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On the front page of foxnews.com, there's the article titled:
FOX News: "Rashida Tlaib accused of anti-Semitic slur, days after profane anti-Trump tirade"

However, reading the article, I can't actually find an anti-semitic slur anywhere, and the author of the article does not mention it either.

I suspect she may have said it in a tweet that was since deleted.

Basically, my question is, what slur did she use?

1 Answer 1

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The exact language that is accused of being anti-Semitic is:

"They [Senators pushing a bill to deter US companies from boycotting Israel] forgot what country they represent. This is the U.S. where boycotting is a right & part of our historical fight for freedom & equality. Maybe a refresher on our U.S. Constitution is in order, then get back to opening up our government instead of taking our rights away."

This tweet was in response to a tweet by Bernie Sanders about a bipartisan bill in the Senate to attempt to make boycotting Israel more difficult. The particular aspect of this that is challenged as anti-Semitic is "they forgot what country they represent", which can be seen at playing in to dog-whistles and stereotypes of Jewish people having two loyalties.

Whether this is antisemitic or not is a difficult question, compounded by most of these senators supporting the bill not being Jewish (that is her line, that it was about the Senators, not Jewish people). In general, distaste for the Israeli government and antisemitism are somewhat difficult to disentangle, and the matter is especially sensitive for someone of Palestinian descent such as Representative Tlaib. Her critics see it as anti-Semitism, her supporters see it as standing up for human rights.

Note that an insinuation or implication can be a slur, although it may not be as obvious as pejorative language.

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    Wait what!? That's not how the word "slur" is commonly used at all!
    – Tanosh
    Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 2:55
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    "an insulting or disparaging remark or innuendo" "words intended to insult someone or injure someone's reputation" "An insinuation or allegation about someone that is likely to insult them or damage their reputation." Not necessarily common usage, but it technically counts as a slur (especially consider: "slurring someone's reputation").
    – Eremi
    Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 3:13
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    @corsiKa But it is still sometimes used differently. The Simon Wiesenthal Center eg releases a yearly list of antisemitic incidents which they used to call "Top 10 Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic Slurs", even though it didn't necessarily contain "slurs" as you understand it. The linked Fox News article also makes it pretty clear that the antisemitic dual loyalty accusations are what the headline is referring to, so I don't think that there are any other "slurs" that the article alludes to but failed to include.
    – tim
    Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 7:25
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    @IllusiveBrian - no. But incidentally; anything anti-Israel that is couched in "well i have a good reason because Israel X" that isn't matched by "I'm anti all other countries that X, with equal intensity"; is a strong evidence of likely underlying antisemitic reason (and not being anti X).
    – user4012
    Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 14:29
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    @user4012 Personally, sure. But let's extrapolate this to the person you're talking about. Having a negative opinion about one foreign relationship your country has without being perfectly educated on all of them doesn't make you racist. "Country A does bad things and I don't think we get enough out of the relationship to justify looking the other way, we should stop supporting them" is only racist if Country A is Israel. It's certainly also valid to argue that the US does get it's money's worth out of the relationship, but the discussion should be practical, not dependent on the country. Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 16:41

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