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Two weeks ago Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) got into hot water for asserting that you cant be progressive and support Israels apartheid government. The Democratic leadership went haywire. Jake Tapper ran a segment on CNN quoting her Jewish colleagues, who had smeared her as antisemite. Tapper didnt engage with Tlaib point about apartheid or explain to viewers why the only Palestinian member of the House might feel compelled to voice such frustration.

Now independent journalist Katie Halper says she was first censored by The Hill TV and then fired from its morning broadcast, Rising, after she submitted a commentary in which she stood up for Rashida Tlaib on the apartheid charge and uttered the words, Free Palestine!

Ryan Grim covers the case at the Intercept and says that monologues of the sort Halper submitted usually air without question. [A]s a former co-host of the show, Iverecorded more than 150 of them. There is no approval process.(Grim could get no comment from Halpers corporate former bosses at Nexstar media, which bought the Hill last year).

Halper has now published the (excellent) commentary that got her fired at BreakThrough News. Speaking to my fellow Jews, to my friends in the Democratic Party who want to support Israel and think of themselves as progressive, Halper methodically backs up Tlaibs accusation and urges progressives to dismantle Israeli apartheid as they dismantled South African apartheid.

The case is similar to Marc Lamont Hills firing by CNN four years ago after he gave a speech at the U.N. in which he called for Palestine to be free from the river to the sea.

Katie Halpers biggest offense may have been taking on Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL and his mouthpiece Jake Tapper of CNN. Halper said:

Its outrageous that Rashida Tlaib is getting attacked. Tlaib is merely stating that Israel is an apartheid state, and that people who claim to have progressive values should not support an apartheid state. No matter how loose a definition of progressive we use, it certainly excludes supporting a racist apartheid position. Whats outrageous is attacking Tlaib for pointing out that Progressive Except for Palestine is an intensively contradictory position. Whats also outrageous is that the Anti Defamation Leagues Jonathan Greenblatt would claim that Israel is not an apartheid government. Whats outrageous is that Jake Tapper would accept Greenblatts statement as the truth and not propaganda that needed to be pushed back against. I understand that Greenblatt and perhaps Tapper feel like Israel is not an apartheid state, but unfortunately for them, apartheid is not about their feelings but the facts.

(Eli Valley speculates about Greenblatts possible interference, given his prominence in the capital and his spearheading the effort to smear Rashida Tlaib.)

Halpers monologue is racking up views (20,000 so far today) and hundreds of supportive comments. She reports today that she is getting a ton of approval for her stance.

Lets consider that support for a second. Clearly Tlaib and Halper are speaking to a receptive audience. Young American progressives support Palestinian freedom. More than half of U.S students exposed to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements calls to boycott Israel support the group, a Foreign Ministry survey conducted on campuses, released on Wednesday showed, according to Israeli source Ynet.

Thats the Israeli foreign ministry polling! The findings alarmed Israeli officials and indicated that the BDS movement has considerable influence on campuses. Yes, even student leaders of the liberal Zionist lobby J Street support BDS and then get crushed by the top of the organization for voicing that support.

These findings line up with other recent polling. We consistently see that sympathy for the Palestinian cause is increasing, especially among Democratic voters. A 2020University of Maryland Critical Issues Pollfound that 49% of Democrats had heard of BDS, and 48% of those who had heard of it said that they strongly or somewhat support the movement.A 2019 Center for American Progresspoll found that 71% of Democrats support conditioning aid to Israel.

Weve seen a staggering shift on this issue among Democrats over the last couple decades. When Gallup polled voters on the Middle East back in 2001 just 16% of Democrats said they sympathized with Palestinians. According to a 2021 Gallup poll a majority of Democrats now say that the United States should apply more pressure on Israel to make compromises, as opposed to more pressure on Palestinians.

Last week Zoha Qamar wrote about that growing division within the party at FiveThirtyEight. A confluence of factors over the past decade seems to be driving this shift, he wrote. Social media has changed how war is witnessed across the globe especially among young people and a growing awareness of social inequities in the U.S. may be reshaping how some Americans perceive conflict internationally, too. But most of all, the Palestinian-Israeli question has become a topic that embodies an intra-party identity issue for Democrats, one that has increasingly pushed liberals to reconsider what constitutes progressive politics.

The position of voters might be changing, but it certainly hasnt translated into a widespread shift among lawmakers. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) historic bill aiming to end Israels detention of Palestinian children has just 32 cosponsors out of 435 voting representatives. Just eight Democrats voted against an extra $1 billion in Iron Dome funding last fall: The No votes belonged to Reps Andre Carson (D-IN), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) , Marie Newman (D-IL), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Tlaib.

As we reported yesterday, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a tool for the pro-Israel lobby, told the Jerusalem Post conference two weeks ago that he doesnt like to call out Tlaib and other progressive House members publicly over Israel because he doesnt want to make them superstars. But hes scared by their millions of followers on social media.

One of the things Im most concerned about is there are millions of people on twitter including some young people, including some young Jews who follow some of my far left colleagues. When they spread false information, especially using the tools of intersectionality, using words like apartheid, we have to be very clear and stand up to that. I worry about people on social media, especially young people, being influenced by that.

The young are being influenced, of course; and Gottheimer said he sometimes works behind the scenes so he doesnt give Tlaib any unnecessary attention.

You are talking about a few people who are these splinter folks who are loud voices but not representative of the party

Maybe not such a splinter after all!

Halper also assured viewers that shes not going away.

Its an important thing to show the world that, Sadly Israel is an apartheid state and we have to push back and when we encounter censorship we cant run away with our tails between our legs.

Props to Halper for not running away and making Rashida Tlaibs testimony even stronger. Publicly the congresswoman has ignored the recent attacks, but continues to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians. Yesterday she tweeted about Rian Suleiman, a 7-year-old boy who died of a heart attack while Israeli soldiers chased him after his invading his home. Dont look away. $3.8 billion+ of our money is funding this, wrote Tlaib. Enough. It must stop.

The United States has called for an immediate and thorough investigation, but the IDF has already declared theres no connection between his death and the actions of his soldiers. At some places its still controversial to call this apartheid.

This movement needs a newsroom that can cover all of Palestine and the global Palestinian freedom movement.

The Israeli government and its economic, cultural, and political backers here in the U.S. have made a decades-long investment in silencing and delegitimizing Palestinian voices.

Were building a powerful challenge to those mainstream norms, and proving that listening to Palestinians is essential for moving the needle.

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More here:
Katie Halper loses job at 'The Hill' after calling on progressives to dismantle Israeli apartheid - Mondoweiss