![]() Indeed, there have always been Jews opposed to Zionism, for different reasons. So why is it wrong to equate anti-Zionism and antisemitism?įirst, it is comparing apples and oranges. It is time to reclaim the word ‘anti-Semitism’ from the political misuses to which it is being put.” Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism “The semantic question has been politicized”, wrote the Oxford academic. This so-called ‘new antisemitism’ was the subject of a searing critique by Brian Klug as far back as 2004, in an important intervention published by The Nation. And Israel was hardly ever mentioned.” Today, he says, “Israel is promoted as the central recipient of antisemitic hate”, constituting nothing less than “a fundamental redefinition of antisemitism” (a topic he wrote about for openDemocracy last September). When Antony Lerman, Senior Fellow at the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue in Vienna, first started studying antisemitism 40 years ago, there was, he tells me, “broadly speaking, a shared understanding of what antisemitism was. This ‘broad consensus’, however, has broken down. Or more succinctly: hostility towards Jews as not Jews.” Benet's Hall, Oxford, has defined antisemitism thus: “A good, simple working definition of antisemitism, according to a broad consensus of scholars, is this: hostility towards Jews as Jews.” He continues: “It would be more accurate (if cumbersome) to define the word along these lines: a form of hostility towards Jews as Jews, in which Jews are perceived as something other than what they are. So what is antisemitism? Brian Klug, an international expert on antisemitism and a Senior Research Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St. Antisemitism, however, offers conspiracy theories in place of political analysis, and bigoted scapegoating rather than political solutions. The reason why antisemitism has been described as the ‘ socialism of fools’ is that it purports to offer explanations for problems like inequality or economic instability which are, for many people, pressing concerns. More broadly, the presence of antisemites or antisemitic discourse amongst those who identify as being ‘on the Left’ is also real. Twitter, of course, has made it easy for anyone to (anonymously) say whatever they want, and has drawn attention to various forms of bigotry that continue to have currency in the population at large. So what is going on here? Antisemitism – the socialism of foolsĪntisemitism can certainly be found amongst those who claim to be Palestine solidarity activists, though the opportunism of a marginal few has consistently been condemned by mainstream solidarity groups, both here in the UK, and in North America. It’s the same ideology, it’s the same language, it’s the same threats.” “It’s the same thing happening 70 years later. “There’s nothing complicated to it,” he told the audience. Nine days previously, Pickles had spoken at a conference on antisemitism in Berlin, where he described the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign as akin to the Nazi boycott of Jewish goods. Yet on March 30, Eric Pickles, UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust issues and chair of Conservative Friends of Israel, revived the discredited definition by publishing it on the government’s website. Just this week, in response to a motion passed at NUS conference, the FRA explicitly denied having ever adopted the definition. To the dismay of its critics, the document confused genuine antisemitism with criticism of Israel, and was repeatedly, and erroneously, promoted by Israel advocacy groups as the EU definition of antisemitism.īy 2013, the EUMC’s successor body, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), had abandoned the politicised definition as unfit for purpose. In 2005, a draft, working definition of antisemitism was circulated by the European Union’s Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). ![]()
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