How is antisemitism working right now?

A joint statement by leaders of Alternative Jewish Voices, Justice for Palestine and Dayenu: NZ Jews Against Occupation:

We in Aotearoa have been fortunate to work in a rights-based, antiracist partnership for peace–grounded in justice–and self-determination for Palestine. Along that road, we have spoken often about the content of justice. We believe it is now urgent to speak in more depth about the content of antiracism.

Antisemitism has been politicised and weaponised. We have had to repeat what antisemitism is not. Anti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic. Principled protest against Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, its apartheid and its regional escalation are not inherently anti-Jewish. ‘Israel’ does not equal ‘Jews’. 

We have used a simple guideline for contrast: antisemitism is the hatred of Jews, the Jewish religion or Jewish identity. That is no longer sufficient. Antisemitism stalks the edges of our work together and we need a better understanding. What work is antisemitism seeking to do right now, around and among us?  

What is antisemitism?

Antisemitism is a shape-shifting racism. For centuries, Jews have been the Other within while Muslims were the Other without. We all carry that legacy in our intergenerational memory and in our social structures. It may be unexamined, or it may have impacted some part of our lives—but it is there in our collective histories, latent and available to people who wish to exploit it.

If we shrug and say that antisemitism is eternal and fated, then we are saying that racism is beyond our control. We do better when we understand and confront the fluid, purposive use of racism, and when we hold racists responsible for their actions.

Antisemitism is a means of oppression. It is a dual-use lever wielded with purpose. Its dual uses help to explain its many manifestations.

A recent book, Safety Through Solidarity, uses the analogy of punching up or punching down. Most racial hatreds punch down. They justify the oppression of some group by portraying them as inferior people. Racist speech essentialises and attributes characteristics to the target group, making their inferior status sound natural. That excuses racist actions which hold the group down.

Conversely, conspiracy theories allow antisemites to claim to be punching up when they target Jewish people. They claim to be saving society from mythical Jewish powers. Inevitably, they are misdirecting others in order to advance their own purpose.

That adaptable dynamic explains why antisemitism emerges in forms that suit a wide range of grievances. Adolf Hitler attributed all of his society’s ills to Jews. He crafted antisemitic language to suit his moment, and held up the Jewish community as an all-purpose object to divert, unify, harness and radicalise Germans’ existing, latent dissatisfactions. He used Jewish people to advance his own purpose.

Benjamin Case, in Safety through Solidarity, explains the malleable use of antisemitism:

…to defeat fascism you must understand how they see the world and in many ways it hinges on antisemitism… Fascism requires a concealed ultimate enemy responsible for making the strong weak. It is the ultimate conspiracy theory, which is why a lot of the most popular conspiracy theories have an antisemitic architecture: the secret cabal behind the scenes running the show, bound by some evil, mystical lineage.

Antisemitism is a method that serves a multitude of political or material purposes. Within any movement, it breaks the unity of those who would resist or oppose that particular purpose. At the moment, it seeks to break the unity of those who protest for our equal human and political rights.

That underlying explanation leads to a working principle of antiracism: 

People who exploit or oppress 

do so for reasons unrelated to their religion or ethnicity. 

Individuals act badly because they seek wealth or power or the protection of their status. A soldier commits an atrocity because they are empowered and hateful. Individuals do not commit crimes because harmful motives are an essential characteristic of their ethnic group. That principle directs us to identify and respond to each actor’s actual motivation. We harm each other, and we miss the chance to respond effectively, if we have been misdirected by racist explanations.

How does antisemitism manifest now?

Classic antisemitism speaks in tropes, conspiracies, or shameless hatred. Often it is expressed by attributing global or disproportionate power to Jews, who are then blamed for one’s grievances or unsatisfactory place in a hierarchy. Jewish people are portrayed as being essentially evil or dangerous.

At the moment, we see these conspiracist inclinations in new forms: Israel’s government or military does X because Jews are Y. Racialised motives replace the secular motives of politicians and armed actors. That kind of statement reduces Jewish people to fictitious negative attributes, and blames all Jewish people for the indefensible, criminal actions of some. That is antisemitic. Look for it on social media, where it is common. The understandable rage against the actions of Israel’s government and military is leading to the language of a more generalised anti-Jewish rage.

Good Jew / bad Jew: This speech embraces some Jewish people as ‘proof’ that the speaker is not antisemitic, then goes on to essentialise and attribute evil to all the others. Having approved of a few, the speaker feels free to condemn the rest in racial terms.

As anti-Zionist Jews, we are a political minority in our own community. We hear some people make us their approved exception. They go on, not to disagree with the others, but to characterise and denigrate them en masse. Similar, categorical speech is also used by Zionist Jews and Christians to vilify the Jews with whom they disagree. 

To avoid antisemitism, speak to the choices, ideologies, or actions of any people rather than essentialising them as a racial category. We are not good and bad racial groups. Just as we have become attuned to the racist implications of blurring ‘Palestinian’ into ‘Hamas’ and then into ‘terrorists’; we need to hear the distinction between profound disagreement and racialised characteristics of any group.

Antisemitism and Israel: Israel’s advocates refer eagerly to ‘the Jewish state’. The Israeli government uses the same language. Legislation openly allocates rights by ethnicity, including the 2018 Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People. That is part of apartheid. The government of Israel is wrong (and they have no mandate) to appropriate Jewish identity for their settler-colonial project. 

In the name of upholding Palestinian rights, it’s easy to respond in similar terms. Often it happens in shorthand: Netanyahu’s criminal guilt is called ‘Israel’ while Israel, its soldiers and its settlers become stand-ins for all Jews. No amount of anger makes those racialised generalisations true. Criminal guilt is individual.

The actions of a cabinet minister or a settler are wrong because they enact violent, sometimes genocidal intentions. Their wrongs are not related to identity. Their horrible acts would be wrong for anyone to do to anyone. 

We recognise the care that is needed when Israel’s advocates use misdirecting language. We ask our communities to recognise the harm of adopting their shorthand.

Why is this important?

Antisemitism is purposefully, energetically being normalised by hardcore antisemites and disinformation actors. They see the genocidal violence of the IDF as an opportunity. Some rights-based activists have simply given up, feeling that antisemitism has been politicised beyond comprehension. That lets racism in.

It’s a big ask to pay attention to this while the government of Israel is allowed to starve two million civilians, while settlers draped in the symbols of the Jewish religion are allowed to terrorise and displace Palestinian families without consequences. 

Remember that hate misdirects action. It is not merely good, it is also smart to take the time to distinguish criminal individuals from Jewishness. Poor analysis leads to wrong-headed protest, leaving the real structures of nationalism, militarism, colonialism and racism untouched.

Take an example from BDS. If antisemitism lures a person to think that all Jewish-owned companies are to blame, they will boycott businesses which have absolutely no impact on the financial flows that support Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, or its military industries. Effective BDS is specific and evidence-based.

Antiracism in solidarity 
Pointers:

We believe that antiracism is a fundamental principle at the core of organising for Palestinian human rights. For the most part, we focus our energy on opposing racism in all its forms. We know how colonisation, fascism and white supremacy capitalise on division, fear of the Other and scapegoating. However, we also need to be aware that racism against different groups has always had its unique characteristics. We believe the following questions are important to consider in relation to antisemitism:

–   How can we ensure evidence (not race or ethnicity) determines our targeting and campaigns?

The BDS movement has always had clear guidance around targeted campaigning and boycotts. These guidelines ensure that we accurately target structures and services, not individuals. Unfortunately, we have no shortage of evidence of human rights abuses to ground our choices. We use evidence of complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide, not assumptions, to determine our campaign targets.

–   If words have power, how do we use them to promote antiracism?

Notwithstanding the desire for stronger and stronger language to reflect the escalating horrors we see, we have factual language to describe these horrors. Illegal and genocidal are words used by the ICJ; terms like subhuman are redolent of racism. It’s worth considering how fascists and war criminals often used, and still do, frameworks which divide people into good vs evil along racial lines. Eg in Netanyahu’s words, “We are the children of light, they are the children of darkness.” These frameworks are fascistic.

–   How do we address Israeli impunity without falling into antisemitic conspiracy?

Some generalisations attribute unlikely power or capacity to the Jewish community or to Israel. This feeds conspiracy and incorrect analysis of the role of US empire and its geopolitical interest in the Middle East. It also leads us to misunderstand the real power we have to change these systems. Conspiracy theories disempower and divide us. Our job is to promote an understanding of the very real power structures at play. Informed analysis leads to an informed strategic response.

How do we get it right if we feel unsure?
When it all feels too complicated, remember that it is never antisemitic to speak to the rights, the aspirations and the full humanity of Palestinians. Speech that upholds human rights is not anti-anyone. Affirming what we stand for, rather than just defining ourselves by our opposition is critical to our strategy. 

We embrace the antiracist principle that Palestinians are not defined by that which is done to them, their whānau and their homeland. By the same antiracist principle, Jewish people are not defined by the actions of Israel.

Great sources for reading in depth:

Historical analysis of the emergence of modern antisemitism: Critical Theories of Anti-Semitism, by Jonathan Judaken

Antisemitism within antiracist activism: Safety Through Solidarity

See also PARCEO for excellent curriculum resources on liberatory antiracism

BDS guidelines

—

Fred Albert and Marilyn Garson, Alternative Jewish Voices

Nadia Abu-Shanab, Kate Stone and Samira Zaitoun, Justice for Palestine

Justine Sachs and Avigail Allan, Dayenu