Not Anti-Black, Anti-Africa – A Guide to the Anti-Semitism/Anti-Zionism Debate

In the post-war era, Zionism is an ideology that has dominated the political landscape. Movements on the radical Left and radical Right have come to be defined by either their support or opposition to this cause, whilst what can only be described as zealously enthusiastic Zionism has become government policy for most European states. It’s also led to much contention. {Zionism: Early Nationalism to Modern Expansionism}

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In the beginning, what European Jews termed Zionism literally referred to returning to Zion, which can be defined as present day Jerusalem or the entire area of the State of Israel. Up until the post-war period, Jews were a stateless diaspora who resided predominantly in Europe and Russia, and throughout the 19^th century the desire for a nation state of their own gathered momentum as a reaction to real or perceived antisemitism. {Zionism: Early Nationalism to Modern Expansionism}

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To remember:

crisis over anti-Semitism in Labour party continues =>people quite unable to understand how what is claimed to be anti-Zionism + not anti-Semitism can be and often is a form of anti-Semitism.

Jenny Tonge, a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, said at a fringe meeting of her party’s conference:

The pro-Israeli Lobby has got its grips on the Western World, its financial grips. I think they’ve probably got a certain grip on our party (Hirsh 2006).

This seems to be an antisemitic claim because it articulates a mindset in which a Jewish conspiracy controls the western world through its financial muscle.  It is not a claim about influence or lobbying, but

about singular and global financial control. {The Livingstone Formulation – David Hirsh}

David Ward, Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, took the opportunity of Holocaust Memorial Day to announce that he was saddened that

the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians… (Quinn 2013).

Lesley Klaff (2014) characterises this mode of comparison as ‘Holocaust Inversion’:

inversion of reality (the Israelis are cast as the ‘new’ Nazis and the Palestinians as the ‘new’ Jews), and an inversion of morality (the Holocaust is presented as a moral lesson for, or even a moral indictment of ‘the Jews’)…

David Ward responded in the Guardian to criticism of his remarks in terms strikingly similar to those of Jenny Tonge:

There is a huge operation out there, a machine almost, which is designed to protect the State of Israel from criticism. And that comes into play very, very quickly and focuses intensely on anyone who’s seen to criticise the State of Israel. And so I end up looking at what happened to me, whether I should use this word, whether I should use that word – and that is winning for them (Edemariam 2013). {The Livingstone Formulation – David Hirsh}

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1. if we were to apply the ‘anti-Zionist, not an anti-Semite’ logic to a different minority group, the Black community for example.
2. when hearing anti-Semitic or ‘anti-Zionist’ remarks + how others react to them is to ask myself = “what if this remark or something similar were said about Blacks or Muslims or any other group?”
3. types of anti-Zionists insist not anti-Semitic > just opposed to Israel + Zionism + those who support this supposed ‘evil’ state.
4. just against Israel sucking life out of + taking advantage of us through appeals like Comic Relief (the Israel Lobby), to dupe Britain every year through powerful + carefully constructed propaganda, exploiting so called ‘European post-colonial’ guilt (the Holocaust) into giving our hard earned money to helping barbarians (Fascist Israelis), = a scam.
5. Zionists tentacles all over the world, who are more loyal to each other than they are to the countries they live in.
6. many people who conflate their being Jewish with Israel = they are not the same thing, one can fully renounce Israel + still be proud to be Jewish

Israel is central to the identity of the overwhelming majority of Jews not just in Britain, but all over the world. The reason is because it is central to Judaism. This doesn’t mean that all Jews agree with everything that the Israeli government does. But even if a Jew or non-Jew does agree with an Israeli government policy which is unpopular abroad, this doesn’t make it legitimate to unleash hatred against them.

British Jews have other connections to Israel beyond religious reasons > family members who live there + To some = their homeland + to others = a home away from home. > strong connections to the culture of these countries and to family and friends who live there.

• anti-Zionist assumes = being Jewish = just a faith, rather than an ethnicity, =>  doesn’t need to have any connection to a particular land or people =>one should be able to completely divorce Israel from their Jewish identity.
• anti-Zionist mimics earlier version of anti-Semitism through the notion of a good Jew and a bad Jew.
• anti-Zionists similarly expect Jews to abandon beliefs that majority of them hold, which are central to their identity.> conflict between Jews + ancient Greece = similar.
• Jewish festival of Chanukah = victory against an effort which began with a Greek Hellenization of Judaism which became an internal struggle between Hellenized and non-Hellenized Jews, with the latter reigning victorious.
• anti-Zionist Jewdas + other fringe Jewish groups = Hellenists of our time.
• without state of Israel > Jews = be defenceless in world hostile to them => free reign to oppress Jews
• state of Israel stands in the way <= allows Jews dignity + strength to stand up for themselves.

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Related

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3. France struggles to define antisemitism and anti-zionism
4. Jon Lansman, Tony Greenstein, Ann Black and Christine Shawcroft.
5. BBC News ‘explanation’ of antisemitism promotes the Livingstone Formulation
6. Ken Livingstone resigns from Labour, letting Corbyn off the hook
7. Abbas’s Speech and the Window into Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism
8. Campaigning Against Antisemitism – or not …
9. Zionism: Early Nationalism to Modern Expansionism
10. Guardian op-ed challenges the ‘rigid’ Yom Ha’atzmaut ‘orthdoxy’ that Israel should exist
11. Another example of fake ‘anti-Semitism’ in the Labour Party
12. Greek Communist Party calls Israel a “state-killer”
13. Some Insights on the upcoming Israeli Independence Day
14. When Hate Returns
15. Are Jews owners or occupiers of Israel?
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17. Zionism is antiSemitic
18. Playing with Dates
19. Jewdas according to Jewdas
20. Is it time for UK Jews to pack the bags?
21. Jeremy Corbyn fuels the antisemitism fire by Jew-baiting
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24. I Don’t Hate Jews, I’m Just anti-Zioni…..Aww Screw It. Go Farrakhan!
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