Trump Campaign Uses False Accusation of Antisemitism to Suppress Human Rights Groups

On October 21, 2020, news broke that the Trump administration was considering labeling Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Oxfam America as antisemitic, and recommending that foreign governments not work with them.

As Politico reported, this announcement would be released as a report from the U.S. special envoy to combat antisemitism, and would declare that the United States would no longer provide any official support — including financial support — to these organizations.

It is no coincidence that the White House is trying to suppress prominent human rights and government watchdog organizations as the Trump administration and its allies scale up anti-Democratic and authoritarian practices. And it is no surprise that the White House is using the accusation of antisemitism in an attempt to justify such suppression. Trump and the Republican Party have spent the past few years using similar accusations to silence and smear their political opponents — all while they themselves enable and promote antisemitism, endangering Jews.

Using Jews as a political tool is in itself antisemitic, as it reduces Jews to a middleman position, making Jews the face of a harmful act from those in power. This is a tried and true practice from Trump and the Republican Party.