The sudden shift of the Anti-Defamation League’s leader from condemning the world’s wealthiest man for boosting an antisemitic “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory to praising his vow to ban the antisemitic phrases “from the river to the sea” and “decolonization” on the X social-media platform has caused consternation among ADL’s internal leadership.
On Nov. 17, Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO and national director, called plans to make the use of the anti-Israel terms a suspendable offense “an important and welcome move by Elon Musk. I appreciate this leadership in fighting hate.”
Advisory board members Eli Pariser and Peter Fox talked to Rolling Stone about their concerns with that statement. Eli Pariser is a founder of the progressive organization MoveOn. Peter Fox is a social commentary writer at the Forward, covering stories relating to Jewish, LGBTQ and neurodiversity issues.
Eli Pariser, the founder of MoveOn, also said that he is considering resigning from the tech advisory board if the ADL does not apologize for endorsing Musk’s policy and “course correct.” https://t.co/JObzfGUFUb
— Ej Dickson (@ejdickson) November 27, 2023
Pariser said that “censorship of these phrases will not reduce antisemitism. Especially while Musk himself, one of the most popular users on the platform, continues to engage with and boost it.”
He vowed to resign from the board if Greenblatt did not correct his mistake and change course.
Under Greenblatt’s leadership, the ADL took a very sharp turn left, though there have been a few notable incidents where he tried to present a more balanced position, in particular when he declared that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, for which he was heavily criticized by the left.
Content from JewishPress.com News Desk was used in this report.
