How (not) to think about antisemitism
JVL Introduction
In the prelude to the enormous 11th November march calling for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, many voices were raised claiming that such marches undermined the rights of Jews and encouraged antisemitism.
The Pickle challenges this notion in the article below. Following a brief comment by the Pickle’s editor that smearing Palestine solidarity as inherently antisemitic makes the alarming rise of genuine antisemitism much harder to deal with, David Feldman and Brendan McGeever of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism take up the cudgels.
The argue that we need clarity about antisemitism so that we can properly identify and combat it and that historical references to pogroms to describe what Hamas did on 7 October are wide of the mark – not helping us understand the antisemitism Jews face today and used to justify the collective punishment of the population of Gaza.
Instead, they look to “hidden traditions” of fighting discriminations as pointers for today, giving examples from the US of Jews and Blacks drawing on their own experience of racism to generate solidarity with others.
RK
On slaughter and solidarity
As conflation and confusion abound after 7 October, we need clear thinking about antisemitism.
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Who cares whether is was a “pogrom” according to the academic definition? Simple question… What would have happened to me if I had attended the march carrying a banner saying I condem Hamas for killing 1,200 isrealis and release the 200 plus hostages? These are hate marches steeped in antisemitism, most of the participants hate Jews, summed up by the woman filmed at a railway station shouting “kill all Jews”. That is why the vast majority of Jews can’t understand the tiny minority who just dont get it. Hamas are NOT liberal democrats who welcome multi culturalism. They are oppressive islamist fascist terrorists who need to be wiped out. Forget the hand wringing, remember during ww2 the alies flattened Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki …. and yep …. it was necessary to destroy evil. Some years ago I had to visit Hamburg, my dad said oh what’s it like now? I said how do you mean? He said well he remembered standing in the middle (he was stationed in Germany in 1945) and as far as the eye could see not a single building remained standing. Similarly Isreal and the west need to destroy evil again. Every action of Hamas proves that they need to be terminated. Yes I am sick of the loss of innocent lives on both sides, but if Hamas want a cease-fire they could release all of the hostages and surrender. Or they could have avoided starting it in the first place.
I note that African-Americans are referenced in the article. African-Americans, as with Aborigines, Kashmiris, Maoris and others, all combat prejudice as ‘racism’. The use of antisemitic solely for Jewish people seems like an example of the dubious concept of ‘hierarchy of the oppressed’.
An equivalent example would be the use of ‘anti-american’ with reference to criticism of the USA. The Americas are two continents, with twenty two states and even more numerous peoples.
Language is an important part of the conflict between imperialism and the oppressed peoples and nations.