Chair Salaam questions MOCA on scope and raises broader definition of antisemitism
Chair Salaam asks what MOCA covers, then raises the scholarly point that Arabs and Muslims are also Semitic. He questions whether anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate should be included under antisemitism, noting these groups are often miscategorized into broader hate-based incidents.
I want to move towards the mayor's office to combating anti-Semitism.
Could you provide what combating anti-Semitism covers?
Sure, thank you for that question.
So like my colleague, my office is not an enforcement office, but rather focused by executive order on prevention, policy, and programming to prevent anti-Semitic incidents and also
increase social cohesion across groups.
As a diverse city, I'm concerned about anti-Semitic people writ large.
And of course, Arabs are ethnically Semitic.
Arabs and even Aramaic are Semitics, and these are Semitic languages, of course.
And what we've seen is that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all born in the Semitic region.
Considering that scholarly studies have shown that hate against Muslims are often categorized under race-based bias,
We do not know the true numbers of anti-Muslim hate.
On top of that, anti-Muslim hate are often not reported due to the 9-11 related fear.
In parallel, Arabs are often ethnolinguistically or an ethnolinguistic group.
What I find interesting is that considering
the rise in hatred against Arabs, Muslims, and Jews, despite underreporting of such incidents, specifically with regards to the Arabs and Muslims,
they continue to be miscategorized and thrown into a bucket of broader-based hate-based incidents instead of being considered equally.
As anti-Semitism, despite being a Semitic of origin.
Can we expect that Mocha will incorporate these groups under the umbrella of anti-Semitism and then subcategorize them based on what origin, such as anti-Semitism against Jews, anti-Semitism against Muslims,
and anti-Semitism, a little bit of a tongue twister, against Arabs, et cetera.
So I agree with you that there are lots of forms of hate that are scary and rising and deserve an enormous amount of attention from our city government.
Anti-Semitism is widely understood across countries and academic...
Contexts to be prejudice, hatred, and violence against
Jews because they're Jewish.
I understand what you're saying about Semitic and what that word means, but the term anti-Semitism is widely understood to be against Jewish people because they are Jewish.
So in terms of how this administration combats the
serious crises of anti-Arab and Islamophobic hate and bias incidents that is across other agencies.
This agency, this office is focused on anti-Semitism and the safety and thriving of the Jewish community.
And across all of our offices and across City Hall, there is certainly focus.
On those other communities, but I would, I guess, refer those questions to my colleagues who work on a broader hate and bias portfolio.