For millennia, societies could enthusiastically embrace Jew-hatred openly and unapologetically.
Nearly two thousand years ago, after the Roman Empire destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and murdering and exiling countless Jews from what was then called Judea (modern-day Israel), the empire then added insult to injury, introducing the Fiscus Judaicus, or Jewish tax, imposed on Jews throughout the empire.
In the seventh century, under the Visigothic rulers of Spain, Jews faced laws which required them to convert to Christianity or face expulsion. Seven hundred years later, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain issued the Alhambra Decree, which ordered all Jews to leave Spain or convert.
These overt anti-Jewish laws were a staple of Jewish life under both Christian and Islamic rulers for centuries, and long before that, under the Roman and Greek Empires.
In some societies, Jews were communists. In other societies, Jews were shameless capitalists. In some societies, Jews were persecuted for their religious beliefs, while in others, it was for their alleged faithlessness.
Anti-Jewish persecution came to a head under Nazi Germany, which instituted the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which stripped Jews of German citizenship, and carried out widespread persecution which eventually led to the horrors of the Holocaust, where six million Jews across Europe were hunted down and murdered.
Since the end of the Holocaust, at least in polite society, it was no longer fashionable to be a Jew-hater in public, at least in the Western world. But those seeking to peddle anti-Jewish rhetoric have done what their predecessors have done before them: improvised.
Today, anti-Jewish rhetoric and actions have morphed once again, pivoting towards demonizing and delegitimizing Israel, the Jewish State.
While it goes without saying that Israel, as any country, is subject to criticism, much of the assaults on Israel are a clear attack on Jews, thinly veiled.
Israel as a whole (not just its government) is derided and demonized as a Nazi state that is illegitimate, its very right to exist is denied, and spreaders of hate call for the country to be violently destroyed, a veritable call for genocide.
Such venom is hardly limited to Israel itself. Peddlers of hate roam through Jewish neighbourhoods, calling them “Zionist-infested” areas, targeting Jewish-affiliated hospitals, places of worship, and elsewhere, always hiding behind their claims of being “anti-Zionist,” not anti-Jewish, though any reasonable observer would recognize the reality without much difficulty.
Zionism, far from being the boogyman that anti-Israel activists claim, refers to the Jewish People’s national movement of self-determination in their historic homeland, nothing more and nothing less. It is not a political worldview, nor a religious one. Anyone who believes that the Jews have a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland can reasonably be called a Zionist.
Consequently, anyone who denies the Jewish People’s right to dictate their own future in their own historic lands is not simply making a criticism about Israeli government policy, but is denying the Jews the right to decide their own future, in their own land.
So where does one draw the line between legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies, and anti-Jewish rhetoric? Noted human rights activist Natan Sharansky famously identified the 3 D’s: demonization, double standards, and delegitimization:
- Demonization: When Israel’s entire structure, not just its current leadership, is derided in Nazi-like images and rhetoric, totally beyond any redemption or salvation.
- Double standards: When Israel is held to an entirely different standard that any other country.
- Delegitimization: When Israel has no right to exist whatsoever, and the not-so-subtle subtext being that it therefore must be undone, likely through violence.
The undeniable reality is that today, even with the upsurge in anti-Jewish incidents seen since October 7, explicit anti-Jewish hate remains largely rejected by society. But, as resourceful as ever, anti-Jewish bigots recognize that by cloaking their hate under the veneer of “anti-Zionism,” they are able to say everything they want to, and when the news media tolerates such attempts, they effectively legitimize them.
As a result, news media outlets must shine a critical light on those claiming to be merely “anti-Zionists,” and recognize that anti-Zionism is not a political position, but is simply the New Antisemitism.
