Anti-Semitism
The Misuse of Anti-Semitism - Making accusations in order to deflect legitimate criticism of Israel
Presented at CEIA-SC's May 20, 2007 educational forum
"Israel, Zionism and Apartheid: The Case for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions"
By Paul Hershfield, CEIA-SC member
I was raised in a middle-class Jewish home in the San Fernando Valley, and while born a Jew, I hope, as my partner Yael says, to die a human being. So, much to the chagrin and suffering of my parents, I do not define myself as Jewish. This sets me up to be branded by the Zionists as a “self-hating-Jew,” whatever that is. I suppose it’s like “auto-anti-Semitism.” Of course this epithet is meant to demolish my credibility as a person who can legitimately criticize Israel, leading inevitably to the preposterous idea that the only people qualified to do so are pro-Zionist Jews. Everyone has the right to criticize Israel, and doing so is not, in-and-of-itself, anti-Semitism.
The problem is that the definition of anti-Semitism has become whatever Zionists want it to be at any given moment, to fit their political agenda, which usually comes down to simply shutting up the opposition. Narrowly speaking, anti-Semitism is simply a hatred of Jews because they are Jews. How “any criticism of Israel” gets conflated with this is beyond me. Zionists and the apologists for Israel simply pick a meaning to suit their agenda: calling for the right of return which, if implemented would tip the all-critical demographic balance away from a Jewish majority, would mean the end of Israel’s identification as a Jewish state. Therefore, calling for the right of return becomes “calling for Israel’s destruction.”
This is not to say that anti-Semitism doesn’t exist, nor to deny that some critics of Israel are, in fact, anti-Semites. However, we each know our own hearts and minds better than anyone else, and we each know our own motivations. If we are motivated by the desire for justice, we need not spend precious energy defending ourselves against spurious charges of anti-Semitism, trying to convince those who would silence us at all costs that we are not what they claim. It is not racist to oppose a racist ideology.
What if someone who truly is an anti-Semite speaks out against Israel’s treatment of it’s Palestinian Arab citizens or of those living in the West Bank and Gaza? We should oppose bigotry and racism of every type. However, their anti-Semitism, how ever ugly it may be, doesn’t change the facts of Israel’s behavior and policies. What is the ignorance of a bigot when compared with Israel’s campaign of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and of discriminatory laws within Israel itself? Where is a sense of perspective?
Judaism, regardless of the politically convenient, pliable definition of Jewish identity (a race? a culture? a religion? a nation?) is first and foremost a religion. Zionism, on the other hand, is, and has always been a exclusivist, nationalist enterprise. While Israel Shahak has shown how aspects of Zionism are direct extensions of Halakhic law, the legal system of classic Judaism, it does not equate the two. It seems to me that nationalist Zionism has replaced religious Judaism as the common locus of identity for Jews. Given this equation is it possible that Israel’s actions may actually contribute to anti-Semitism? Since Zionists claim to speak for all Jews is it any wonder that some folks would fail to differentiate between religious Judaism and nationalist Zionism? between Jews and Israeli policy?
Perhaps we should actually welcome the accusations, for it seems to me that whenever the actions and policies of Israel draw attention, and criticism (however tepid it may be) finds its way into the mainstream, charges of anti-Semitism abound. Or as Alexander Cockburn writes: “…there’s a quick way of figuring out how badly Israel is behaving. You see a brisk uptick in the number of articles accusing the left of anti-Semitism.” When nothing can be used to justify the brutality, oppression and dispossession, they just change the subject. Don’t let them.