Micaela Burrow
Six liberal Democratic lawmakers have spoken out against the “Mapping Project,” an initiative that tracks Jewish organizations and individuals in Massachusetts accused of supporting the “colonization of Palestine,” calling it an example of anti-Semitism.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts condemned the project. They voiced concerns that the Boston-based project’s overtly anti-Zionist stances and potential target identification would inspire violence against Jewish communities.
“At this moment of rising anti-Semitism, racist attacks, and political violence, this ‘mapping’ of the Jewish community is dangerous and irresponsible. We strongly condemn anti-Semitism and will continue working for the safety of all vulnerable people at home and abroad,” Warren and Markey said in a press release on Friday.
Three of Massachusetts’s nine Democratic representatives, as well as Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, also spoke against the Mapping Project.
“Targeting the Jewish community like this is wrong and it is dangerous. It is irresponsible, especially in an era when political violence is becoming more normalized,” Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “This project is an anti-Semitic enemies list with a map attached.”
“The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement put together “a mapping project” that accuses Jewish and “Zionist” institutions of various evils in American society. Scapegoating is a common symptom of Antisemitism, which at its core is a conspiracy theory,” tweeted Torres on Wednesday.
Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Masachhusetts reportedly condemned the Mapping Project.
“It is unacceptable to target or make vulnerable Jewish institutions, full stop. There is no doubt that anti-Semitism and organized, violent white supremacy are at a boiling point in this nation and threaten our communities, so we must be vigilant when it comes to keeping each other safe,” she told Jewish Insider on Thursday.
Advocacy group Massachusetts Peace Action, who endorsed Pressley, retweeted a tweet in support of the Mapping Project on Thursday. The organization later released a statement arguing that “anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.”
“This is just chilling to me. It is tapping into millennia-old antisemitic tropes about nefarious Jewish wealth, control, conspiracy, media connections and political string-pulling,” Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss told Jewish Insider.
Organizers of the Mapping Project, labeling themselves “a multi-generational collective of activists,” compiled a list of local organizations and individuals who they believe support the Zionist cause, claiming to have drawn a direct link between alleged Zionist oppression of Palestine and oppressive systems in the U.S. They displayed the map in an interactive format, allowing users to single out specific networks.
Among a categorized list of connected entities were the names of Warren and Markey, as well as Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker.
The Mapping Project “illustrates some ways in which institutional support for the colonization of Palestine is structurally tied to policing and systemic white supremacy here where we live, and to U.S. imperial projects in other countries,” the organizers wrote.
“Our goal in pursuing this collective mapping was to reveal the local entities and networks that enact devastation, so we can dismantle them. Every entity has an address, every network can be disrupted,” they said.
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Boston, a group that allegedly seeks to delegitimize Israel, applauded the Mapping Project’s efforts on Twitter.
Some Israeli leaders claimed extreme-left members of Congress fueled anti-Semitism in the U.S. following a spate of attacks against Jewish communities in 2021.
The Mapping Project, Warren, Markey, Auchincloss, Pressley and Torres did not return The Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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