation so what would life be like with a Hamas controlled Palestinian state. No, I don’t like current Israeli government polices, but I understand how Palestinian terrorism has helped dismantle the Israeli peace movement and push Israelis to the right. Vulnerability breeds fear.
As for other occupations, I do not see any calls to boycott Turkey, Morocco, China or Russia for there illegal occupations. And having looked at your publicly displayed academic profile, its sees that you are unable to look at the Israeli-Palestiunian conflicts objectively. I’s imagine for course breed hatred and anti Semitism.
Just to correct my typo. I’d imagine your courses help breed anti Semitism on campus
Has Hamas ever made a public statement recognizing Israel? No it appears Hamas used you as a tool kite lie Serb TV used Noam Chomsky to cover up their genocide and paint themselves as victims. Have you even considered the human rights crimes of Hamas under their current leadership . Have you considered how they placed civilians in danger when shooting rockets for residential areas? Yes,it has been confirmed by the UN and others, so do’t bother refuting it. That gets boring as well.
As for your MA thesis on Israel’s security needs, I doubt you come close to understanding them. Does your thesis included interviews with Israeli military officials or are they to be ignored?
BTW, Mr LaVine, I did serve n the IDF during one war and the 1st intifada. Combined with following the conflict for many years, I feel that I have a good understanding of the issues in the region. Israel may ave made many mistakes, but it’s a conflict a both sides are to blame for the current situation.
You served in the IDF in the Territories. Lovely! so you’re a war criminal. We should all listen to you quite well. And yes, by the very fact you served in an illegal occupation that systematically commits war crimes–which I have seen with my own eyes–that makes you an accessary to war crimes and thus a war criminal. Congratulations. How much Arabic do you know? And as for being a “faux” professor, well, only one of us has a PhD and I’m pretty sure it’s not you. and yes, i “personally” heard this because I was and remain an accredited journalist who has interviewed them many times, in Gaza and the West Bank.
Please stop fighting a war you can’t win and accept reality. All your hatred and ignorance is doing is destroying Israel, as increasingly more and more people around the world, including Jews, are coming to see. If you care about the country, use the moment of Pesach to reflect on the core values of Judaism and of the Prophets and own up to what you’ve participated in. It’s not too late to be part of the movement for change. There are many brave former Israeli soldiers who are telling the truth about what they’ve done and helping begin the healing process. For the sake of your conscience and soul I hope you’ll join them.
Many years ago, my mother told me to be aware of Zionists.
It took me serveral years and a lot of reading and conversations with people from the Middle East to understand why. Recently, I wrote an email to friends of mine stating that being Anti-Zionistis was not being an Anti-Semitist, because Zionistism is a political movement, not a religion. One can detest the State of Isreal for how it egnores the rights of the Palestinians who had been living in Palestian along with people of other religions even before Islam came into extistence, and still honor and respect the Jewish people whereever they find them.
I have had very close friendships with Palestinians and Jews ever since I met and got to know any of them.
One Palenstianian in particular who was a co-worker of mine wrote a paper about his experience with the occupation by the Zionists of his parent’s property and his inability to go to Israel to visit members of his family who still lived in Palestine.
I am currently reading a book entitled, “THE TEARS OF OLIVE TREES” by Abdul Karim Al Makadma,
Reading it reminds me so much of his paper and how my ancestor’s, starting with the Pilgrims, who “displaced” the people who where living here in America and the subsequent expansion of the white man’s claim to the rest of America without regard to the rights of those who were here before they were. I remember the many native Americans I got to know on their reservations and in the cities where I have lived (Tulsa, Norman, Durango, Farmington) and I how I have egnored their plight. Etc., Etc.,Etc…
I remember the course on Equity that I took when I was in Law School, wherein I learned that to have a standing in an Equity Court, one had to have “clean hands” in order to prevail.
So, who am I to object to the tactics and acts of the Zionists? I think that the answer to this question rests in practicing the relgions that we proclaim. Religons that insist that we are one. There are no others.
Ed Dick
Manny,
I am happy to be as informed as I am about zionists. The last book I read on the subject was a Best Seller.
Ed
Then you would not have written a response that includes a quote “be aware of Zionists”. It’s a national movement like any other
I substantiate it through fact checking by journalists and editors and through peer review by other scholars, the same way everyone else fact checks and confirms this. That Hamas has said it would accept a two-state solution and end the armed struggle if Israel ended the occupation and the Palestinian people accepted an agreement is common knowledge, you don’t even need to travel to Gaza to find that out. You can try to obfuscate and lie as much as possible but the reality is more and more Jews, Israelis and in the Diaspora, as seeing the reality for themselves up close, and as each one does, they are changed forever and come back to tell others of what they’ve experienced. It’s not surprising most every major young Jewish activist in JVP, J Street and even Bernie Sanders campaign has spent time with Palestinians in the West Bank experiencing the occupation–your horrible handiwork–up close and personal. Truth triumphs over denial and even the most nasty and well-funded hasbara efforts.