Why anti-Zionism is antisemitism
The indivisible relationship explains much, but few, alas, acknowledge it
Anti-Israel demonstration, London, 2019
A few days ago Mia Werner, a Jewish student at the University of Portland, Oregon, described being the victim of an antisemitic incident on her Middle East politics course. You can read her account here.
The incident occurred when her professor brought in an Iranian dissident as a visiting speaker. Werner writes:
When he spoke to us, what ensued was three long hours of egregious prejudice. He espoused support for recognised terrorist groups, like Hamas and the Houthis. He called all American soldiers cowards. He went on a long-winded tirade about how Iran could and should blow Israel off the face of the earth. Then he explained how no one in that region was antisemitic. He looked me in the eye and told me that I could go anywhere I wanted to in the Middle East and I wouldn’t be murdered for being a woman nor for being Jewish (lucky me). They would only kill me if I said I supported the existence of Israel, if I admitted to being a Zionist.
Throughout the entire three hours, my professor never said a word. She sat a few chairs down from me, silently watching as this man spewed absurd and harmful erasure of the persecution of the Jewish people.
The indivisible relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism is little understood, even among those who have a reasonably benign view of Israel.
Last year, I took part in an Intelligence Squared debate in London in which I proposed the motion “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism”. My seconder was the Israeli former member of Knesset, Einat Wilf, and we were opposed by the expatriate Israeli anti-Zionist, Ilan Pappé, and the journalist, Mehdi Hasan.
Few properly understood why Einat and I took part in this debate. We most certainly didn’t expect to win it; the vote taken at the beginning confirmed our expectations that much of the audience was profoundly hostile to Israel, and past experience told us that by and large this wouldn’t shift.
But our intended audience was not in the hall that evening. We took part instead for one reason only. This was to place on public record factual evidence and an argument which few would ever hear, given the general refusal of the media and cultural establishment to provide a platform where this could be aired. This was one very rare such opportunity, and so that is why we took it — and walked, as fully anticipated, straight into the guns.
You can watch the video of the whole event below, and you can find a text of my presentation here.
Recent posts
Premium subscribers can read my latest exclusive post, on why Prince William’s sinking feeling about East Anglia has a more complex explanation that he seems to realise, by clicking here.
And you can read my previous post for everyone, on how Holocaust education can actually deepen hatred and ignorance, if you click here.
One more thing…
This is how my website works.
It has two subscription levels: my free service and the premium service.
Anyone can sign up to the free service on this website. You can of course unsubscribe at any time by clicking “unsubscribe” at the foot of each email.
Everyone on the free list will receive the full text of pieces I write for outlets such as the Jewish News Syndicate and the Jewish Chronicle, as well as other posts and links to my broadcasting work.
But why not subscribe to my premium service? For that you’ll also receive pieces that I write specially for my premium subscribers. Those articles will not be published elsewhere. They’ll arrive in your inbox as soon as I have written them.
There is a monthly fee of $6.99 for the premium service, or $70 for an annual subscription. Although the fee is charged in US dollars, you can sign up with any credit card. Just click on the “subscribe now” button below to see the available options for subscribing either to the premium or the free service.
A note on subscriptions
If you purchase a subscription to my site, you will be authorising a payment to my company Dirah Associates. In the past, that is the name that may have appeared on your credit card statement. In future, though, the charge should appear instead as Melanie Phillips.
And thank you for following my work.