A recent webinar hosted by Bard University Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Ohio State University SJP featured George Mason and Rutgers professor Noura Erakat, who spoke on Zionism and the State of Israel.

Throughout the webinar, Erakat made outlandish and blatantly false remarks, such as labeling Zionism a white supremacy movement. She argued that Zionism is predicated on the “removal, erasure, and destruction of the Palestinian people,” and said that Zionism was only meant for white Jews — claims that are ahistorical lies, and project unwarranted antagonism towards Jewish people and Israel.

Zionism was not just for the benefit of European Jews — who, incidentally, were not and have never been considered “white.” After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Iraqi, Libyan, Yemeni, and other groups of Jews from Arab and Muslim lands flocked to Israel. These Jews, numbering around 650,000, were expelled from their home countries due to antisemitism and hatred of Israel. These Mizrachi Jews were given Israeli citizenship upon arriving in Israel, and became a large part of Israeli society — over half the Israeli population. Later, the Israeli government authorized operations to save Yemeni Jews in Operation Magic Carpet and Ethiopian Jews in Operations Solomon and Moses.