Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara, who represents my old neighborhood in Jamaica Plain, made headlines when she tweeted, "ya’ll are letting the Zionists SHAKE YOU DOWN. phew!"
Lara later told the Boston Globe the tweet was in reference to a ruling by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding an Arkansas law forbidding state contractors to boycott Israel in response to the BDS Movement. For her part, Lara claimed the ruling was "conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism".
Ah yes, so non-Jews now get to tell Jews what is and isn't anti-Semitism. From my experience if you say Zionist then you mean Jews.
Still, the criticism of Lara's tweet was sufficient for her to eventually delete it albeit after 7 hours. While Lara indicated she "should've known better" she also claimed to have been mentored by "two Jewish mentors" who were "anti-Zionist and Pro-Palestine". A non-apology apology if there ever was one.
At a time, when the pro-BDS movement is in full support of The Mapping Project identifying the locations of Jewish individuals and organizations in the Boston area so that they can be disrupted and dismantled, Lara's comments are especially contemptible and promote hatred against Jews.
I hope Lara will have the good sense to resign. But someone who engages in anti-Semitism doesn't have good sense in the first place. I can only hope the voters in Jamaica Plain will elect a city councilor who does not hold such bigotry.
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