FAQ 4
Isn’t Anti-Zionism Antisemitic
The allegation
Anti-Zionism is antisemitic
- “Anti-Zionism has become the most dangerous and effective form of antisemitism in our time, through its systematic delegitimization, defamation, and demonization of Israel…The common denominator of the new anti-Zionism has been the systematic effort to criminalize Israeli and Jewish behavior, so as to place it beyond the pale of civilized and acceptable conduct.” Robert Wistrich 2004
- In a motion adopted on 28th November 2023 the US House of Representatives “clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism”.
Brief rebuttal
No, it isn’t – and passing a motion doesn’t make it so.
Antisemitism is hostility to or prejudice against Jews. It can be based on a variety of perceived characteristics, which can be economic, social, psychological and/or physical.
Zionism is a political ideology developed to create a nation state for Jews when many were fleeing persecution. Not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews.
Some criticisms of Israel and its policies can be conveyed in antisemitic ways just as some criticisms of African countries can be expressed in racist terms.
Defenders of the policies of Israel often deliberately conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism to secure political advantage by demonising its critics as antisemites.
More detail
Antisemitic belief and practice is centuries old as is plainly evidenced by the historic persecution of Jews in many parts of the world. Christianity often displayed violent hostility to Jews from its earliest days and their attempted extermination during the Second World War was carried out by many who attended church. Muslims and those of other beliefs have also demonstrated antisemitic beliefs and practices. However, historically antisemitism has been more virulent and pervasive in Christian than in Muslim countries.
Jews in the UK enjoy legislative protection, but antisemitic sentiment continues to exist in British society. It does so alongside prejudice against black people, Muslims and other racialised minority groups. There is no evidence to suggest that levels of antisemitism are worse than those of other prejudices and much to suggest the reverse.
From the mid-19th century Zionism has taken a variety of forms. However the dominant form since 1945 has been political Zionism whose aim has been not just the return of Jews to Palestine but also the establishment of a Jewish state there. Since this could only be achieved by the elimination or subjugation of Palestine’s indigenous inhabitants the result has been the development of Israel as an apartheid state. Anti-Zionists, who can be Jewish or non-Jewish, reject and campaign against these developments not because of animus against Jews but as part of their fight against all racisms.
Israel has found itself subject to growing international criticism, especially for its treatment of the Palestinians. It has long mounted a defensive strategy in which it accuses its critics, including Jewish ones, of being antisemitic.
A recent element of that campaign is to seek to redefine antisemitism to include criticism of Israel by urging countries and organisations to adopt the wording promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
The drive to adopt that new definition in the UK coincided with Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader of the Labour Party amid damaging allegations of some of his supporters, including Jews, of being antisemitic.
Noting that the IHRA definition “has caused confusion and generated controversy, hence weakening the fight against antisemitism” The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism was “developed by a group of scholars in the fields of Holocaust history, Jewish studies, and Middle East studies to meet what has become a growing challenge: providing clear guidance to identify and fight antisemitism while protecting free expression…Our aim is twofold: (1) to strengthen the fight against antisemitism by clarifying what it is and how it is manifested, (2) to protect a space for an open debate about the vexed question of the future of Israel/Palestine.”
Further resources
1. Antony Lerman offers a powerful and moving personal and political story in The Making and Unmaking of a Zionist (2012). His later book Whatever Happened to Antisemitism: Redefinition and the Myth of the ‘Collective Jew’ (2022) is also strongly recommended. Here are three summary reviews of his argument:
Richard Kuper, Exploiting antisemitism, JVL, 30 Apr 2024
Eli Machover, A racist antiracism, JVL 5 Aug 2022
Julia Bard, Redefining antisemitism to protect Israel from scrutiny won’t make Jews safer, JVL, 15 Sep 2022
2. Norman G Finkelstein covers important ground in his Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History (2005). For a summary of the argument see Wikipedia’s entry Beyond Chutzpah.
3.Avraham Burg is a former Knesset Speaker and former head of the Jewish Agency. The Holocaust Is Over; We Must Rise From Its Ashes (2008) is a moving evaluation of Israel and the Jewish diaspora.
4. Omer Bartov, Antisemitism, Then and Now: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Nation, 10 May 2024
5. Randa Abdel-Fattah, On Zionist Feelings, JVL 19 Jul 2024 (first pub 27 Dec 2023)
6. Joseph Levine, Zionism and Jewish Identity, JVL 5 Sep 2019
7. Tony Klug, A tsunami of confusion – antisemitism and the Arab-Israeli conflict, JVL 17 May 2024
Antisemitism is not an eternal hatred. In the Middle East it is very much a byproduct of Israel’s wars.
Klug’s hypothetical case is telling: were the state of Armenia, egged on by diaspora Armenian communities, haunted by memories of past massacres, to occupy a chunk of neighbouring Turkish territory and treat the Turks there as second-class citizens, would we be surprised if a certain anti-Armenian sentiment developed around the world?
8. Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism
A nuanced account, among other things, of the many and varied legitimate criticisms of Israel: “The guidelines that focus on Israel-Palestine (numbers 6 to 15) should be taken together. In general, when applying the guidelines each should be read in the light of the others and always with a view to context. Context can include the intention behind an utterance, or a pattern of speech over time, or even the identity of the speaker, especially when the subject is Israel or Zionism. So, for example, hostility to Israel could be an expression of an antisemitic animus, or it could be a reaction to a human rights violation, or it could be the emotion that a Palestinian person feels on account of their experience at the hands of the State. In short, judgement and sensitivity are needed in applying these guidelines to concrete situations.”
See also JVL statement on the Jerusalem Declaration of Antisemitism (JDA), 1st April 2021
9. The IHRA Working definition of antisemitism
There is a vast critical literature on this, including on the JVL website. See, for example:
Jonathan Rosenhead, What exactly is the IHRA definition of antisemitism?, 22 Jan 2018
George Wilmers, Why the man who drafted the IHRA definition condemns its use, 2 Aug 2024
Geoffrey Robertson, Legal opinion of the IHRA definition, 2 Sep 2018
European Legal Support Center (ELSC), Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy through the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, 7 Jun 2023