Opposing antisemitism; supporting Palestinians

The IHRA definition of antisemitism is a poor guide to recognising antisemitism, a vital task if it is to be challenged. Checklists are tools for administration and discipline, not for understanding. Educators argue that discursive approaches are the most efficacious route to improved understanding and effective action both within our own movement and wider society.

There are a very few people who claim to be supporters of the Palestine Rights movement who are motivated by antisemitism. It is important that we can identify any such individuals we encounter and ensure they are not permitted to be part of any organisation we are members of.

They are distinct from the greater number of people who inadvertently repeat antisemitic sentiments because they have not identified them as such. It is important that we challenge any such comments and help anyone making them understand why they are unacceptable. There are at least two reasons for this. Firstly, and most importantly, antisemitism is no more acceptable than any other form of racism or discrimination. Secondly such comments are seized upon by Israel’s apologists to try and discredit the whole solidarity movement. Such unintentional antisemitism is not just harmful to Jews, it is also damaging to Palestinians.

Some clues to recognising statements to challenge 

Firstly, criticism of Israel’s actions and of the Zionist ideology behind them is not, of itself, antisemitic.

1. Criticism of Israel’s actions and of the Zionist ideology is only antisemitic when responsibility for such actions is laid at the feet of ‘The Jews’. Jews are not a homogenous, undifferentiated group. Being Jewish, or of Jewish origin, does not automatically mean that individual is actively, or even passively, supportive of Israel or Zionism. Jewish community organisations, like the Board of Deputies or the Office of the Chief Rabbi, make this recognition more difficult than it ought to be by claiming, falsely, to speak in the name of the whole ‘Jewish community’. There is no such thing as ‘The Jewish Community’ any more than ‘The Muslim Community’ or ‘The British Community’. Such groupings are composed of multiple communities with fundamentally different values. ‘Leadership’ organisations speak only for their constituencies, those that have asked to for the ‘leaders’ to speak in their name.
2. All conspiracy theories need to viewed with great suspicion. It is probably true that all intelligence agencies interpenetrate each other, that is what they are paid to do; and it is possible to map links between the CIA and Mossad and MI6 but also with the Russian FSB and even the Iranian VAJA. Such mapping is not the same as evidencing co-ordinated agreed actions. Conspiracy theories often do not have even mapping behind them. They are frequently no more than conjectures that since this action may be construed to be of benefit to Israel, the Israelis must be behind it. This is to ascribe far too much power and influence to the Israelis. This is in the tradition of Global Jewish Conspiracies and also serves to strengthen the Israeli state by causing people to believe it is far more powerful and robust than, in reality, it is. The mundane truth is that trans-state conspiracies are fiendishly difficult to achieve and infinitely harder to keep secret for any length of time.
3. Any reference to the Rothschilds should give cause for suspicion. The Rothschild banks are medium sized operations, tiny compared with Citibank or Goldman Sachs. They are as culpable as any other of the irresponsible banking entities for growing inequality, financial instability, finance of the arms trade and problems of late capitalism; but no more so. References to them in general terms, rather than dissection of their specific banking operations, is exploitation of their fame as a Jewish banking dynasty and has strong implications of antisemitic notions of Jewish Bankers controlling the world. “Rothschilds” seems sometimes to be used unthinkingly as a synonym for Bankers as though it was as acceptable as using Hoover for vacuum cleaner, which of course it is not

The IHRA definition itself says antisemitism is “requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” This does not stop, Israel’s apologists claiming that demands that Israel adheres to those standards are driven by antisemitism. Such claims are frequently buttressed by demands that the accuser also denounces Saudi Arabia or Iran or China or North Korea. These are not democracies. Palestine’s supporters compare Israel with the already flawed behaviour of ‘Western democracies’; perversely it is Israel’s supporters who believe tyrannies are the correct comparators.

Jews, Israelis and Zionists

These three categories and labels are frequently and damagingly confused.

It is possible to be a Jew and neither an Israeli nor a Zionist

It is possible to be an Israeli and neither a Jew nor a Zionist

It is possible to be a Zionist and neither a Jew nor an Israeli

Most Jews are Jews by inheritance, strictly from their mother but this is not always rigorously adhered to; some are converts from other religions. Most Jews living in Britain, or elsewhere, are not Israelis; they are British or French or Italian or whatever. Many of them will be Zionists but a very substantial minority do not subscribe to Zionist beliefs and many of these actively oppose to Zionism and enthusiastically support the rights of Palestinians. They are not Israelis or Zionists.

Israelis are citizens of the State of Israel. Between a fifth and a quarter of these citizens are Palestinian. They are from either Muslim or Christian families and do not support the Zionist project. They are not Jews or Zionists.

Many Jews, and the great majority of Israeli Jews are Zionists, many believe they have a biblical right to occupy pre-1967 Israel and most of them claim the right to occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well. But not all Zionists are Jews; there is a disturbingly powerful Christian Zionist movement, particularly in the USA but also in Britain. It is estimated that US Christian Zionists outnumber US Jews (and as many as a quarter of these are not Zionists) by a factor of five or more. These are Christians, mainly evangelicals, who take a particular reading of selective biblical passages. They use these readings to take the view that all Jews must foregather in Israel as necessary precursor of the second coming of their messiah. These Christian Zionists are influential in the right and dominant wing of the Republican Party and have great influence of US policy towards Israel. Balfour of the eponymous Declaration was a Christian Zionist and this underlay the development of this British policy. It has to be noted that many (although not all) Christian Zionists are also antisemites and wish Jews to go to Israel so that they no longer live next door. This antisemitism does not lessen the warmth of their welcome by Israel’s leadership. These Zionists are not Jews or Israelis.

It is important to correctly identify the enemies of Palestinian liberty and the targets of the solidarity movement; it is the Israeli state and those parts of Israeli society that support or excuse its crimes and the Zionist ideology that underpins and ‘justifies’ these crimes. It is not ‘The Jews’, that is the world view of Nazis and antisemites not of those committed to helping the Palestinians to end their oppression.