Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism

Description

How and why have anti-Zionism and antisemitism become so radical and widespread? This timely and important volume argues convincingly that today's inflamed rhetoric exceeds the boundaries of legitimate criticism of the policies and actions of the state of Israel and conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. The contributors give the dynamics of this process full theoretical, political, legal, and educational treatment and demonstrate how these forces operate in formal and informal political spheres as well as domestic and transnational spaces. They offer significant historical and global perspectives of the problem, including how Holocaust memory and meaning have been reconfigured and how a singular and distinct project of delegitimization of the Jewish state and its people has solidified. This intensive but extraordinarily rich contribution to the study of antisemitism stands out for its comprehensive overview of an issue that is very much in the public eye.

Introduction / Alvin Rosenfeld

I. Ideological and Theoretical Sources and Implications

1. The New Replacement Theory: Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, and the Denial of History / James Wald

2. From Wilhelm Marr to Mavi Marmara: Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism as Forms of Anti-Jewish Action / Thorsten Fuchshuber

3. Social Criticism and the "Jewish Problem" / Balázs Berkovits

4. New Challenges in Feminism: Intersectionality, Critical Theory and Anti-Zionism / Karin Stöegner

II. University, Legal, and Historical Frameworks

5. The Role of International Legal and Justice Discourse in Promoting the New Antisemitism / Gerald M. Steinberg and Anne Herzberg

6. Leaving the Post-Holocaust Period: The Effects of Anti-Israel Attitudes on Perceptions of the Holocaust / Catherine D. Chatterley

7. Antisemitism in the Guise of Anti-Nazism: Holocaust Inversion in the UK during Operation Protective Edge / Alan Johnson

8. Fraser v. UCU: Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, and Racializing Discourse / Lesley Klaff

9. Conspiracy Pedagogy on Campus: BDS Advocacy, Antisemitism, and Academic Freedom / Cary Nelson

III. Israeli Voices

10. "There Was No Uncorrupt Israel": The Role of Israelis in Delegitimizing Jewish Collective Existence / Gil Ribak

11. The Appropriation of the Israeli "New Historians" Work by Anti-Zionists / Ilan Greilsammer

12. Christian BDS: An Act of Love? / Giovanni Matteo Quer

IV. National Contexts

13. Configurations of Antisemitism: The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland 1968 / Simon Gansinger

14. Germany's Changing Discourse on Jews and Israel / Marc Grimm

15. The Roots of Anti-Zionism in South Africa and the Delegitimization of Israel / Milton Shain

16. From Donetsk to Tel Aviv: Czech Antisemitic Movements Respond to The Russian-Ukrainian War / Zbyněk Tarant

17. Muslim Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in South Asia: A Case Study of Lucknow / Navras Jaat Aafreedi

Index

Sujets

• Religión
• Israelí
• Hate
• Judaísmo
• Anti-Zionism
• Israel
• Jewish studies
• Anti-fascism
• Holocaust denial
• Religious intolerance
• Discourse
• Social sciences
• Rhetoric
• Judaism
• Israeli
• Human rights
• Judaïsme

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 09 janvier 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780253038746
• Langue: English

Extrait

ANTI-ZIONISM AND
ANTISEMITISM
STUDIES IN ANTISEMITISM
Alvin H. Rosenfeld, editor
ANTI-ZIONISM AND
ANTISEMITISM
The Dynamics of Delegitimization

EDITED BY
ALVIN H. ROSENFELD
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2019 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-253-03869-2 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-253-04002-2 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-253-03872-2 (ebook)
1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19
This book is dedicated to the memory of
Erna Rosenfeld
(1939-2016),
whose love and support made possible
virtually everything I have done over the years.
Contents

Introduction / Alvin H. Rosenfeld
PART I . Ideological and Theoretical Sources and Implications

1. The New Replacement Theory: Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, and the Denial of History / James Wald

2. From Wilhelm Marr to Mavi Marmara : Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism as Forms of Anti-Jewish Action / Thorsten Fuchshuber

3. Social Criticism and the Jewish Problem / Bal zs Berkovits

4. New Challenges in Feminism: Intersectionality, Critical Theory, and Anti-Zionism / Karin St gner
PART II . University, Legal, and Historical Frameworks

5. The Role of International Legal and Justice Discourse in Promoting the New Antisemitism / Gerald M. Steinberg and Anne Herzberg

6. Leaving the Post-Holocaust Period: The Effects of Anti-Israel Attitudes on Perceptions of the Holocaust / Catherine D. Chatterley

7. Antisemitism in the Guise of Anti-Nazism: Holocaust Inversion in the United Kingdom during Operation Protective Edge / Alan Johnson

8. Fraser v. University and College Union : Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, and Racializing Discourse / Lesley Klaff

9. Conspiracy Pedagogy on Campus: BDS Advocacy, Antisemitism, and Academic Freedom / Cary Nelson
PART III . Israeli Voices

10. There Was No Uncorrupt Israel : The Role of Israelis in Delegitimizing Jewish Collective Existence / Gil Ribak

11. The Appropriation of the Israeli New Historians Work by Anti-Zionists / Ilan Greilsammer

12. Christian BDS: An Act of Love? / Giovanni Matteo Quer
PART IV . National Contexts

13. Configurations of Antisemitism: The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland 1968 / Simon Gansinger

14. Germany s Changing Discourse on Jews and Israel / Marc Grimm

15. The Roots of Anti-Zionism in South Africa and the Delegitimization of Israel / Milton Shain

16. From Donetsk to Tel Aviv: Czech Antisemitic Movements Respond to the Russian-Ukrainian War / Zbyn k Tarant

17. Muslim Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in South Asia: A Case Study of Lucknow / Navras Jaat Aafreedi

Index
Introduction
ALVIN H. ROSENFELD
IN EXAMINING THE links between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the chapters of this book address issues that date back decades but have taken on a new urgency in our own day. Frans Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister and first vice president of the European Commission, recognized as much when, speaking at a EU meeting in Brussels on October 1, 2015, he noted a sharp increase in openly displayed hatred in today s Europe. Europe, he said, is going through a period of crisis and turmoil, which is challenging the very fabric of European society. He saw the rise in antisemitism as symptomatic of this turmoil and acknowledged the threats it poses: When you know about European history, you know that the darker, uglier forces in our societies always turn first against minorities. Always turn first against Jews . . . Antisemitism is not just terrible for the Jewish community, it is like a fever in an infected body . . . Left unchallenged, [it] will create a much, much bigger problem . . . So tackling antisemitism is an essential operation to save what we cherish in our society.
Timmermans concluded his reflections by observing that, far from having been eradicated, antisemitism is still a reality, and that it is in fact on the rise-old antisemitism that we have known for centuries, and [a] new antisemitism, that sometimes tries to hide itself behind anti-Zionism. 1
If matters in Europe were bad when Timmermans spoke-and they were-they have since become worse, and on various fronts. In both its older and newer forms, a resurgent antisemitism has come powerfully to the fore and is now widespread. That is especially so with regard to hostility to Israel, which, in its most extreme forms, impels its adherents to denounce the Jewish state as a criminal entity and to vilify and attack those identified with it. References to Israel as a successor state to apartheid South Africa or to Nazi Germany are typical of the rhetoric of this obsession at its most overwrought. But lesser gradations of vilification are also in wide circulation today-and not just on the margins of society but increasingly within the mainstream. Such hostile passions fuel much of the animus that calls itself anti-Zionism.
Most arguments against Zionism formulated in the prestate period would find few supporters today. The destruction of most of European Jewry during World War II and the establishment of Israel a few years later changed history in decisive ways and brought most Jews and others to recognize the need for and validity of a sovereign Jewish state. Nevertheless, seven decades after Israel s establishment, public calls for its end are becoming more prevalent. Those who align themselves with radical anti-Zionist agendas frequently advance the goals of delegitimization. And the ultimate end point of delegitimization is the dissolution of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state and, for some, the nullification of the notion of the Jewish people as such.
Those who hold these aggressive views may, as Timmermans notes, hide behind the facade of anti-Zionism, but the issue here is not Zionism. Most of today s fervent anti-Zionists probably know little, if anything, about Zionism and simply do not like Jews or the Jewish state. As examples, recall the former French ambassador to London, Daniel Bernard, who referred to Israel as that shitty little country, 2 and the Irish poet Tom Paulin, who equated Israeli soldiers with the SS and declared that Brooklyn-born Jews living on the West Bank are Nazis and should be shot dead ( I feel nothing but hatred for them ). 3 Most people in Western societies know it is unacceptable after the Holocaust to say such things outright, so they take cover behind labels such as anti-Zionism that are considered safe enough to distance them from any embarrassing connection to the older forms of Jew hatred.
Anti-Zionism, though, is often a camouflage term, as Stephen Harper, the former Canadian prime minister, recognized when he called anti-Zionism the face of the new antisemitism. It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to make the old bigotry acceptable for a new generation. 4 In 2014, Manual Valls, the French interior minister at the time, spoke out against such bigotry by denouncing anti-Zionism as an invitation to antisemitism. 5 In June 2017, Emmanuel Macron, the current French president, spoke out strongly against anti-Zionism, calling it a reinvention of antisemitism and pledged that his government to not surrender to it. 6 Pope Francis, speaking in October 2015, was equally emphatic: To attack Jews is antisemitism, but an outright attack on the State of Israel is also antisemitism. 7
Despite such denunciations by prominent world figures, anti-Zionism not only persists but also now has global reach and, to quote the late eminent scholar Robert Wistrich, has become the most dangerous and effective form of antisemitism in our time. Underwritten by an ideology that aims at the elimination of Israel, and sometimes accompanied by a radical vision of a world liberated from the Jews, it is a totalist form of antisemitism. 8 Attracting supporters among people on the political left, the political right, and those with no particular political affiliation, as well as among large numbers of Muslims, it is a potent force and shows up in street-level acts of anti-Jewish violence as well as intellectual and political denunciations of Israel and the Jews, often by people who claim to hold progressive views. They routinely charge Israel with the worst of sins-among them, racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and even genocide. The ritual repetition of these accusations has developed into an emotionally charged litany that demonizes the Jewish state and its supporters in ways that may recall the antisemitism that preceded the persecution and destruction of the Jews during World War II.
To explore these troubling developments in their historical, political, social, and ideological dimensions, Indiana University s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) brought together seventy scholars from sixteen countries for four days of intensive deliberation on the links between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. The meetings took place April 2-6, 2016, on Indiana Universit