Simone Zimmerman, the Latest Victim of the U.S. Jewish Right's Witch Hunt

[Israeli]

The vicious offensive by the Jewish Right and its mainstream collaborators against Simone Zimmerman is just part of their ongoing attempts to choke the justice-based Jewish politics she represents.

M. Dove Kent Apr 15, 2016

There is a growing community of Jews in this country who understand that nobody is free until everybody’s free. Simone Zimmerman embodies this emerging vision. But the fist of the Jewish establishment is clenched too tightly to allow for this direction to a viable, just, and dignified Jewish future.

The Bernie Sanders campaign made a visionary choice earlier this week by hiring Zimmerman to be its Jewish Outreach Coordinator. But perhaps Sanders should have known that the Jewish community is one place that’s not ready for a political revolution.
Zimmerman represents a new generation of Jewish leaders and a new Jewish politics - deeply committed to the Jewish community and equally committed to justice: white Jews and Jews of color, Mizrahim, Sephardim, and Ashkenazim, working for a just future for all.

This new generation extends beyond narrow identities and takes action in service of racial justice and economic justice that extend beyond borders. Yet the Jewish establishment, deeply informed and driven by a politic of fear, is trying its best to choke this growing vision.

The vicious offensive against Zimmerman by the Jewish Right combined with the lack of support from the Jewish mainstream – leading to her suspension from her job on Thursday – is not isolated, new, or even surprising. Jews, Palestinians, and others who speak out against the Israeli occupation and for the humanity of Palestinians have reported being fired, intimidated, monitored, threatened, censored and attacked for many years. 

Continued: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.714647