We still need to speak up on ‘mainstream’ antisemitism [View all]

[King_David]

By Michael Dugher, February 7, 2013
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In 2006, the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism warned that antisemitism was creeping into the mainstream with traditional antisemitic themes - dressed up as "anti-Zionism" - mounting a comeback. Sadly, this has not abated over the past few years.

Only two weeks ago, we saw the Sunday Times publish a cartoon that appeared to show Benjamin Netanyahu revelling in the blood of Palestinians. The image, reminiscent of antisemitic blood libels, clearly crossed a line and the newspaper rightly apologised.

Of course, criticism of Israel's policies is legitimate. Israel is a lively democracy. Unsurprisingly many of the voices who are the most critical of the Israeli government are Israelis themselves. Like many good friends of Israel, I have been frustrated by the lack of progress in recent years toward peace. But part of the problem is that the ongoing hostilities have resulted in moderate friends of both the Israelis and Palestinians becoming more subdued and marginalised.

This has provided space for harder-line voices to appear more mainstream. And, at worst, this has allowed some utterly distorted views of Israel to function as an alibi for antisemitism. Some antisemites seem to have embraced "anti-Zionism" as a cover to protect their fundamentally racist views. Together with old-fashioned prejudice, more and more we are seeing a rebranding of antisemitism as anti-Zionism.

A particularly depressing example has been the assault on Holocaust commemoration. Incredibly, Holocaust Memorial Day has come under attack in recent years as a Zionist plot to protect Israel from criticism. This year, activist Lee Jasper used HMD to mount an attack on Israel. He said: "Israel has failed to learn the lessons of its own tragic history having evolved into a racist oppressor."


http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/102246/we-still-need-speak-mainstream%E2%80%99-antisemitism