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| {{antisemitism}} | |||
| :''For criticism of Israel discussed in the specific context of New Antisemitism, see ]'' | |||
| Some criticisms of Israel or Israeli policies have been characterized as anti-Semitic. This relation of criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism is often called an "equation" of criticism with anti-Semitism, and the equation is made by some supporters of Israel such as ] and ]. | |||
| One common source of this equation are proponents of the concept of ], such as ], ] and ], who argue that, since the 1967 ], many criticisms of Israel are are veiled attacks on Jews and hence are essentially antisemitic. Another form of the equation, maintained by ], ], and ], focuses on criticism of Zionism, and contends that some forms of anti-Zionism, particularly attacks on Israel's right to exist, are anti-Semitic in nature. | |||
| One form of criticism of Israel - comparing Israel with Nazi Germany - has received significant attention, and the ] published a report in 2009 suggesting that such comparisons be criminalized as anti-Semitic hate speech. Criminalization of such comparisons is opposed by ] and ]. | |||
| Some critics of Israel or Israeli policies, including ], ], ], and ] suggest that equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism is inappropriate or inaccurate. Other critics, such as ], ], ], and ], go farther and claim that supporters of Israel sometimes equate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism in a deliberate attempt to prevent legitimate criticism of Israel and discredit critics. ] claims that some enemies of Israel pretend to be victimized by accusations of anti-Semitism, in order to garner support for their position. | |||
| ==Distinguishing legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism== | |||
| The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) prepared a report in 2003 that distinguished criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism by testing whether "Israel is seen as being a representative of 'the Jew'": if the speaker is considering Israel as a representative of Jews in general, then anti-Semitism is deemed to be underlying the criticism.<ref> | |||
| "Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002-2003", European Montoring Centre on Racisma and Xenophobia (EUMC), 2003, , pp 13, 240: | |||
| :"ARE ANTI-ISRAELI AND ANTI-ZIONIST EXPRESSIONS ANTISEMITIC? If we turn to the crucial question of defining the point where anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist expressions are to be considered as antisemitism, then we could conclude, on the basis of our definition of antisemitism, that anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist attitudes and expression are antisemitic in those cases where Israel is seen as being a representative of “the Jew”, i.e. as a representative of the traits attributed to the antisemitic construction of “the Jew”. But what if the opposite is the case and Jews are perceived as representatives of Israel? What if Jews are criticised or offended for Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians? If we stick to our definition, then, strictly speaking, we would have to qualify hostility towards Jews as “Israelis” only then as antisemitic, if it is based on an underlying perception of Israel as “the Jew”. If this is not the case, then we would have to consider hostility towards Jews as “Israelis” as not antisemitic, because this hostility is not based on the antisemitic stereotyping of Jews... What should not be considered as antisemitic and therefore does not have to be monitored under the heading of “antisemitism”, is hostility towards Israel as “Israel”, i.e. as a country that is criticised for its concrete policies. Hostility towards Israel as “Israel” (as opposed to criticism of Israel as representative of the stereotypical “Jew”) should only then become a matter of general public concern, when there is explicit evidence that criticism of Israel as “Israel” produces attacks on Jews as either “the Jew” or “Israeli”. If there is no such evidence, the case of criticism and hostility towards Israel as “Israel” should not be part of monitoring activities under the heading of “antisemitism”. | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ], former ] and Israeli Minister, suggested a three-part test to distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitic attacks. Sharansky's tests that identify a criticism as anti-Semitic are:<ref> | |||
| *Sharansky, Natan, "3D Test of Anti-Semitism: Demonization, Double Standards, Delegitimization", in ''Jewish Political Studies Review'' 16:3-4 (Fall 2004), | |||
| * See also: ''Congressional record of the 108th congress, Second session'', volume 150, part 14, Sept 15 2004 to Sept 28 2004, page 18505: | |||
| :" Natan Sharansky … has talked about three ways to determine whether criticism of Israel rises to the level of anti-Semitism. He talks about the three Ds" Demonization, double standards, and delegitimization. Demonization - when Israeli actions are blown so far out of proportion that the account paints Israel as the embodiment of all evil; Double Standards - when Israel is criticized soundly for thing any other government would be viewed as justified in doing, like protecting it citizens from terrorism. Delegitimization: a denial or Israel's right to exist or the right of the Jewish people to live securely in a homeland." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| #Demonization - when Israeli actions are blown so far out of proportion that the account paints Israel as the embodiment of all evil | |||
| #Double Standards - when Israel is criticized soundly for thing any other government would be viewed as justified in doing, like protecting it citizens from terrorism. | |||
| #Delegitimization: a denial or Israel's right to exist or the right of the Jewish people to live securely in a homeland. | |||
| Double standards are often used as evidence of anti-Semitism in relation to criticism of Israel: some criticisms involve applying an especially high moral standard to Israel, higher than applied to other countries (particularly compared to surrounding countries), yet the only special characteristic of Israel is that it is a Jewish state, hence there is an element of anti-Semitism.<ref> | |||
| Sharansky, Natan, "3D Test of Anti-Semitism: Demonization, Double Standards, Delegitimization", in ''Jewish Political Studies Review'' 16:3-4 (Fall 2004), | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Delegitimization was a factor addressed by ], who claimed that efforts to deny "the equal rights of the Jewish people its lawful sovereignty within the community of nations" constituted anti-Semitism.<ref> | |||
| Quoted by ], "Chomsky, antisemitism and intellectual standards", : | |||
| :Kamm quotes Eban: "There is no difference whatever between anti-Semitism and the denial of Israel's statehood. Classical anti-Semitism denies the equal right of Jews as citizens within society. Anti-Zionism denies the equal rights of the Jewish people its lawful sovereignty within the community of nations. The common principle in the two cases is discrimination". (New York Times, November 3, 1975). | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] (head of the ] at ]) also characterizes some anti-Zionist ideals as anti-Semitic, becuase they amount to singling-out Jews for special treatment, while all other comparable groups of people are entitled to create and maintain a homeland. She contends that anti-Zionism is anti-semitic because it is discriminatory: "...antisemitism is involved when the belief is articulated that of all the peoples on the globe (including the ]), only the Jews should not have the right to self-determination in a land of their own. Or, to quote noted human rights lawyer ]: One form of antisemitism denies access of Jews to goods and services because they are Jewish. Another form of antisemitism denies the right of the Jewish people to exist as a people because they are Jewish. Antizionists distinguish between the two, claiming the first is antisemitism, but the second is not. To the antizionist, the Jew can exist as an individual as long as Jews do not exist as a people.<ref>Dina Porat, ''Defining Anti-Semitism'', http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw2003-4/porat.htm#_edn23 accessed 15 November 2008 See also ] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/29/comment</ref> | |||
| ==Governmental reports and criminalization== | |||
| ===European Union 2006 report on antisemitism === | |||
| The ] (EUMC, recently renamed to ]) published a draft of an ] of ] called ''Working Definition of Antisemitism''<ref>{{cite web | |||
| |title=Working Definition of Antisemitism | |||
| |url=http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/material/pub/AS/AS-WorkingDefinition-draft.pdf | |||
| |publisher=European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights | |||
| |accessdate=24 July 2010 | |||
| |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5mYZH56QA | |||
| |archivedate=5 January 2010 | |||
| }}</ref> which accompanied a report by the EUMC on report that summarized anti-Semitism in Europe.<ref>EUMC report</ref> The EUMC definition of anti-Semitism included five kinds of behaviors related to criticism Israel:<ref>{{cite web | |||
| |title=Working Definition of Antisemitism | |||
| |url=http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/material/pub/AS/AS-WorkingDefinition-draft.pdf | |||
| |publisher=European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights | |||
| |accessdate=24 July 2010 | |||
| |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5mYZH56QA | |||
| |archivedate=5 January 2010 | |||
| }}</ref> | |||
| # Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor. | |||
| # Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation. | |||
| # Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis. | |||
| # Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis. | |||
| # Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel. | |||
| This part of the definition has proved highly contentious and is seen by many as attempting to proscribe legitimate criticism of the human rights record of the Israeli Government by attempting to bring any criticism of Israel into the category of antisemitism, and as not sufficiently distinguishing between criticism of Israeli actions and criticism of Zionism as a political ideology, on the one hand, and racially based violence towards, discrimination against, or abuse of, Jews.<ref> | |||
| *{{cite web | |||
| |last=Bechler | |||
| |first=Rosemary | |||
| |title=A Commentary on the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism | |||
| |url=http://www.ffipp-uk.org/AS_All-party_rpt_070317.doc | |||
| |publisher=Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace - UK | |||
| |accessdate=24 July 2010 | |||
| |format=MS Word | |||
| |month=March | |||
| |year=2007}} | |||
| *{{cite journal | |||
| |last=Klug|first=Brian | |||
| |title=Is Europe a lost cause? The European debate on antisemitism and the Middle East conflict | |||
| |journal=] | |||
| |date=March 2005 | |||
| |volume=39 | |||
| |issue=1 | |||
| |pages=46–59 | |||
| |url=http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713722454&db=all | |||
| |accessdate=24 July 2010}} | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Paul Igansky points out that one of the EUMC anti-Semitic behaviors, comparisons between Israeli policy and those of the Nazis, is "arguably not intrinsically antisemitic", and that the context in which they are made is critical. Igansky illustrates this with the incident where Israeli prime minister ] was described by fellow Jewish Israelis as cooperating with the Nazis, and depicted wearing an ] uniform. According to Igansky, the "Nazi" label was merely used as "charged political rhetoric" in this case.<ref name="Perry2009">Igansky, Paul, "Conceptualizing Anti-Jewish Hate Crime", in ''Hate Crimes'', ] (Ed.), Greenwood Publishing Group, 2009, pp 114-115</ref> | |||
| ===EISCA 2009 report on criticism of Israel=== | |||
| Following the 2006 EUMC report, the ] (EISCA) published a report in 2009 entitled ''Understanding and Addressing the ‘Nazi Card' - Intervening Against Antisemitic Discourse'' which discussed comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany.<ref>Ignasky, EISCA Report. A brief excerpt from the report's introduction, p. 4: | |||
| :"Playing the ‘Nazi card’ is a discursive act involving the use of Nazi or related terms or symbols (Nazism, Hitler, swastikas, etc.) in reference to Jews, Israel, Zionism or aspects of the Jewish experience. It manifests in words uttered in speech or in writing, or in visual representations such as artwork, drawings, caricatures, cartoons, graffiti, daubings and scratchings, or visual expressions such as a Nazi salute or the clicking of heels. In many instances, the playing of the Nazi card is unquestionably antisemitic. However, the inclusion of particular modes of criticism of Israel in definitions of antisemitism has provoked controversy. The result has been a war of words which has stagnated into an intellectual and discursive cul-de-sac of claim and counter-claim about what does and does not qualify as antisemitism…. One of the most challenging components of antisemitic discourse in general, and the discursive theme of the Nazi card in particular, concerns the problem of when the Nazi card is played against Israel and its founding movement, Zionism. In this case playing the Nazi card involves equating the Israeli state collectively, or the state embodied by its leaders or its military practices, with Nazis, Nazi Germany, and the genocidal actions of the Nazi regime…."</ref> | |||
| The 2009 report incorporated from the 2006 report the five specific kinds of criticism of Israel that should be considered as anti-Semitism (see above for list of the five).<ref>EISCA report, p 34</ref> | |||
| The report does not say all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic: "Abhorrence and protest against the policies, practices, and leaders of the Israeli state can be expressed in numerous forceful and trenchant ways, as they could against any other state - none of which would be antisemitic…",<ref>EISCA report, p 24</ref> and "Drawing attention to the consequent harms in should not be intended, or taken, in any way as an attempt to suppress criticism of Israel and its military practices."<ref>EISCA report, p 32</ref> | |||
| ] criticized the report, and suggested that it could be used to suppress legitimate criticism of Israel, and suggests that the report's authors do not adequately address that possibility.<ref>Lerman ''Should we ban ..": | |||
| :"While much of the definition is unexceptionable, it cites five ways in which antisemitism could be seen to "manifest itself with regard to the state of Israel taking into account the overall context". One of these – "using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism... to characterize Israel or Israelis" – is fully justified. The other four are contentious: "Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination"; "Applying double standards by requiring of a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation"; "Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis"; "Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel". None of these four are self-evidently antisemitic. But all could be used to justify labeling legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic. So the authors' approval of them makes their claim that "Drawing attention to the consequent harms in should not be intended, or taken, in any way as an attempt to suppress criticism of Israel and its military practices" both naïve and flimsy." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ===Criminalization of criticism of Israel=== | |||
| The EISCA Report recommends that the British government criminalize certain kinds of anti-Semitism, particularly use of the Nazi analogy to criticize Israel, as well as other forms of criticism of Israel.<ref>Igansky, EISCA Report, pp 28-30</ref> | |||
| ] and ] have questioned the recommendations of the EISCA report, expressing concerns that the recommendations of the report may be adopted as a hate-crime law within Europe, which may lead to infringement of free speech, and may criminalize legitimate criticism of Israel. | |||
| Author ] is opposed to legislation in the United States will make it a crime to criticize Israel, and as examples he cites the ] and the ]. Roberts asserts that lobbyists for Israel are pressing for laws that will make it a crime to discuss the power of the Israel lobby, or to discuss alleged war crimes of Israel.<ref>Roberts, Paul Craig, "The End of Free Speech? Criminalizing Criticism of Israel", ''Counterpunch'' 7 May 2009, : | |||
| :"On October 16, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Israel Lobby’s bill, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act. This legislation requires the US Department of State to monitor anti-semitism world wide. To monitor anti-semitism, it has to be defined. What is the definition? Basically, as defined by the Israel Lobby and Abe Foxman, it boils down to any criticism of Israel or Jews. Rahm Israel Emanuel hasn’t been mopping floors at the White House. As soon as he gets the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 passed, it will become a crime for any American to tell the truth about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and theft of their lands. It will be a crime for Christians to acknowledge the New Testament’s account of Jews demanding the crucifixion of Jesus. It will be a crime to report the extraordinary influence of the Israel Lobby on the White House and Congress, such as the AIPAC-written resolutions praising Israel for its war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza that were endorsed by 100 per cent of the US Senate and 99 per cent of the House of Representatives, while the rest of the world condemned Israel for its barbarity. It will be a crime to doubt the Holocaust. It will become a crime to note the disproportionate representation of Jews in the media, finance, and foreign policy. In other words, it means the end of free speech, free inquiry, and the First Amendment to the Constitution. Any facts or truths that cast aspersion upon Israel will simply be banned…. Criminalizing criticism of Israel destroys any hope of America having an independent foreign policy in the Middle East that serves American rather than Israeli interests. It eliminates any prospect of Americans escaping from their enculturation with Israeli propaganda. To keep American minds captive, the Lobby is working to ban as anti-semitic any truth or disagreeable fact that pertains to Israel. It is permissible to criticize every other country in the world, but it is anti-semitic to criticize Israel, and anti-semitism will soon be a universal hate-crime in the Western world. Most of Europe has already criminalized doubting the Holocaust. It is a crime even to confirm that it happened but to conclude that less than 6 million Jews were murdered. " | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] criticized the 2009 EISCA report, and claims that criminalizing criticism of Israel (particularly, comparing Israel actions to Nazi actions) would constitute an excessive infringement of freedom of speech in Britain, postulating, for example, that "if you said 'the way the IDF operated in Gaza was like the way the SS acted in Poland', and a Jew found this offensive, hurtful or harmful, you could, in theory, go to jail."<ref>Lerman, "Should We Ban..": | |||
| :"Using Nazi analogies to criticise Israel and Zionism is offensive, but should it be banned, criminalized or branded as antisemitic? … The authors of a new report, Understanding and Addressing the "Nazi Card": Intervening Against Antisemitic Discourse, from the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (EISCA), take a different line.... While the principle that freedom of speech is not absolute is accepted in English law, not all offensive speech is criminalized. So, merely showing that comparing Israeli behaviour to the Nazis is offensive is no reason to outlaw such discourse. The authors try to get round this by arguing that such comparisons are especially offensive to Jews, because of their history. They say: "Most people would accept that it's completely unacceptable to call a Jewish person a Nazi." The implication here – that it may, therefore, be acceptable in some circumstances to call a non-Jew a Nazi – is unfortunate to say the least. If one is against the use of Nazi comparisons in public debate, it's unacceptable to call anyone a Nazi. In which case, the argument of exceptional offensiveness for Jews doesn't hold.... The authors write: 'although the playing of the Nazi card is not always antisemitic, it unquestionably always harms'. As a result, where this occurs, it could already be defined as a criminal act, and if not, Iganski and Sweiry say, consideration should be given to changing the law so that it would be. In other words, if you said 'the way the IDF operated in Gaza was like the way the SS acted in Poland', and a Jew found this offensive, hurtful or harmful, you could, in theory, go to jail." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ==Specific kinds of criticism of Israel== | |||
| ===Comparisons with Nazi Germany regarded as anti-Semitism=== | |||
| A specific form of criticism of Israel that is often considered anti-Semitic is comparisons of Israel with ]. Comparisons have included analogies of ] with ], or comparisons of Israeli Prime Minister ] with Nazi leader ].<ref> | |||
| For examples, see | |||
| *Dershowitz, ''The Case for Israel'', pp 151, 213 | |||
| *Dershowitz, "Dumbing Down The Debate Over The Arab-Israeli Conflict", in ''The Huffington Post'', | |||
| *EISCA report, pp 21-27 | |||
| *Manji, Irshad, ''The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith'', Macmillan, 2005, page 110: | |||
| :"The people who need reminding are those who now push the South Africa analogy a step further - by equating Israel with Nazi Germany. To them, Zionists are committing hate crimes under the totalitarian nightmare that they dub "Zio-Nazism" … the Arab Lawyers Union circulated cartoons depicting vampire-toothed Israeli soldiers with Nazi flags fluttering from their helmets… Another pro-Palestinian leaflet superimposed a swastika on the Star of David.". | |||
| *Freedman, Leonard, ''The offensive art: political satire and its censorship around the world from Beerbohm to Borat'', ABC-CLIO, 2008, page 149: | |||
| :"Other Arab cartoonists portray Israel as a Nazi state, waging war on its peace-loving neighbors. A Jordanian newspaper printed a cartoon of the railroad to the death camp at Auschwitz - carrying Israeli flags. From Qatar came a cartoon showing Sharon masterminding the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers…." | |||
| *Foxman, Abraham H. ''The deadliest lies: the Israel lobby and the myth of Jewish control'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, page 14: | |||
| :"We must respect President Carter's clarification of his book but nonetheless bear in mind that once the false analogies start, it is only a small step to the cartoons in the Arab press and European media which portray Israelis as contemporary versions of Nazi storm troopers. And these false images stir up and lend legitimacy to more widely based movements that take the same dangerous directions …" | |||
| *Musician ] said "You could never say anything bad about Israel or people would say you're anti-Semitic. If you happen to say that Israel behaves like Nazi Germany toward the Palestinians, which happens to look like quite a fact when you see a videotape of what's actually going on, people go 'Oh, you're anti-Semitic'. You know, it's not true." - "Interview with Frank Zappa", ''Spin magazine'', July 1991, p 91. | |||
| * Bruckner p 71: | |||
| :"A cartoon published in Italy in May 2006 by Liberazione, the organ of … PRC .. shows at the entrance to Gaza barbed wire and a gate over which is the inscription ''Hunger will make you free'', an obvious allusion to ''Arbeit macht frei'' over the gate to Auschwitz." | |||
| </ref> The Anti Defamation League (ADL) has documented a large number of comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany, and the ADL considers them to be anti-Semitic.<ref> | |||
| *ADL report: "Anti-Semitism and Demonization of Israel in Arab Media", , January/February 2000 | |||
| *ADL report: "Anti-Israel Protests Unleash Global Anti-Semitism", , January 9, 2009 | |||
| *ADL press release: "As Israel Defends Itself, Jews Come Under Attack" , 12 Jan 2009 | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ====Examples of comparisons==== | |||
| ] rapporteurs have compared Israel to Nazi Germany. Authors ] and ] have criticized ] (United Nations Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967"<ref>Falk's reports are available at http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=91. One 2009 report by Falk is </ref>) for comparisons Falk made between Israel and Nazi Germany<ref> | |||
| *] and ], ''The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America'', Simon and Schuster, 2010, pp 97-98: | |||
| :"On October 5, 2009 a post went up on Obama's Web site entitled 'Nazi Israel … Indeed'. It quoted Princeton professor, ], referring to Israel's 'war crimes', 'genocidal tendencies', 'holocaust implications', and 'holocaust in the making'. It spoke about Israel's 'Nazi-like crimes and human-rights violations'. It claimed 'Comparing the present day Israel with Nazi Germany one discovers that the majority of the Israeli policies are the exact copies of the Nazi policies. Nazi Germany had invaded its European neighbors extending from England to Russia. Israel had also invaded all its neighboring countries: Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. It is also heavily involved in the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Its tentacles had also reached African countries as far as South Africa, Somalia, Sudan, Angola, and Sierra Leone.' Continuing the lies and blood libels, the post also asserted: 'Worse than the Nazis Israeli forces used to invade peaceful Palestinian towns, execute men, women, and children in cold blood everywhere and anywhere they encounter them, dynamite their homes on top of their residents, and finally demolish the whole town making room for new Israeli colonies'. It charged that Israel pursued 'a pre-meditated genocidal plan' against Palestinian Arabs." | |||
| </ref> ] states that ] (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food) stated that Gaza Strip is "an immense concentration camp" and compared Israelis to Nazis.<ref>Bard, Mitchell G., ''Will Israel Survive?'', Macmillan, 2008, page 196: | |||
| "Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the Right of Food, for example, called the Gaza Strip 'an immense concentration camp' and compared Israelis to Nazis." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Israeli professor ] protested against Israeli ], and compared Israel to Nazi Germany, but qualified the criticism: " I am not talking about the death camps, but about the year 1935. There were no camps yet but there were racist laws. And we are heading forward towards these kinds of laws."<ref> | |||
| Shtull-Trauring, Asaf, "Israeli academic: Loyalty oath resembles racist laws of 1935", in ''Haaretz'', 10 October 2010. </ref> | |||
| ] describes comments by Portuguese Nobel prize-winning author ], who compared the Palestinian's conditions in ] to concentration camps; when asked by a journalist "Where are the gas chambers?", Saramago replied "They'll be here before long". Saramago's comments were widely reported and analyzed.<ref> | |||
| * Bruckner p 71; | |||
| :"In spring 2002 ], the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner for literature, visiting Ramallah during the siege by Tsahal, wrote 'In Ramallah I saw humanity oppressed and humiliated as in the Nazi concentration camps'. He told a journalist: 'What is happening in Palestine is a crime that we can stop. We can compare it to Auschwitz'. When the journalist objected 'Where are the gas chambers' Saramago replied: 'They'll be here before long' (''Le Monde'', May 24, 2002). " | |||
| *Soyinka, Wole, '' Climate of fear: the quest for dignity in a dehumanized world'', Random House, Inc., 2005, p 109 | |||
| *Rosenbaum, pp 18-19: | |||
| :Quoting ]: "Israel wants all of us to feel guilty, directly or indirectly, for the horrors of the holocaust; Israel wants us to renounce the most elemental critical judgment and for us to transform ourselves into a docile echo of its will. Israel, in short, is a racist state by virtue of Judaism's monstrous doctrines - racist not just against Palestinians, but against the entire world, which it seeks to manipulate and abuse. Israel's struggles with its neighbors, seen in that light, do take on a unique and even metaphysical quality of genuine evil…" | |||
| *Berman, Paul, ''Terror and liberalism'', pp 139-140 | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Bruckner also documents a similar comparison made by South American author ] who wrote: "in Auschwitz and Mauthausen, in Sabra, Chatila, and Gaza, Zionism and Nazism go hand in hand"<ref>Bruckner, p 71: | |||
| :"The South American writer ] states that 'Today as before, we hate the Nazis for what they did to the Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and opponents. Now, the Jews will be hated tomorrow for what a warlike cast headed by Sharon did to the Palestinians. In Auschwitz and Mauthausen, in Sabra, Chatila, and Gaza, Zionism and Nazism go hand in hand' (''Une sale historie p 44)". | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] characterizes Israel's occupation of Palestine territories as comparable to the Nazi ] (''living room'') policy of gaining land and materials for the benefit of Germans.<ref> | |||
| *], ''Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: the politics of expansion'', page 80: | |||
| :"] … was a proponent of the the ..imperialist ideas of Professor ] whose intellectual influence on ..Hitler and the Nazi ''Lebensraum'' doctrine of territorial expansion … Katz preached that history was shaped by space and political geography, not economics. Israel needed the territories occupied in 1967 as 'living space' and should not give up any of the occupied territories, including Sinai." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Author Israel Stockman-Shomron asserts that many newspaper editorials have used Nazi imagery articles that criticize Israel, such as the use of terms such as '']'', "]", "Hitler's work", and "]". Newspapers and authors cited by Stockman-Shomron include ], ], ], ], and ].<ref>Stockman-Shomron, Israel, ''Israel, the Middle East, and the great powers'', Transaction Publishers, 1984, page 79: | |||
| :"The Nazi Theme: The ] (June 11) put the onus on Israel to prove it was not an expansionist state bent on 'eradicating' the Palestinians; The ] … used the term ''blitzkrieg'' in its lead editorial on June 23, and by choosing to entitle another editorial on July 7 'Even Greater Israel'. The ] too, reinforced the comparison with Nazism. ] on June 28 wrote of a 'bloodbath' in Lebanon. Fellow columnist ] four days earlier wondered whether Israel was to be a .. 'miniature Middle Eastern Prussia' ruling subject Arab populations by 'blood and iron'. Other newspapers joined the swelling chorus, referring to Israeli armored units as 'Panzers' insisting that Israel sought not security but ''lebensraum'', describing operation ''Peace for Galilee'' as 'genocide' and representing Jerusalem as executing its 'final solution' of the Palestine problem. None, however descended as far as ] who began an article on June 21 'Hitler's work goes on'. From there he went on to write 'What would, of course, allow Hitler to find rest in Hell would be to acknowledge that the Jews themselves, in Israel, have finally given up their troublesome message and accepted his own way of looking at things.'" | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Following the 1967 ], the Soviet Union charged Israel with using Nazi tactics.<ref>Druks, Herbert, ''The uncertain alliance: the U.S. and Israel from Kennedy to the peace process'' Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, page 50: | |||
| :" The Russians charged Israel with using Nazi tactics…. On June 16, the Israeli Foreign Office responded to the Soviet accusations. Israel expressed its 'profound revulsion at the accusations voiced by the Soviet government' which charged Israel with Hitlerian practices." | |||
| </ref> ] describes similar comparisons which were made by Israeli Arabs.<ref>], ''Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End'', John Wiley and Sons, 2010, page 97: | |||
| :"], another Arab member of the ], said that 'resistance is not terror, but it is a moral value. As for terror, carries it out'. And Nimer Nimer, an Israeli Arab author, claimed as the war was being fought, 'What happened in Nazi Germany 60 years ago occurs today in … Gaza and Beirut." To them , Hezbollah's militias were not terrorists, but heros; not only did decency require of Israeli Arabs that they should show solidarity with Hezbollah, but Israel now was equated with Nazi Germany…. Israel's Arabs as a group did not dispute the vulgar analogy; they either agreed, or were silent." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Some commentators such as Ḥayim Gordon and Josie Sandercock describes Gaza as the "largest concentration camp in the world".<ref> | |||
| *Gordon, Hayim, ''Beyond intifada: narratives of freedom fighters in the Gaza Strip'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, page 131 | |||
| * Sandercock, Josie, ''Peace under fire: Israel/Palestine and the International Solidarity Movement'', Verso, 2004, pp 209-231. Sandercock describes Gaza as the "largest concentration camp in the world" | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Shlomo Sharan documents a comparison with Nazi Germany made by Arab journalist Jihad al-Khazin, who compared Prime Minister ] to Hitler.<ref>Sharan, p 123</ref> | |||
| Professor ] was accused of anti-Semitism because his classroom materials included a visual image comparison of the ] to the ]. The ] criticized Robinson, accusing him of academic misconduct, while ] support Robinson, citing ].<ref> | |||
| *{{cite journal |url=http://chronicle.com/article/Head-of-Anti-Defamation-League/47225 |title=Head of Anti-Defamation League Urged Santa Barbara to Act Against Critic of Israel |author=Peter Schmidt |date= April 29, 2009 |journal=] |accessdate= }} | |||
| *{{cite web |url=http://www.counterpunch.org/cloud04302009.html |author = Dana L. Cloud | title=The McCarthyism That Horowitz Built: The Cases of Margo Ramlal Nankoe, William Robinson, Nagesh Rao and Loretta Capeheart |date= April 30, 2009 |work = ] |accessdate=}} | |||
| * by Nicholas Goldberg. May 12, 2009. '']'' | |||
| * | |||
| *SPME Statement on the Disposition of the Case of William Robinson at UCSB, SPME Board of Directors, June 29, 2009 | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ====As anti-Semitism==== | |||
| The Anti Defamation League (ADL) has documented a large number of comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany, and the ADL considers them to be anti-Semitic.<ref> | |||
| *ADL report: "Anti-Semitism and Demonization of Israel in Arab Media", , January/February 2000 | |||
| *ADL report: "Anti-Israel Protests Unleash Global Anti-Semitism", , January 9, 2009 | |||
| *ADL press release: "As Israel Defends Itself, Jews Come Under Attack" , 12 Jan 2009 | |||
| </ref> | |||
| The 2006 EUMC report and the 2009 EISCA report on anti-Semitism both included "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" as an example of anti-Semitic behavior.<ref> | |||
| *EUMC report, 2006 | |||
| *EISCA report, 2009 | |||
| </ref> The EISCA report contained a number of examples of comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany, including comparisons made by Syria’s deputy ambassador to the UN, ], Libya's deputy UN ambassador, Ibrahim Dabbashi, ] (in Falk's article article in 2007 titled "Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust"<ref> | |||
| *Falk, Richard, "Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust", ''The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research'' | |||
| 29 June 2007, | |||
| *See also: Linda Mamoun, "A Conversation with Richard Falk", ''The Nation'', 17 June 2008, </ref>), and by the British Muslim Initiative. | |||
| Swedish politician ] condemns comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany, and calls such comparisons anti-Semitic, particularly as employed in the former Soviet Union, but also in recent instances in Western Europe.<ref>Ahlmark, p 192: | |||
| :"Anti-Zionism is also the perversion of language. It is often exploiting words which have always been connected to Jewish suffering but is now turning them against Israelis and the Jews. The war in Lebanon was a 'holocaust'. The struggles against the PLO is 'genocide'. Israel aims at 'extermination' of the Palestinians. West Beirut is the new 'Warsaw ghetto'. The Star of David is reshaped into the Swastika. This parallel between the Nazis and the Israelis was the main theme of the most aggressive anti-Semitism that existed for more than thirty years in the former Soviet Union. For decades, the Soviets equated Israel and Nazi Germany, and published cartoons with Israeli leaders dressed like SS officers. In the last decade this language has also spread to Western Europe. Sometimes even leading politicians make the parallel. This comparison is both a trivialization of Nazism and a demonization of the Israelis." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Lithuanian politician ] maintains comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany are a manifestation of ].<ref> Donskis, p 130: | |||
| "The New Anti-Semitism, disguised as anti-Zionism and anti-Israeli stance, remains the only widely accepted, politically correct, and legitimate form of hatred … The reason I call this form of bias and hatred the New Anti-Semitism is an important detail that should not go unnoticed, namely, a lightly assumed and frequently used comparison of Israel and Nazi Germany or of Zionism and National Socialism…. Incidentally, such comparisons often occur in ]'s polemical texts (see Chesler 2003, p 151)."</ref> | |||
| Professor ] describes the comparison of Israel with Nazi Germany as a "dumbing down" of the Israeli-Palestinian debate, and he cites several figures that have made the comparison, including ], ], ], ] (who, according to Dershowitz, compared former Israeli Prime Minister ] to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels), ], ], ], and ].<ref> | |||
| Alan Dershowitz, , "Dumbing Down The Debate Over The Arab-Israeli Conflict" in ''The Huffington Post'', 31 May 2007. | |||
| </ref> Dershowitz also wrote "… it is ironic that many pro-Palestinian groups have chosen the swastika as the symbol with which to attack Israel.... The Palestinian police chief, ], has compared Israel's first prime minister, the Socialist ], to the evil monster against whom he fought: 'There is no difference between Hitler and Ben Gurion'. On today's college campuses, you can often hear Israel's prime minister compared to Hitler with the following chant: 'Sharon and Hitler - just the same - the only difference is the name'…. Signs juxtaposing the Star of David and the swastika are commonplace."<ref>Dershowitz, ''The Case for Israel'', p 57</ref> | |||
| Jewish activist ] wrote ''My Israel Question'', a book about the Israel/Palestine conflict, which discussed the issue of whether anti-Zionism should be equated with anti-Semitism (and concluded it should not<ref></ref>) and he cites political scientist ]'s comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany as examples of immoral Israeli policies.<ref>Lowenstein, p 30: | |||
| :"] … asked to question the morality of the Jewish state: 'Within the Jewish community it has always been considered a form of heresy to compare Israli actions or policies with those of the Nazis, and certainly one must be very careful in doing so. But what does it mean when Israeli soldiers paint identification numbers on Palestinian arms; when young Palestinian men … are told through Israeli loudspeakers to gather in the town square; when Israeli soldiers openly admit to shooting Palestinian children for sport; when some of the Palestinian dead must be buried in mass graves while the bodies of others are left in city streets and camp alleyways because the army will not allow proper burial…'. Many of my family members were killed in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, so I was particularly struck by her analysis that, as Jews, we often characterize 'our' suffering as being worse than the Palestinians" | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] points out that many references to Nazism are clearly anti-Semitic in nature (such as swastikas painted on Jewish gravestones), however he suggests that comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany are not so obviously anti-Semitic.<ref>Lerman, "Should we ban ..": | |||
| :" Researchers Paul Iganski and Abe Sweiry are concerned about what they see as the increasing normalisation of the use of what they call the "Nazi card" against Jews and Israel. They say this is often antisemitic; but in relation to the first three of four uses of the "Nazi card" that they consider – abuse against Jews, as in swastika daubings on Jewish gravestones; abuse of the collective memory of the Holocaust, as in Holocaust denial; and casting Jews as conspirators and collaborators with the Nazis – almost always so….Their principal concern, however, is use of the "Nazi card" in modes of criticism of Israel. Here, they acknowledge that it's hard to decide when using Nazi analogies is or is not a manifestation of antisemitism. So much so, they argue, that "labeling the playing of the Nazi card against Israel and Zionism as antisemitic, even though it is perceived to be so by many, leads to a discursive dead-end". What really matters is the consequences of this use of the "Nazi card", whether it's offensive, hurtful or harmful. On this, "more people would be more certain". The authors write: "although the playing of the Nazi card is not always antisemitic, it unquestionably always harms". As a result, where this occurs, it could already be defined as a criminal act, and if not, Iganski and Sweiry say, consideration should be given to changing the law so that it would be. In other words, if you said "the way the IDF operated in Gaza was like the way the SS acted in Poland", and a Jew found this offensive, hurtful or harmful, you could, in theory, go to jail." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ===Anti-Zionism regarded as anti-Semitism=== | |||
| {{main|Anti-Zionism#Anti-Zionism and antisemitism}} | |||
| Some commentators, such as ], ], and ] focus on anti-Zionism (rather than general criticisms of Israel or Israeli policies), and assert that much of anti-Zionism is a manifestation of anti-Semitism. | |||
| ], former Interior Minister of Israel, encouraged the equation, and said that "One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the ] world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all."<ref>Abba Eban quoted by ], in "Chomsky, antisemitism and intellectual standards", </ref> | |||
| The United States' ] published a report on anti-Semitism in 2008, and they concluded that the term anti-Zionism is "often is used as a synonym for anti-Semitism", and that anti-Zionists frequently make no distinction between Zionists and Jews.<ref> "Contemporary Global anti-Semitism: a report provided to the United States Congress", March 2008, ; pp 26-27: | |||
| :"“Anti-Zionism” in its most basic sense is opposition to “Zionism,” a worldwide Jewish movement that resulted in the establishment and development of the state of Israel. However, the term “anti-Zionism” now has many different meanings and often is used as a synonym for anti-Semitism. In contemporary discourse, those who use the terms “Zionism” or “Zionists” as a pejorative often assert that they have no problem with Jewish people; rather, it is the “Zionists” with whom they disagree. Frequently, no distinction is made between “Zionists” and “Jews,” regardless of whether or not the Jews are Israelis or whether or not the Jews support the policy of Israel. The two terms often are used interchangeably. Such “anti-Zionist discourse” often employs classic, demonic stereotypes of Jews." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Professor ] (head of the ]) at the ] believes that Anti-Zionism is not inherently anti-Semitic and that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are two distinct ideologies that over time (especially since 1948) have tended to converge, generally without undergoing a full merger.<ref>Wistrich</ref> He also argues that much contemporary anti-Zionism, particularly forms that compare Zionism and Jews with ] and the ], has become a form of antisemitism: "Anti-Zionism has become the most dangerous and effective form of anti-Semitism in our time, through its systematic delegitimization, defamation, and demonization of Israel. Although not '']'' anti-Semitic, the calls to dismantle the Jewish state, whether they come from ], ], or the radical ], increasingly rely on an anti-Semitic stereotypization of classic themes, such as the manipulative 'Jewish lobby', the Jewish/Zionist 'world conspiracy', and Jewish/Israeli 'warmongers'."<ref>Wistrich</ref> | |||
| ] wrote a report for the ] that documented a large number of critics of Zionism or Israel that are purported to be anti-Semitic, including several Jewish critics such as ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].<ref> | |||
| * ]. . ]. 2006: | |||
| :"… some of the most impassioned charges leveled against the Jews today involve vicious accusations against the Jewish state. Anti-Zionism, in fact, is the form that much of today’s anti-Semitism takes, so much so that some now see earlier attempts to rid the world of Jews finding a parallel in present- day desires to get rid of the Jewish state… Israel’s policy of encouraging Jewish settlement in Gaza (which it abandoned in 2005) and the West Bank has long been a flash point of dispute, and its sometimes harsh treatment of Palestinian Arabs living in those areas has also drawn a great deal of negative attention. Criticizing such policies and actions is, in itself, not anti-Semitic. To call Israel a Nazi state, however, as is commonly done today, or to accuse it of fostering South African-style apartheid rule or engaging in ethnic cleansing or wholesale genocide goes well beyond legitimate criticism. Apart from the United States, to which it is almost always linked by its enemies, no country on earth is as vilified as the Jewish state. Moreover, those who denounce it as an outlaw or pariah nation are found on both the left and the right, among the educated elites as well as the uneducated classes, and among Christians as well as Muslims. In some quarters, the challenge is not to Israel’s policies, but to its legitimacy and right to an ongoing future. Thus, the argument leveled by Israel’s fiercest critics is often no longer about 1967 and the country’s territorial expansion following its military victory dur- ing the Six-Day War, but about 1948 and the alleged “crime,” or “original sin,” of its very establishment. The debate, in other words, is less about the country’s borders and more about its origins and essence. One of the things that is new and deeply disturbing about the new anti-Semitism, therefore, is precisely this: the singling out of the Jewish state, and the Jewish state alone, as a political entity unworthy of a secure and sovereign existence." | |||
| *Rosenfeld cites, as a source of examples of anti-Israel sentiments by Jews: ''Radicals, Rabbis and Peacemakers: Conversations with Jewish Critics of Israel'', edited by ] (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2005). | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ==Objections to equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism== | |||
| Several commentators have objected to the characterization of criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, including ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. They provide a variety of reasons for objecting to the equation, including stifling free expression, promoting anti-Semitism, diluting genuine anti-Semitism, and alienating Jews from Judaism or Israel. | |||
| ===Vague and indiscriminate=== | |||
| ] claims that the American Jewish community regularly tries to blur the distinction between legitimate criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism, and says it is a "slippery slope" to expand the definition of anti-Semitism to include legitimate criticism of Israel.<ref>Lerner: | |||
| :"The New York Times reported on January 31 about the most recent attempt by the American Jewish community to conflate intense criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. In a neat little example of slippery slope, the report on 'Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism,' written by ] , moves from exposing the actual anti-Semitism of those who deny Israel's right to exist—and hence deny to the Jewish people the same right to national self-determination that they grant to every other people on the planet—to those who powerfully and consistently attack Israel's policies toward Palestinians, see Israel as racist the way that it treats Israeli-Arabs (or even Sephardic Jews), or who analogize Israel's policies to those of apartheid as instituted by South Africa." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Philosophy professor Irfan Khawaja asserts that it is a "false equation" to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, writing "The point is not that the charge of 'anti-Semitism' should never be made: some people deserve it…. But the equation of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism is a farce that has gone on long enough, and it’s time that those who saw through the farce said so…"<ref>Khawaja, Irfan, "Poisoning the Well: The False Equation of Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism", ''History News Network'', , 28 March 2005: | |||
| :"… ] takes umbrage at questions about the power of “the Jewish lobby,” and construes the asking of such questions as evidence of anti-Semitism. In some cases, he thinks that a particular criticism of Israel is overwrought, and takes its being overwrought as evidence of anti-Semitism. In some cases the claim is that a Jewish author is self-hating, which becomes evidence of anti-Semitism. In some cases we are told that a person draws attention to his Jewish friends while criticizing Israel, which only proves that the person wishes to be insulated from charges of anti-Semitism—which proves, in advance of any actual accusation, that he must be an anti-Semite.... The point is not that the charge of “anti-Semitism” should never be made: some people deserve it. Nor must it always be made with trepidation: some people obviously deserve it. Nor must anti-Zionists be thought immune to the charge: too many of them are guilty.... But the equation of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism is a farce that has gone on long enough, and it’s time that those who saw through the farce said so—at length, if necessary....I’ve mentioned just a few examples here, but whatever its virtues (and there are some, as I’ve been at pains to suggest), the deficiencies I’ve described characterize the “new anti-Semitism” literature as a whole. For examples, consult Phyllis Chesler’s The New Anti-Semitism (pp. 4, 171-179, 182-185), Abraham Foxman’s Never Again: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism (pp. 17-21), Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel (p. 210), the writings of Bat Ye’or, as well as scattered essays in Rosenbaum’s anthology, Commentary, at WorldNet.Daily, or in your local Jewish paper. The modus operandi is more or less the same: First we are informed, accurately enough, of the existence of the new anti-Semitism. Then we are told that anti-Zionism is now ubiquitously used as a cover for that anti-Semitism. From there we skate imperceptibly to the equation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. And from there we are blackmailed into accepting the equation on pain of being accused of anti-Semitism." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ], a Palestinian advocacy group, is critical of what it characterizes as a modern trend to expand the definition of the term "antisemitic", and states that the new definitions are overly vague and allow for "indiscriminate accusations".<ref>{{cite web | |||
| |url=http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1119 | |||
| |title=Anti Anti Semitism With Norman Finkelstein | |||
| |date=12 October 2009 | |||
| }}: An article reviewing ]: | |||
| :"For a more profound explanation of Israeli's emerging opponents, the Zionist lobby blames 'new anti-Semitism'; a term nebulous and versatile enough to fit most any opponent. Arnold Foster and Benjamin Epstein define it as 'callous indifference to Jewish concerns, a failure to understand the most profound apprehension of Jewish people.' A 2007 British government investigation into racism counted 'perceptions of Anti-Semitism' as an example of it. Naturally such vagaries allow for almost indiscriminate accusations. Phyllis Chesler, author of A New Anti-Semitism casts her net wide to include as Israeli's enemies 'western-based international human rights organisations, western anti-capitalist, anti-globalist, pro-environment, anti-war and anti-racist activists, progressive feminists, Jewish feminists and the left and liberal American media'." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] argues that anti-Zionism sometimes is a manifestation antisemitism, but that "hey are separate" and that to equate them is to incorrectly "conflate the Jewish state with the Jewish people."<ref>Klug: | |||
| :"There is a long and ignoble history of "Zionist" being used as a code word for "Jew," as when ] carried out "anti-Zionist" purges in 1968, expelling thousands of Jews from the country, or when the extreme right today uses the acronym ] (Zionist Occupied Government) to refer to the ]. Moreover, the Zionist movement arose as a reaction to the persecution of Jews. Since anti-Zionism is the opposite of Zionism, and since Zionism is a form of opposition to anti-Semitism, it seems to follow that an anti-Zionist must be an anti-Semite. Nonetheless, the inference is invalid. To argue that hostility to Israel and hostility to Jews are one and the same thing is to conflate the Jewish state with the Jewish people. In fact, Israel is one thing, Jewry another. Accordingly, anti-Zionism is one thing, anti-Semitism another. They are separate. To say they are separate is not to say that they are never connected. But they are independent variables that can be connected in different ways."</ref> | |||
| Earl Raab, founding director of the Nathan Perlmutter Institute for Jewish Advocacy at ] writes that "here is a new surge of antisemitism in the world, and much prejudice against Israel is driven by such antisemitism," but argues that charges of antisemitism based on anti-Israel opinions generally lack credibility. He writes that "a grave educational misdirection is imbedded in formulations suggesting that if we somehow get rid of antisemitism, we will get rid of anti-Israelism. This reduces the problems of prejudice against Israel to cartoon proportions." Raab describes prejudice against Israel as a "serious breach of morality and good sense," and argues that it is often a bridge to antisemitism, but distinguishes it from antisemitism as such.<ref>Raab, Earl. , ''Judaism'', Fall 2002.</ref> | |||
| Irfan Khawaja suggests that some legitimate criticisms of Israel are improperly attacked by deliberately conflating them with criticisms that are anti-Semitic in nature.<ref>Khawaja: | |||
| :"These claims are a textbook example of the fallacy of poisoning the well—the fallacy, in logic, of rebutting someone’s argument by adducing the ulterior motives he might have had for making it. Well-poisoning is a ubiquitous feature of our misologistic culture, but Hanson’s commission of the fallacy differs from the run-of-the-mill variety by its subtle introduction of the issue of anti-Semitism. The claim here is not the truism that Arab anti-Semitism finds resonance in Europe, but that such interest as “the world” expresses in Palestine is merely a cover for its anti-Semitism. This claim is a casual instance of a broader trend: the reflexive equation, by defenders of Israel, of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, itself part of the emerging literature on “the new anti-Semitism.” Focusing on the undeniable fact that many anti-Zionists are anti-Semites, and that anti-Zionism can easily be used as a disguise for anti-Semitism, writers in this genre simply insist over and over that no one can be an anti-Zionist without simultaneously being an anti-Semite." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] and ], in the book ], write "Apologists for Israel's repression of Palestinians toss the word 'anti-Semite' at any critic of what Zionism has meant in practice for Palestinians on the receiving end. So some of the essays in this book address the issue of what constitutes genuine anti-Semitism - Jew-hatred - as opposed to disingenuous, specious charges of 'anti-Semitism' hurled at rational appraisals of the state of Israel's political, military, and social conduct."<ref>Cockburn, p vii</ref> | |||
| ===Represents Jews as victims=== | |||
| ] and Steven Zipperstein (professor of Jewish Culture and History at ]) suggest that criticism of Israel is sometimes inappropriately considered to be anti-Semitism due to an inclination to perceive Jews as victims. Zipperstein suggests that the common attitude of seeing Jews as victims is sometimes implicitly transferred to the perception of Israel as a victim; while Finkelstein suggests that the depiction of Israel as a victim (as a "Jew among nations") is a deliberate ploy to stifle criticism of Israel. | |||
| <ref> | |||
| * Zipperstein, p 61: | |||
| :Steven Zipperstein, argues that a belief in the State of Israel's responsibility for the Arab-Israeli conflict is considered "part of what a reasonably informed, progressive, decent person thinks." He argues that Jews have a tendency to see the State of Israel as a victim because they were very recently themselves "the quintessential victims." | |||
| * Finkelstein p 16: | |||
| :"To evade the obvious, another stratagem of the Israel's lobby is playing The Holocaust and 'new anti-Semitism' cards. In a previous study, I examined how the Nazi holocaust had been fashioned into an ideological weapon to immunize Israel from legitimate criticism. In this book I look at a variant of this Holocaust card, namely, the 'new anti-Semitism'. In fact, the allegation of a new anti-Semitism is neither new nor about anti-Semitism. Whenever Israel comes under renewed international pressure to withdraw from occupied territories, its apologists mount yet another meticulously orchestrated media extravaganza alleging that the world is awash in anti-Semitism. This shameless exploitation of anti-Semitism delegitimizes criticism of Israel, makes Jews rather than Palestinians the victims, and puts the onus on the Arab world to rid itself of anti-Semitism rather than on Israel to rid itself of the Occupied Territories. A close examination of what the Israel lobby tallies as anti-Semitism reveals three components: exaggeration and fabrication; mislabeling legitimate criticism of Israeli policy; and the unjustified yet predictable 'spillover' from criticism of Israel to Jews generally." | |||
| *Finkelstein p 33: | |||
| :"The dominant trope of the new 'new anti-Semitism' is that Israel has become the 'Jew among nations'…. In their 1982 study the Perlmuters pointed out the 'transformation … from anti-Semitism against Jews to anti-Semitism the object of which is the Jews' surrogate: Israel'… The transparent motive behind these assertions is to taint any criticism of Israel as motivated by anti-Semitism and - inverting reality - to turn Israel (and Jews), not Palestinians, in the victim of the 'current siege' (Chesler)." | |||
| * Finkelstein quotes four authors (who support the notion of New Antisemitism) who he claims rely on the victim perception: Chesler, Zuckerman, Cotler, and Schoenfeld | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ===Self-hating Jews=== | |||
| ], editor of ], asserts that the equation of Criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism has resulted in conflict within the Jewish community, in particular, proponents of the equation sometimes attack Jewish critics of Israeli policies as "]s".<ref>Lerner: | |||
| :"Yet there is nothing "new" about this or about this alleged anti-Semitism that these mainstream Jewish voices seek to reveal. From the moment I started Tikkun Magazine twenty years ago as "the liberal alternative to Commentary and the voices of Jewish conservatism and spiritual deadness in the organized Jewish community," our magazine has been attacked in much of the organized Jewish community as "self-hating Jews" (though our editorial advisory board contains some of the most creative Jewish theologians, rabbis, Israeli peace activist and committed fighters for social justice). The reason? We believe that Israeli policy toward Palestinians, manifested most dramatically in the Occupation of the West Bank for what will soon be forty years and in the refusal of Israel to take any moral responsibility for its part in the creation of the Arab refugee problem, is immoral, irrational, self-destructive, a violation of the highest values of the Jewish people, and a serious impediment to world peace." | |||
| </ref> Lerner also claims that the equation of Criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism and the resulting charges of "self hating Jew" has resulted in the alienation of young Jews from their faith.<ref> | |||
| Lerner: | |||
| The impact of the silencing of debate about Israeli policy on Jewish life has been devastating. We at Tikkun are constantly encountering young Jews who say that they can no longer identify with their Jewishness, because they have been told that their own intuitive revulsion at watching the Israeli settlers, with IDF support, violate the human rights of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, or their own questioning of Israel's right to occupy the West Bank, are proof that they are "self-hating Jews." The Jewish world is driving away its own young. | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] believes that many attacks on Jewish critics of Israel are "vitriolic, ad hominem and indiscriminate" and claims that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism have been defined too broadly and without reason.<ref>Lerman, "Jews attacking Jews": | |||
| :"Anti-Semitism can be disguised as anti-Zionism, and a Jew can be an anti-Semite. In principle, therefore, exposing an alleged Jewish anti-Semite is legitimate. But if you read the growing literature that does this - in print, on Web sites and in blogs - you find that it exceeds all reason: The attacks are often vitriolic, ad hominem and indiscriminate. Aspersions are cast on the Jewishness of individuals whom the attacker cannot possibly know. The charge of Jewish "self-hatred" - another way of calling someone a Jewish anti-Semite - is used ever more frequently, despite mounting evidence that it's an entirely bogus concept. Anything from strong criticism of Israel's policies, through sympathetic critiques of Zionism, to advocacy of a one-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict, is defined as anti-Zionism, when none of these positions are prima facie anti-Zionist. Many attackers endow their targets with the ability to bring disaster and dissolution to the Jewish people, thereby making it a national and religious duty for Jews to wage a war of words against other Jews." | |||
| </ref> Lerman also states that the "redefinition" of anti-Semitism to include anti-Zionism has caused Jews to attack other Jews, because many Jews are leaders in several anti-Zionist organizations.<ref>Lerman: '' Jews attacking Jews'': | |||
| :"The equation 'anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism' has thus become the new orthodoxy, and has even earned the seal of approval of the European Union. Its racism and anti-Semitism monitoring center (the Rights Agency) produced a 'working definition' of anti-Semitism, with examples of five ways in which anti-Israel or anti-Zionist rhetoric is anti-Semitic. The 2006 report of the U.K.'s All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism urged the adoption of the EU definition, and the U.S. State Department's 2008 report 'Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism' is also based on it. The redefinition of anti-Semitism has led to a further radical change in confronting the phenomenon. Many Jews are at the forefront of the growing number of anti-Israel or anti-Zionist groups. So, perceived manifestations of the 'new anti-Semitism' increasingly result in Jews attacking other Jews for their alleged anti-Semitic anti-Zionism." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| An executive director of the ] published an open letter defending ] (NGOs) that operate within Israel to promote civil rights of Arabs, and she claims that supporters of Israel "associate moral and ethical criticism of any activity by Israel or the policies of its Government as being anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and when conducted by Jews, as evidence of self-hatred."<ref> | |||
| {{cite web | |||
| |url=http://jfjfp.com/?p=4115 | |||
| |title=The New Israel Fund says It's Time to Nail the Lies | |||
| |author=Ellen Goldberg | |||
| |date=7 August 2009}}: | |||
| :"Several organisations ... are promoting the view that the work of Human Rights NGOs working in Israel is, by its very nature, anti-Israel. Their charge is to associate moral and ethical criticism of any activity by Israel or the policies of its Government as being anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and when conducted by Jews, as evidence of self-hatred." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ===Scare tactics=== | |||
| The ] is also opposed to the use of the antisemitic label to suppress criticism, and objected to the "fear tactics" employed when the anti-Semitic label was applied to supporters of ], claiming that it was reminiscent of the ].<ref>{{cite web | |||
| |url= http://www.ijsn.net/321/ | |||
| |title=Jewish Canadians Concerned about Suppression of Criticism of Israel | |||
| |date=22 March 2009 | |||
| |Author=ISJN: Abigail Bakan, Adam Balsam, Sharon Baltman, et al}}: | |||
| :"We are appalled by recent attempts of prominent Jewish organizations and leading Canadian politicians to silence protest against the State of Israel. We are alarmed by the escalation of fear tactics. Charges that those organizing Israel Apartheid Week or supporting an academic boycott of Israel are anti-Semites promoting hatred bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. We believe this serves to deflect attention from Israel’s flagrant violations of international humanitarian law…. We recognize that anti-Semitism is a reality in Canada as elsewhere, and we are fully committed to resisting any act of hatred against Jews. At the same time, we condemn false charges of anti-Semitism against student organizations, unions, and other groups and people exercising their democratic right to freedom of speech and association regarding legitimate criticism of the State of Israel." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] suggests that some United States politicians are reluctant to criticise Israel because they are afraid of being labelled anti-Semitic.<ref> | |||
| Lerner: | |||
| :"But the most destructive impact of this new Jewish Political Correctness is on American foreign policy debates. We at Tikkun have been involved in trying to create a liberal alternative to AIPAC and the other Israel-can-do-no-wrong voices in American politics. When we talk to Congressional representatives who are liberal or even extremely progressive on every other issue, they tell us privately that they are afraid to speak out about the way Israeli policies are destructive to the best interests of the United States or the best interests of world peace—lest they too be labeled anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. If it can happen to Jimmy Carter, some of them told me recently, a man with impeccable moral credentials, then no one is really politically safe." | |||
| </ref> Lerner also states that groups that promote peace in the mid-East are afraid to form coalitions, lest they be discredited by what Lerner terms the "Jewish Establishment".<ref> | |||
| Lerner: | |||
| "Even better if we could succeed in creating a powerful alternative to AIPAC. Unfortunately, that path is not so easy. When we approached some of the Israel peace groups to form an alliance with us to build the alternative to AIPAC we found that the hold of the Jewish Establishment was so powerful that it had managed to seep into the brains of people in organizations like Americans for Peace Now (not the Israeli group Peace Now which has been very courageous), Brit Tzedeck ve'Shalom and the Israel Policy Forum or the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement. As a result these peace voices are continually fearful that they will be "discredited" if they align with each other and with us to create this alternative to AIPAC. Meanwhile, while they look over their right shoulders fearfully, the very people that they fear will "discredit" them for aligning with each other and with us are already discrediting them as much as they possibly can." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ===Draws attention away from genuine anti-Semitism=== | |||
| ] asserts that proponents of New Antisemitism's define antisemitism so broadly, that they deprive the term "antisemitism" of all meaning. Klug writes: " when anti-Semitism is everywhere, it is nowhere. And when every anti-Zionist is an anti-Semite, we no longer know how to recognize the real thing--the concept of anti-Semitism loses its significance."<ref> | |||
| Klug: | |||
| :"In defense of her assertion that there is a global "war against the Jews," Chesler wields the ultimate weapon. "In my opinion," she says, "anyone who denies that this is so or who blames the Jews for provoking the attacks is an anti-Semite." Since I deny that there is such a war, this makes me an anti-Semite. But since her argument empties the word of all meaning, I do not feel maligned. In his contribution to A New Antisemitism?, historian Peter Pulzer, faulting the way "the liberal press" sometimes reports the activities of the Israel Defense Forces in the occupied territories, makes a telling point about the misuse of words. He says: "When every civilian death is a war crime, that concept loses its significance. When every expulsion from a village is genocide, we no longer know how to recognize genocide. When Auschwitz is everywhere, it is nowhere." Point taken. But equally, when anti-Semitism is everywhere, it is nowhere. And when every anti-Zionist is an anti-Semite, we no longer know how to recognize the real thing--the concept of anti-Semitism loses its significance." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| In the book ] Scott Handleman writes: "Partisans of Israel often make false accusations of anti-Semitism to silence Israeli's critics. The 'antisemite' libel is harmful not only because it censors debate about Israel's racism and human rights abuses but because it trivializes the ugly history of Jew-hatred.î<ref>Handleman, Scott, "Trivializing Jew-Hatred," in '']'', ed. ]. AK Press, 2003, p. 13.</ref> | |||
| ===Excessive accusations of anti-Semitism may result in backlash=== | |||
| ] argues that excessive claims of anti-Semitism (leveled at critics of Israel) may backfire and contribute to anti-Semitism, and he writes "a McCarthyite tendency to see anti-Semites under every bed, arguably contributes to the climate of hostility toward Jews"<ref> | |||
| Klug: | |||
| :"a McCarthyite tendency to see anti-Semites under every bed, arguably contributes to the climate of hostility toward Jews. The result is to make matters worse for the very people these authors mean to defend." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] also suggests that Israel's "insistent identification" of criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism is now the leading source of anti-Jewish sentiment in the world.<ref> | |||
| *Judt: | |||
| :"In many parts of the world this is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling assertion: Israel's reckless behavior and insistent identification of all criticism with anti-Semitism is now the leading source of anti-Jewish sentiment in Western Europe and much of Asia. But the traditional corollary - if anti-Jewish feeling is linked to dislike of Israel then right-thinking people should rush to Israel's defense - no longer applies. Instead, the ironies of the Zionist dream have come full circle: For tens of millions of people in the world today, Israel is indeed the state of all the Jews. And thus, reasonably enough, many observers believe that one way to take the sting out of rising anti-Semitism in the suburbs of Paris or the streets of Jakarta would be for Israel to give the Palestinians back their land." | |||
| *See also Finkelstein, p xxxv: | |||
| :"In a feature ''Haaretz'' article marking the fifty-eighth anniversary of Israel's founding, a leading American-Jewish academic now gives expression to the identical analysis: 'Israel's reckless behavior and insistent identification of all criticism with anti-Semitism' Tony Judt writes, 'is now the leading source of anti-Jewish sentiment in Western Europe and much of Asia …. One way to take the sting out of rising anti-Semitism in the suburbs of Paris or the streets of Jakarta would be force Israel to give the Palestinians back their land'." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] echos those thoughts and suggests that the continued "repression" of criticism of Israel may eventually "explode" in an outburst of genuine anti-Semitism.<ref> | |||
| Lerner: | |||
| :"When this bubble of repression of dialogue explodes into open resentment at the way Jewish Political correctness has been imposed, it may really yield a "new" anti-Semitism. To prevent that, the voices of dissent on Israeli policy must be given the same national exposure in the media and American politics that the voices of the Jewish establishment have been given.... We hope that the creation of our interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP at spiritualprogressives.org) can provide a safe context for this kind of discussion among the many Christians, Muslims, Unitarians, Hindus, Buddhists and secular-but-not-religious people who share some of the criticisms of Israel and who will eventually try to challenge the kind of anti-Semitism that might be released against Jews once the resentment about Jewish Political Correctness on Israel does explode." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ===Deliberate ploy to stifle criticism of Israel=== | |||
| Several commentators have asserted that some accusations of anti-Semitism are actually deliberate ploys to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel. | |||
| One of the major themes of Norman Finkelstein's book ] is that some supporters of Israel employ accusations of anti-Semitism to attack critics of Israel, with the goal of discrediting the critics and silencing the criticism.<ref>Finkelstein. This is a major theme of the book, but is especially discussed in the Introduction and chapter 1.</ref> | |||
| Professors ] and ], in response to ] activities at ], wrote a open letter to the University president which stated that accusations of anti-Semitism are sometimes made with the goal of "silencing" criticism of Israel.<ref> | |||
| *Sears, Alan and Rebick, Judy, "Memo to Minister Kenney: Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism", : | |||
| :"Defenders of Israeli policy routinely attempt to direct our attention to abuses happening in other places and insist that a hidden agenda must underlie any focus on Israeli brutality in this unjust world. This argument would lead to paralysis in human rights activism by claiming that one must address all cases at once, or only the "worst" cases. Should we have told Rosa Parks, who refused to go the back of a segregated bus in Alabama in 1955, to quit whining as conditions were even worse in South Africa, or colonized Kenya, or for that matter for Palestinians in refugee camps? The deployment of anti-Semitism as an accusation to silence criticism of Israel is also a serious setback in genuine struggles against anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination. It is based on a claim that the State of Israel is the single outcome of the history of the Jewish people, the final end of generations of diasporic existence. It attempts to make the Zionist project of a Jewish nation the only legitimate project for all Jews." | |||
| *They were writing regarding Israel Apartheid Week controversy described . | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Journalist Peter Beaumont also claims that some proponents of the concept of New Antisemitism conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.<ref>Beaumont, Peter, , ''The Observer'', February 17, 2002: | |||
| :"But the problem with all this talk of a 'new anti-Semitism' is that those who argue hardest for its inexorable rise are dangerously conflating two connected but critically separate phenomena. The monster that they have conjured from these parts is not only something that does not yet exist - and I say 'yet' with caution - but whose purported existence is being cynically manipulated by some in the Israeli government to try to silence debate about the policies of the Sharon government…. As data collected by the Stephen Roth Institute at Tel Aviv University, and other research, makes clear, the rise in anti-Semitism in Europe coincided with the beginning of al-Aqsa intifada - and Israel's heavy-handed response…. What they are talking about is the criticism in the media and political classes of Europe of the policies of Sharon. Israel's brutal response to the often equally reprehensible anti-Israeli Palestinian violence of the intifada has produced one of the most vigorous media critiques of Israel's policies in the European media in a generation. The reply to this criticism, say those most vocal in reporting the existence of the new anti-Semitism, particularly in the Israeli press, is devastating in its simplicity: criticise Israel, and you are an anti-Semite just as surely as if you were throwing paint at a synagogue in Paris." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ], a British-Pakistani historian and political activist, argues that the concept of new antisemitism amounts to an attempt to subvert the language in the interests of the State of Israel. He writes that the campaign against "the supposed new 'anti-semitism'" in modern Europe is a "cynical ploy on the part of the Israeli Government to seal off the Zionist state from any criticism of its regular and consistent brutality against the Palestinians.... Criticism of Israel can not and should not be equated with anti-semitism." He argues that most pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist groups that emerged after the ] were careful to observe the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.<ref name=Ali>]. , ''Counterpunch'', March 4, 2004, first published in ''il manifesto'', February 26, 2004.</ref> | |||
| ] has spoken against the abuse of the antisemitic label, for example in an opinion piece, they wrote "For decades, some leaders of the Jewish community have made the preposterous claim that there is complete unity of belief and interest between all Jews and the Israeli government, no matter what its policies. They must believe their own propaganda, because they see no difference between criticism of the Israeli government and anti-Semitism, and they do everything they can to silence critical voices. If the brand of anti-Semitism is not sufficiently intimidating, the silencing has been enforced by organized phone and letter-writing campaigns, boycotts, threats of, and actual withdrawal of funding support from 'offending' institutions and individuals."<ref>{{cite web | |||
| |url=http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/content/criticism-israel-and-anti-semitism | |||
| |title=On Criticism of Israel and Anti-Semitism | |||
| |author=Henri Picciotto}}</ref> | |||
| ====Accusations are public relations efforts==== | |||
| ] and ] suggest that the accusations of anti-Semitism leveled at critics of Israel are deliberately timed to defuse the impact of the criticisms. They describe a pattern where accusations of anti-Semitism rise immediately following aggressive actions by Israel: following the ], following the ], and following exposure of "brutal behavior in the Occupied Territories" in 2002.<ref> | |||
| Mearsheimer and Walt, p 190: | |||
| :"Supporters of Israel have a history of using fears of a "new antiSemitism" to shield Israel from criticism. In 1974, when Israel was under increasing pressure to withdraw from the lands it had conquered in 1967, Arnold Forster and Benjamin Epstein of the ADL published ''The New Anti-Semitism'', which argued that anti-Semitism was on the rise and exemplified by the growing unwillingness of other societies to support Israel's actions. In the early 1980s, when the invasion of Lebanon and Israel's expanding settlements triggered additional criticisms, and when U.S. arms sales to its Arab allies were hotly contested, then ADL head Nathan Perlmutter and his wife, Ruth Ann Perlmutter, released ''The Real Anti-Semitism in America'', which argued that anti-Semitism was on its way back, as shown by the pressure on Israel to make peace with the Arabs and by events like the sale of AWACS aircraft to Saudi Arabia. The Perlmutters also suggested that many "anti-Semitic" actions, which they define as acts not motivated by hostility to Jews, may nonetheless harm Jewish interests (and especially Israel's well-being), and could easily bring back genuine anti-Semitism. The troubling logic of this argument is revealed by the fact that there was little mention of anti-Semitism during the 1990s, when Israel was involved in the Oslo peace process. Indeed, one Israeli scholar wrote in 1995 that 'never before, at least since the time Christianity seized power over the Roman Empire, has anti-Semitism been less significant than at present'. Charges of anti-Semitism became widespread only in the spring of 2002, when Israel came under severe criticism around the world for its brutal behavior in the Occupied Territories. … Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident who is now a prominent Israeli author and politician, declares, 'The new anti-Semitism appears in the guise of 'political criticism of Israel', consisting of a discriminating approach and double standard towards the state of the Jews, while questioning its right to exist.' The implication is that any one who criticizes Israel's actions … is opposed to its existence and is therefore hostile to Jews. But this is a bogus charge, because it conflates criticism of Israel's actions with the rejection of Israel's legitimacy." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] claims that proponents of ] employ accusations of antisemitism (addressing criticism of Israel) as part of public relations campaign to bolster Israel's image, and undermine criticism of Israel.<ref> | |||
| Finkelstein: | |||
| *page xxxiii: | |||
| :"The 'new anti-Semitism' is a spin-off of the Holocaust industry. Whenever Israel comes under international pressure to resolve its conflict with the Palestinians diplomatically or faces a public relations debacle, its apologists mount a campaign alleging that the world is awash in a new anti-Semitism. … the purpose of these periodic extravaganzas is not hard to find: on the one hand, the perpetrators are turned into the victims, putting the spotlight on the alleged suffering of Jews today and diverting it from the real suffering of Palestinians; on the other hand, they discredit all criticism of Israeli policy as motived by an irrational loathing of Jews." | |||
| *page 16: | |||
| :"To evade the obvious, another stratagem of the Israel's lobby is playing The Holocaust and 'new anti-Semitism' cards. In a previous study, I examined how the Nazi holocaust had been fashioned into an ideological weapon to immunize Israel from legitimate criticism. In this book I look at a variant of this Holocaust card, namely, the 'new anti-Semitism'. In fact, the allegation of a new anti-Semitism is neither new nor about anti-Semitism. Whenever Israel comes under renewed international pressure to withdraw from occupied territories, its apologists mount yet another meticulously orchestrated media extravaganza alleging that the world is awash in anti-Semitism. This shameless exploitation of anti-Semitism delegitimizes criticism of Israel, makes Jews rather than Palestinians the victims, and puts the onus on the Arab world to rid itself of anti-Semitism rather than on Israel to rid itself of the Occupied Territories. A close examination of what the Israel lobby tallies as anti-Semitism reveals three components: exaggeration and fabrication; mislabeling legitimate criticism of Israeli policy; and the unjustified yet predictable 'spillover' from criticism of Israel to Jews generally." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Finkelstein also asserts that "American Jewish organizations" purposefully increase vocal accusations of anti-Semitism during episodes when Israel is coming under increased criticism (such as the during the Intifada), with the goal of discrediting critics of Israel.<ref> | |||
| Finkelstein: | |||
| :"Whenever Israel faces a public relations debacle such as the Intifada or international pressure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, American Jewish organizations orchestrate this extravaganza called the 'new anti-Semitism.' The purpose is several-fold. First, it is to discredit any charges by claiming the person is an anti-Semite. It's to turn Jews into the victims, so that the victims are not the Palestinians any longer. As people like Abraham Foxman of the ADL put it, the Jews are being threatened by a new holocaust. It's a role reversal – the Jews are now the victims, not the Palestinians. So it serves the function of discrediting the people leveling the charge. It's no longer Israel that needs to leave the Occupied Territories; it's the Arabs who need to free themselves of the anti-Semitism." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ====Attacking the messenger rather than the message==== | |||
| ] claims that some supporters of Israel refuse to discuss legitimate criticisms of Israel (such as comparisons with ]) and instead attack the people who raise such criticisms, thus deliberately "shifting the discourse to the legitimacy of the messenger and thus avoiding the substance of the criticisms".<ref> | |||
| Lerner: | |||
| :"The Anti-Defamation League sponsored a conference on this same topic in San Francisco on January 28, conspicuously failing to invite Tikkun, Jewish Voices for Peace and Brit Tzedeck ve Shalom, the three major Jewish voices critiquing Israeli policy, yet also strong supporters of Israel's security. Meanwhile, the media has been abuzz with stories of Jews denouncing former President Jimmy Carter for his book Palestine: Peace or Apartheid. The same charges of anti-Semitism that have consistently been launched against anyone who criticizes Israeli policy is now being launched against the one American leader who managed to create a lasting (albeit cold) peace between Israel and a major Arab state (Egypt). Instead of seriously engaging with the issues raised (e.g. to what extent are Israel's current policies similar to those of apartheid and to what extent are they not?), the Jewish establishment and media responds by attacking the people who raise these or any other critiques--shifting the discourse to the legitimacy of the messenger and thus avoiding the substance of the criticisms. Knowing this, many people become fearful that they too will be labeled "anti-Semitic" if they question the wisdom of Israeli policies or if they seek to organize politically to challenge those policies." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ====Specific claims of false labels of anti-Semitism==== | |||
| Critics of Israel that have been accused of antisemitism and have denied the allegation include ], ], ], ], ], and ]. | |||
| ], United States politician and consumer advocate, has criticized Israel's policies, expressed support for Palestinian causes, and criticized the excessive influence of the ] on the U. S. government, and as a result he has been called antisemitic. In response, Nader wrote an letter to the director of the ] entitled "Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism" in which he said "Your mode of operation for years has been to make charges of racism or insinuation of racism designed to slander and evade. Because your pattern of making such charges, carefully calibrated for the occasion but of the same stigmatizing intent, has served to deter critical freedom of speech.... The ADL should be working toward this objective and not trying to suppress realistic discourse on the subject with epithets and innuendos."<ref>], "A Letter to Abraham Foxman: Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism", in ''Counterpunch'', 16 October 2004, </ref> | |||
| Professor ] is a vocal critic of Israel who supports ]. ], president of Harvard, called efforts by Matory and others to divest from Israel "] in effect, if not intent."<ref>Divestment forum held at Harvard, Michaela May, The Justice, 10/29/02 </ref> According to Matory, "the knee jerk accusation that targeted criticism of Israel singles out Israel is as absurd as stating that the anti-apartheid movement was singling out South Africa."<ref name="Crimson2006"></ref> | |||
| Professor ] argues that Israel's foreign minister ] equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism in an effort to "exploit anti-racist sentiment for political ends", citing statement Eban made in 1973: "One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all." Commenting on Eban's statement, Chomsky replied: "That is a convenient stand. It cuts off a mere 100 percent of critical comment!"<ref>Quoted by Menachem Wecker, "In Defense of Self-Hating Jews", May 2007, Jewish Currents, online at .</ref> In 2002, Chomsky wrote that this equation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism was being extended to criticism of Israeli policies, not just criticism of Zionism. Chomsky also wrote that, when the critics of Israel are Jewish, the accusations of anti-Semitism involve descriptions of ].<ref> | |||
| *Chomsky, ''Necessary Illusions'', p 316: | |||
| :"There have long been efforts to identify anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in an effort to exploit anti-racist sentiment for political ends; 'one of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all,' Israeli diplomat Abba Eban argued, in a typical expression of this intellectually and morally disreputable position (Eban, Congress Bi-Weekly, March 30, 1973). But that no longer suffices. It is now necessary to identify criticism of Israeli policies as anti-Semitism -- or in the case of Jews, as 'self-hatred,' so that all possible cases are covered." | |||
| </ref> In 2004, Chomsky said "If you identify the country, the people, the culture with the rulers, accept the totalitarian doctrine, then yeah, it's anti-Semitic to criticize the Israeli policy, and anti-American to criticize the American policy, and it was anti-Soviet when the dissidents criticized Russian policy. You have to accept deeply totalitarian assumptions not to laugh at this."<ref>{{ cite web | |||
| |url=http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20041021.htm | |||
| |title=On the State of the Nation, Iraq and the Election, Noam Chomsky |author=Amy Goodman | |||
| |date=21 October, 2004 | |||
| }}</ref> However, ] contends that Chomsky inaccurately interpreted Eban's comments.<ref> | |||
| Quoted by ] http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/chomsky_antisem.html | |||
| "Chomsky, antisemitism and intellectual standards" | |||
| "But note that by 2002, in his remarks to the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Chomsky is giving a flatly different account of Eban’s argument. What Eban is saying in the genuine quotation is that the denial of Israel’s statehood is equivalent to antisemitism. This is not at all the same thing as claiming that criticism of Israeli policies is equivalent to antisemitism. Chomsky’s interpolation – “By anti-Zionism he meant criticisms of the current policies of the State of Israel” – is not remotely supportable from the quotation. Chomsky has doctored his source in order to set up a straw man." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Musician ] is a critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and was accused by the ] of using anti-Semitic imagery in one of his recent musical productions. Waters responded by stating that the ADL regularly portrays critics of Israel as anti-Semitic, and that "it is a screen they hide behind".<ref> | |||
| *Smith, Lewis, "Anti-Semitic? Not me, says Roger Waters", ''The Independent'', 4 October 2010, : | |||
| :"Abraham Foxman, the director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said using the dollar sign and the Star of David in sequence echoed the stereotype that Jews were avaricious. Referring to criticism Waters has previously made of Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, Mr Foxman said the musician should have 'chosen some other way to convey his political views without playing into and dredging up the worst age-old anti-Semitic stereotype about Jews and their supposed obsession with making money'. … 'If I don't respond people will see the story and will come to believe I'm anti-Semitic, and I'm not. Nothing could be further from the truth….' Waters has spoken against Israeli policies and accused the ADL of painting critics as anti-Semitic. 'It's a screen that they hide behind. I don't think they should be taken seriously on that. You can attack Israeli policy without being anti-Jewish,' he said." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| In 2002 ] is a critic of Israel who has compared Israel's policies to apartheid South Africa. Tutu wrote that criticism of Israel is suppressed in the United States, and that criticisms of Israel are "immediately dubbed anti-Semitic".<ref> | |||
| * Tutu, Desmond, “Apartheid in the Holy Land,” ''The Guardian'' (Britain), April 29, 2002. | |||
| :" I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about.... But you know as well as I do that, somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal , and to criticise it is to be immediately dubbed anti-semitic, as if the Palestinians were not semitic. I am not even anti-white, despite the madness of that group. And how did it come about that Israel was collaborating with the apartheid government on security measures? People are scared in this country , to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ] was a vocal critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and who was frequently accused of anti-Semitism, yet he he was careful to distinguish between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.<ref> | |||
| *"Father Michael Prior: Roman Catholic priest and scholar who campaigned for the rights of Palestinians", in ''The Times'', 21 August 2004, : | |||
| :"In an interview in Witness in 2003, Father Prior said: “The God they portray looks to me to be a militaristic and xenophobic genocide who would not be even sufficiently moral to conform to the Fourth Geneva Convention. How, I constantly ask myself, are such people so unconcerned about others being kicked out of their homes, children being shot, people struggling for survival against very oppressive forces of occupation?” Needless to say, he was sometimes accused of being anti-Semitic. But he was careful to distinguish between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. He believed that Muslims, Jews and Christians could and should live in equality and harmony. In his last article, published in The Tablet shortly before his death, he warned that the Catholic-Jewish liaison committee’s decision to equate antiZionism with anti-Semitism was a grave mistake. He was convinced that Zionism flew in the face of the Hebrew Scriptures." | |||
| *See also: "Professor Michael Prior: Controversial priest and theologian who was an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights" in ''The Independent'', | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ], former mayor of the ], was accused of antisemitism for a variety of comments, including remarks criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians. In response, Livingstone wrote "For 20 years Israeli governments have attempted to portray anyone who forcefully criticizes the policies of Israel as anti-semitic. The truth is the opposite: the same universal human values that recognize the Holocaust as the greatest racist crime of the 20th century require condemnation of the policies of successive Israeli governments - not on the absurd grounds that they are Nazi or equivalent to the Holocaust, but because ethnic cleansing, discrimination and terror are immoral."<ref>{{cite web | |||
| |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/mar/04/society.london | |||
| |title=The Guardian, "This is about Israel, not anti-semitism" | |||
| |date=4 March 2005 | |||
| }}</ref> | |||
| ], member of the UK ], has frequently criticized Israel's policies, and has been labelled antisemitic.<ref>{{cite web | |||
| |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6049386.stm | |||
| |title=Rebuke for peer's Israel remarks | |||
| |author=BBC News | |||
| |date=13 October 2006}}</ref> In response, she said during a speech in Parliament: "I'm beginning to understand ... the vindictive actions the ] ] ... take against people who oppose and criticize the lobby.... ... the constant accusations of antisemitism - when no such sentiment exists - to silence Israel's critics."<ref> | |||
| *{{cite web | |||
| |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFUIZ4FcI | |||
| |title=Video of Speech by Jenny Tonge in Parliament}} | |||
| *{{cite web | |||
| |url=http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/board-attacks-tonge%E2%80%99s-israel-lobby-criticism | |||
| |title=Board attacks Tonge's Israel lobby criticism | |||
| |date=11 July 2008 | |||
| |author=Dana Gloger}} | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Political scientists ] and ] wrote an article critical of the Israel lobby in the United States, in which they asserted that the Israel lobby uses accusations of anti-Semitism as a part of a deliberate strategy to suppress criticism of Israel. Mearsheimer and Walt themselves were accused of anti-Semitism as a result of that article and the book they wrote based on the article.<ref> | |||
| *Harrison, pp 194-195: | |||
| :"… Mearsheimer and Walt were widely accused of anti-Semitism and responded forcefully that, in their opinion, such accusations were baseless and were being leveled purely in order to suppress legitimate criticism of Israel and its supporters…. thesis includes as a subordinate contention the claim that the Israel lobby uses the accusation of anti-Semitism purely as a tool to suppress criticism of Israel. All talk of a 'new anti-Semitism' is asserted to be part of a deliberate strategy: 'Israel's advocates, when pressed to go beyond mere assertion, claim that there is a new anti-Semitism which they equate with criticism of Israel. In other words, criticise Israeli policy, and you are by definition an anti-semite'." | |||
| *Harrison is quoting from Mearsheimer and Walt's 2006 article "The Israel Lobby" published in ''London Review of Books'', vol 28, no. 6, 23 March 2006. | |||
| </ref> | |||
| Peace activist ] claims she has been improperly accused of being anti-Semitic because of her anti-war position, particularly her criticism of the Israel lobby and israel's actions towards Palestinians. Sheehan emphasized that her criticism of Israel is "not to be construed as hatred of all Jews".<ref> | |||
| *Sheehan, Cindy, "The Audacity of Israel", 4 June 2010 | |||
| :"Since my son was killed in Iraq and I have come to prominence in the peace movement, the name I am called with the second highest frequency (behind “anti-American”) is “anti-Semitic.’ First of all, isn’t it interesting if one is anti-violence and pro-peace, that automatically makes one anti-American and anti-Semitic? That just tells us that violence and oppression are so inherently institutionalized in our cultures, that if one is against these things, that makes one against the entire culture, race or way of life. It should be fundamentally understood that criticism of Israel’s program of Palestinian pogrom and the US’s demented foreign policy is not to be construed as hatred of all Jews or all Americans." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ], a professor at ], was accused of being antisemitic due to a class assignment that revolved around Israel's attack on the ] strip, and he replied by stating the the ] labels "any criticism" of Israel as anti-Semitic<ref></ref> In response, Robinson said: "The fact that I did include my interpretation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is totally within what is normal and expected.... One of the most pressing affairs of January was the Israeli assault on ] - there was nothing that could be more relevant to this course at that time. When you bring up delicate, sensitive, inflammatory, controversial material in the classroom, we as professors are carrying out our mission to jar students in order to challenge them to think critically about world issues.... The Israel lobby is possibly the most powerful lobby in the United States, and what they do is label any criticism of anti-Israeli conduct and practices as anti-Semitic" Robinson said. "This campaign is not just an attempt to punish me. The ] is stepping up its vicious attacks on anyone who would speak out against Israeli policies." <ref></ref> | |||
| ===Exaggerating the equation in order to draw sympathy=== | |||
| ] distinguishes between legitimate criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism, but he claims that some "enemies of Israel" encourage the equation of the two, because it makes the enemies appear to be victims of false accusations of anti-Semitism, which the enemies use an attempt to gain sympathy for their cause.<ref> | |||
| Dershowitz: ''The Case Against Israel's Enemies'', pp 3-4: | |||
| :"No one should ever confuse criticism of Israel or of Israeli policies with anti-Semitism. And no one should ever accuse mere critics of Israel with anti-Semitism. If criticism of Israel or Israeli policies constituted anti-Semitism then the highest concentration of anti-Semites would be in Israel, where everybody is a critic… The claim that critics of Israel are branded as anti-Semites is a straw man and a fabrication of Israel's enemies who seek to play the victim card. Yet this big lie persists. Susannah Heschel, a professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth, has charged, 'We often hear that criticism of Israel is equivalent to anti-Semitism'. Michael Lerner, the editor of ''Tikkun'', has made a similar charge. So has ]. More recently, a vocal professor at Harvard, ], has made this accusation…. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times … 'Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitism, and saying so is vile. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction - out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle East - is anti-Semitism, and no saying so is dishonest." | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ==See Also== | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{Refbegin|2}} | |||
| *], "Human Rights, Anti-Semitism, and The Wallenberg Legacy, in ''Nuremberg forty years later: the struggle against injustice in our time (International Human Rights Conference, November 1987 papers and proceedings)'', Irwin Cotler (Editor), McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1995 | |||
| *], ''The tyranny of guilt: an essay on Western masochism'', Princeton University Press, 2010 | |||
| *], ''In search of anti-Semitism'', Continuum, 1992 | |||
| *], ''The new anti-semitism: the current crisis and what we must do about it'', Jossey-Bass, 2003 | |||
| *], ''Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies'', House of Anansi, 2003 | |||
| * {{cite book | |||
| |title=] | |||
| |first=Alexander | |||
| |last=Cockburn | |||
| |year=2003 | |||
| |publisher=AK Press | |||
| |isbn=1902593774 | |||
| |authorlink=Alexander Cockburn | |||
| }} | |||
| * Cohen, Patricia, "Essay Linking Liberal Jews and Anti_Semitism Sparks a Furor", ''The New York Times'', January 31, 2007, | |||
| * Cotler, Irwin, "Human Rights and the new anti-jewishness", in ''Jerusalem Post, Feb 5, 2004 | |||
| *], ''The Case for Israel'', John Wiley and Sons, 2003 | |||
| *], ''The Case Against Israel's Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace'', John Wiley and Sons, 2009 | |||
| *], ''Troubled identity and the modern world'', Macmillan, 2009 | |||
| *''EISCA Report'' - by Igansky, Paul, and Sweiry, Abe, ''Understanding and Addressing the ‘Nazi Card' - Intervening Against Antisemitic Discourse'', published by ] (EISCA), 2009, . | |||
| *], ''Judaism does not equal Israel'', The New Press, 2009 | |||
| *EUMC report - ''Antisemitism - Summary overview of the situation in the European Union 2001-2005 - Working Paper'', Beate Winkler, European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), May 2006, . | |||
| * {{cite book | |||
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| |publisher=University of California Press | |||
| |isbn=0-520-24598-9 | |||
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| }} | |||
| * Forster, Arnold and Epstein, Benjamin, ''The New Anti-Semitism'', ADL, 1974 | |||
| *], '' Never Again?'', HarperCollins, 2004 | |||
| *Harrison, Bernard, ''The resurgence of anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel, and liberal opinion'', Rowman & Littlefield, 2006 | |||
| *Igansky, Paul, and Sweiry, Abe, ''Understanding and Addressing the ‘Nazi Card' - Intervening Against Antisemitic Discourse'', published by ] (EISCA), 2009, . Cited as "EISCA Report" (see above). | |||
| *Igansky, Paul, and Kosmin, Barry (Eds), ''The New Antisemitism?: Debating Judeophobia in 21st-century Britain'', Profile, 2003 | |||
| *], "The Country That Wouldn't Grow Up", int ''Haaretz'', 2 May 2006, . | |||
| *], "The Myth of the New Anti-Semitism", in '']'', posted January 15, 2004 (February 2, 2004 issue), , accessed January 9, 2006. | |||
| *{{cite journal | |||
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| |authorlink=Brian Klug | |||
| |title=Is Europe a lost cause? The European debate on antisemitism and the Middle East conflict | |||
| |journal=] | |||
| |date=March 2005 | |||
| |volume=39 | |||
| |issue=1 | |||
| |pages=46–59 | |||
| |url=http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713722454&db=all | |||
| |accessdate=24 July 2010}} | |||
| *], "Jews attacking Jews" in ''Haaretz'', Sept 12, 2008, | |||
| *] "Should we ban 'Nazi analogies'? Using Nazi analogies to criticise Israel or Zionism may be offensive, but should it be against the law?", in ''Guardian'', 24 July 2009, | |||
| *]. , posted February 5, 2007, accessed February 6, 2007. | |||
| *], ''My Israel question'', Melbourne Univ. Publishing, 2007 | |||
| *Perlmutter, Nathan, ''The Real Anti-Semitism in America'', Arbor House, 1982 | |||
| *Picciotto, Henri, ''On Criticism of Israel and Anti-Semitism'', published by ], date unknown, | |||
| *] ''Speaking the Truth about Zionism and Israel'', Melisende, 2004 | |||
| *], ''Those who forget the past: the question of anti-Semitism'', Random House, Inc., 2004 | |||
| * ]. . ]. 2006. | |||
| *], ''The Return of Anti-Semitism'', Encounter Books, 2004 | |||
| *Sharan, Shlomo, and Bukay, David, ''Crossovers: Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism'', Transaction Publishers, 2010 | |||
| *{{Cite journal | |||
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| |first=Robert S. | |||
| |authorlink = Robert S. Wistrich | |||
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| |journal = Jewish Political Studies Review | |||
| |volume = 16 | |||
| |issue = 3–4 | |||
| |pages= | |||
| |issn = | |||
| |doi = | |||
| |id= | |||
| |url=http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=254&PID=0&IID=1064 | |||
| |accessdate=2007-02-26 | |||
| }} | |||
| *Zipperstein, Steven. "Historical Reflections of Contemporary Antisemitism" in Derek J. Penslar et al., ed., ''Contemporary Antisemitism: Canada and the World'', Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005 | |||
| *] "The New Anti-Semitism", in ''US News and World Report'', 3 November 2003; | |||
| {{Refend}} | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
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