anti-palestinian racism
Anti-Palestinian racism (APR) is a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives and can include:
Denying the Nakba
Justifying violence against Palestinians
Failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an Indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine
Erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians
Excluding or pressuring others to exclude Palestinian perspectives, Palestinians and their allies
Defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently antisemitic, a terrorist threat/sympathizer or opposed to democratic values
Anti-Palestinian racism is a distinct form of oppression faced by Palestinians and those advocating for Palestinian rights. Like other forms of racism Anti-Palestinian racism sets out to silence, dehumanize, and ‘other’ its targets; and it results in similar harms and trauma to those who experience it. By focusing on naming and framing APR as a form of racism, it provides the community with the ability to situate their experience within racism, discrimination and settler-colonialism frameworks. It validates their experience as a collective one unique to Palestinians and provides an impetus to confront APR.
The ACLA is developing and hosting an APR/anti-Arab racism self-reporting form on its website that will allow individuals to document their experiences with racism. This quantitative and qualitative data will allow ACLA to track experiences and trends within our communities and raise further awareness on APR. You can track anti-Arab racism at canarablaw.org & report APR to the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee at adc.org
Sources
We are grateful to the work of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association and their publication of Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA), Anti-Palestinian Racism: Naming, Framing and Manifestations (2022), direct excerpts of which informed the content for this blog post.
