A Persistent Prejudice

Jeremy Havardi

Description

Antisemitism in the twenty-first century remains a major threat to Jewish communities around the world, and a potent challenge to the liberal international order. But it can so often be a more hidden form of racism, relying on codes, images, cues, and ciphers embedded in the cultural mythology of prejudice against Jews. It is about the invocation of the blood libel, attacks on so-called “cosmopolitans,” accusations of “dual loyalty,” the conspiratorial notions of a malign “Jewish lobby.” It is also a highly protean prejudice, ever adaptable to a multitude of changes in political and social circumstances, always ready to mutate and shape-shift to fit a new environment. That is why it has so easily become a feature of the modern anti-Israel movement. This short volume will explore how anti-Israelism has reproduced many of the canards, tropes, and ciphers of historic Jew-hatred and regurgitated them as attacks on Zionism and Israel. The adverse treatment of Jews within Gentile societies has also been replicated in an endless array of double standards against Israel in the international community. Today, the “Jewish question” has been replaced by the “Israel question,” with a similarly obsessive and ritualistic form of demonization and delegitimization. Anyone concerned about the future of liberal democracy should take note.

Sujets

• History
• Antisemitism
• Identity politics
• Cultural history
• Social Science
• Jewish Studies
• Political Science
• International Relations

Informations

• Publié par: Academica Press
• Date de parution: 25 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781680537819
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A Persistent Prejudice:
How Antisemitic Tropes and Double
Standards Infect the Anti-Israel Movement
Jeremy Havardi
Academica Press
Washington∼London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Havardi, Jeremy (author)
Title: A Persistent Prejudice:How Antisemitic Tropes and Double Standards Infect the Anti-Israel Movement | Havardi, Jeremy.
Description: Washington : Academica Press, 2022. | Includes references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022935215 | ISBN 9781680537802 (hardcover) | 9781680537826 (paperback) | 9781680537819 (e-book)
Copyright 2022 Jeremy Havardi
‘There exists a subterranean world where pathological fantasies disguised as ideas are churned out by crooks and half-educated fanatics for the benefit of the ignorant and superstitious.’
– Norman Cohn
Contents Preface Introduction Antisemitism in the world today Chapter One Defining antisemitism – and antisemitism denial Chapter Two Antisemitism: the tropes of the world’s oldest hatred The Jew As God Killer The Jew As Devil And Beast Ritual Murder Dual Loyalty Trope The ‘Vengeful Chosen People’ Trope The Jew As Avaricious The Jew As Racial Parasite The World Jewish Conspiracy The Jew as a mendacious threat to Islam Chapter Three Antisemitism as outcome: inequality and adverse treatment 1. Denial of right to life 2. Denial of religious liberty 3. Where Jews could live 4. Restrictions on Jews’ physical or external appearance 5. Restrictions on type of employment 6. Unequal in court 7. Financial double standards 8. Restrictive quotas on admission to universities Chapter Four Turning Israel into the devil among nations 1. Israel as a Christ killing state 2. Israel as a demoniacal state and racial threat 3. Chosenness, vengefulness and a belief in racial superiority 4. Avaricious Jewish state 5. The blood libel 6. The all controlling Zionist lobby 7. Dual loyalty 8. Islamic tropes of anti-Israel hatred Chapter Five Double standards in treatment of Israel and/or Israel supporters Opposing Israel’s existence, opposing Zionism Boycotting Israel: the case of BDS UN bias against Israel 1. Denial of membership 2. Attack on Jewish self-determination 3. UN targets Israel with disproportionate criticism 4. Single agenda items focus just on Israel 5. The UN has attacked the very basis of Jewish history and heritage at UNESCO. 6. The UN gives unique and unprecedented succour to Israel’s enemies 7. The UN has shown tolerance for antisemitism Conclusion So, what might a non-antisemitic critique of Israel look like? Works Cited Index
Preface
Growing up in the tolerant atmosphere of modern Britain, I experienced very little antisemitism, either overt or otherwise. It was a life in which being a Jew and expressing a Jewish identity generally carried few risks, even on those occasions where prejudice did rear its ugly head. Extremists from both the far left and the far right were fringe forces of little consequence who posed only a marginal threat to the country’s wellbeing. There was scarcely any feeling that the liberal, democratic order that had sustained Jews for centuries was about to be undermined.
That said, I do remember a number of slights and comments that seemed to be quite clearly antisemitic. One classics teacher, noting the level of Jewish resistance under the Romans, made a comment that ‘the Jews were always revolting.’ At best, he was oblivious to the double meaning, at worst he intended a wounding insult for comic effect. Some classmates made jokes about the Nazi Holocaust while others found the kippah (the Jewish skullcap) an object of ridicule. Later in the sixth form, one Muslim student from Saudi Arabia asked me if Israel should even exist, a reflection of the hateful anti-Zionism that was (and remains) deeply embedded in Saudi society.
During university studies, I found myself in conversation with a Welsh businessman who duly informed me that it was impossible to get a potential client, one ‘Mr Goldstein,’ to buy his product on account of the fact that the customer was Jewish. When there was an outpouring of grief among Anglo Jewry following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, one of my earliest employers questioned me politely about the extent of this ‘misplaced loyalty’ among my co-religionists. The trope of divided loyalty has long been a staple of British antisemitism. I have often been asked if I am ‘British or Jewish,’ a question that one might charitably put down more to ignorance than hostility.
In another job, a co-worker, having expressed his contempt for modern authoritarian politics, promptly informed me of his admiration for Hitler, his indifference to the Holocaust and his boundless admiration for the medical ‘achievements’ of Joseph Goebbels. This gave one of my earliest realizations that antisemitism was both historically illiterate and wholly illogical. While teaching, I overheard a remark that Jewish students were always ‘trouble’ and that their relative absence from the school was no bad thing.
While I sat on the train in London on FA Cup Final day in 2006, I listened to a group of drunken Chelsea fans amuse themselves with songs that abused the memory of Jews at Belsen, reflecting their hatred of Spurs, a club with a sizeable Jewish following. I also heard rival fans of Spurs hiss at matches, in an attempt to simulate the sound of the gas chambers, and offer abusive references to Jews that would not be out of place in a neo-Nazi gathering. Undoubtedly, this reflected the pathological venom felt by football fans towards their arch rivals as well as old fashioned antisemitism. Even a well-educated, deeply philosemitic friend once told me that Jews such as me ‘didn’t gamble,’ a comment both factually inaccurate and one saturated in stereotype. I have experienced online abuse too, such as a Facebook comment suggesting that, as a Jew, I must have a large nose and an even larger gas bill. The online world can be a truly nasty one.
None of these experiences were particularly scarring or frightening. They cannot be compared to the horrific experience of many Jews on the continent or in the Middle East, a place where being a victim of antisemitism can literally be a death sentence. But they do show the extent to which negative views of Jews remain embedded in the cultural landscape, ready to erupt at a moment’s notice in a variety of circumstances.
Barnet Litvinoff, in his magisterial survey of antisemitism The Burning Bush, said that there were times in history when Jews had been known to ‘discover antisemitism where probably none was intended.’ 1 Of course, some Jews can perceive a racist slight where none was intended, as indeed can members of all minorities. The accusation of racism is a serious one but it doesn’t always mean that the accused are guilty. On the one hand, it is essential to listen to the stories of marginalized minority groups, both because their voices have so often been drowned out by the louder and frequently more bigoted voices of dominant groups but also because they teach us about the effects of racism on a community. But on the other, perceptions of racism can be flawed, involving the imputation of prejudice to others which is unwarranted by the facts. The prejudices of dominant groups, whether felt consciously or not, are merely one of several factors to explain the structural problem of why certain minority groups fail to make headway in society.
In the case of antisemitism, a more objective approach is needed, one which understands the legacy of racism through the stereotypes, tropes and motifs it has cemented and the ways in which these have been reproduced, wilfully or otherwise, in the narratives and iconography of the anti-Israel movement. The book identifies the key tropes of antisemitism from the last two millennia, explaining in detail how they developed and how they have shaped perceptions of Jews through the ages. It is my contention that all these tropes, motifs and canards of antisemitism have saturated the discourse and actions of the anti-Israel movement today, both in the west and especially in the Middle East. In addition, antisemitism has historically involved Jewish communities being subjected to adverse treatment and double standards within society. Again, this book shows how the modern-day nation state of the Jews, together with its supporters, has been subjected to similarly frightening levels of adverse treatment by its detractors.
I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of people. Over many years, I have taken part in panel events, attended conferences and listened to prominent historians, scholars and public policy figures on the subject of antisemitism, anti-Israel hatred and human rights. They include Lord John Mann, Dave Rich of the UK based Community Security Trust, David Hirsh, Dore Gold, Israel’s former Ambassador to the UN, Dan Mariaschin, B’nai B’rith international CEO, David Matas, senior legal counsel for B’nai B’rith Canada, historian Richard Landes, Manfred Gerstenfeld, Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, the lawyer Anthony Julius, Professor Yehuda Bauer, doyen of Holocaust scholars, the famed historian of modernity Sir Martin Gilbert and many others. I have also enjoyed a long conversation with Niklas Frank, son of the notorious war criminal Hans Frank, and veteran of anti-racism efforts. I have benefited from detailed feedback given by Alan Johnson, senior researcher at BICOM, Professor Brad Blitz, Professor of International Politics and Policy at University College London, Rashad Ali from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue and a number of other academics. Their advice has been invaluable but any mistakes are solely the author’s responsibility. I would like to lastly thank my wife Ilana for her forbearance while I have worked hard to finish this script.

1 Barnet Litvinoff, The Burning Bush (London: Collins, 1988), 10.
Introduction
Antisemitism in the world today
More than seventy-five years after the liberation of the death camps,