Antizionism: A Pattern Repeated
Today Medhi Hasan announced his victory over Melanie Phillips and Dr Einat Wilf in a debate over whether antizionism is antisemitism.
For context, the ADL defines antisemitism as “The belief or behaviour hostile toward Jews just because they are Jewish.” They define Zionism as, “ the Jewish national movement of self-determination in the land of Israel — the historical birthplace and biblical homeland of the Jewish people.” Merriam Webster defines antizionism as, “Opposition to the establishment or support of the state of Israel: opposition to Zionism”
To be clear, antizionism is antisemitism, not only in its content but it also follows a clear historical pattern where antisemites attempt to justify, legitimise and rationalise their Jew-hate.
History of Antizionism
Antizionism was first used after the creation of the State of Israel by the Soviet Union who launched a campaign to delegitimise Israel. They equated Israel with Nazism, arguing the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis to destroy the Jewish populations of Europe. They also utilised the same source text that the Nazis did: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This proven fraud — although that doesn’t stop its current publication — is used as evidence of a Jewish conspiracy to control the world. Soviet antizionism was rooted in Elders of Zion and they believed in a Zionist conspiracy.
They produced propaganda that mimicked the very same propaganda produced by the Nazis and even had a committee devoted to the spreading of this specific form of hate. In 1985 this Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public — known as AKSO in Russia — produced a document titled Criminal Alliance of Zionism and Nazism.
Antizionism was an official policy of the USSR. An explanation as to why the USSR labelled it’s persecution of Jews as antizionism lies with the Shoah. As Jeffrey Goldberg stated in a 2014 article on the future of Jews in Europe: ‘The Shoah served for a while as a sort of inoculation against the return of overt Jew-hatred’. Due to the horrors of the Shoah, it was not deemed acceptable to persecute Jews as Jews, so another label had to be found. It is worth noting that the USSR liberated the Nazi death camps and would have not wanted to have been associated with such horrors. The label the USSR settled on for their specific brand of antisemitism was antizionism and, despite the fact that this officially targeted a sovereign state and not an ethno-religious minority, it masked the fact that antizionism was a modern expression of antisemitism. Despite Soviet denials that they were one and the same, Soviet Jews felt otherwise. In 1979 the Washington Post stated, ‘Soviet bureaucrats vehemently reject suggestions that “antizionism” means “anti-Semitism.” But to many Soviet Jews, it is a distinction without a difference.’
To understand Soviet antizionism as antisemitism, we have to consider the historical context of the Soviet Union. This campaign was produced by the USSR the successor to the Russian Empire, the site of some of the most violent pogroms in European history. 100,000 Jews were murdered during the Khmelnytsky Uprising between 1648–1657. This is just one example of Russian antisemitism and during the Russian Civil War from 1917–1920, an estimated 50,000 Jews were murdered. These facts cannot be overlooked. Antisemitism was rooted in the culture of the Russian Empire, as well as its successor The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
It’s also important to consider antizionism in a greater historical context. Since antisemitism became embedded in European culture, with the conversion of the Roman Empire in 380 CE, those who perpetrate it have always attempted to find ways to rationalise this irrational hatred. Antizionism is a continuation of this historical trend. The idea that antizionism is not a form of antisemitism is as ridiculous as blood libels or the Protocols not being expressions of antisemitism.
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Published in 1903, this document was described as the minutes of a meeting of Jewish Elders in a Prague graveyard where they discussed how they would control the world.
Versions of this document have been reproduced in Europe, America, the Middle East and Asia despite it being a proven fraud in 1935. Elie Wiesel, Shoah survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate said: ‘If ever a piece of writing could produce mass hatred, it is this one. . . . This book is about lies and slander.’
In this context, it is important to understand that the Protocols were an expression of antisemitism in and of themselves, but were also used to justify it. They offered proof to all those who hated Jews that they really were the most dangerous, manipulative and exploitative people on earth who must be defeated. Building on the previous forms of antisemitism which framed the Jews as demonic this iteration framed them as manipulative and controlling non-Jewish people. We still see this idea in the right, who argue that Jews are exploiting and controlling white non-Jews and, unsurprisingly, in the anti-ZIonist left who argue that Jews are manipulating and controlling black and brown people.
The Protocols also formed a major justification for Nazi antisemitism. It was mentioned by Hitler in Mein Kampf and they argued that it was proof the Jews were a threat and had to be destroyed in self defence. They also capitalised on the traditional idea that Jews were demonic and were a direct threat to non-Jewish people, in the exact same they were described during instance of blood libel. Between 1919 and 1939, the Nazis printed 23 editions of the Protocols.
The Protocols are still very popular in the Middle East where it has been a bestseller. It is used to frame the the Arab struggle against Zionism to be one of self-defence. In Hamas’ charter they advocate for the idea of a Jewish world conspiracy by statin: ‘Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, espionage groups and others, which are all nothing more than cells of subversion and saboteurs… for the purpose of achieving the Zionist targets and to deepen the concepts that would serve the enemy.’
Despite being published over 100 years ago and despite being a proven fraud, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is still being used to justify antisemitism, and perhaps most interestingly antizionism.
The Shoah
At this stage it is important to state that this is not for one second a comparison of antizionism to the Shoah. The purpose of this analysis is to demonstrate that even the Holocaust justified by the Nazis, just as antizionism is a modern justification of antisemitism.
Based on pseudo scientific research carried out in the 19th century scientific racism was born. This “scientific field” divided people into groups (such as Aryans, Blacks, Jews etc) and argued that these different “races” existed within a “racial hierarchy” with Aryans at the top. This clearly influenced the Nazis and their obsessions with “racial purity”. German students were taught “racial science” and were schooled in the measuring peoples’ skulls and noses to determine if they were Aryan or not. Jewish and Romani students were humiliated in class as their “inferiority” was proven. Today, we see this for what it is: extreme antisemitism wrapped up in a scientific bow.
This justification for scientific antisemitism was legalised in 1935 with the Nuremberg Laws. These defined who was and who was not Jewish — based on bloodline — and stripped these Jews of their citizenship. These laws also forbade sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews in order that the “Aryan bloodline” was not “dirtied” by Jewish blood. While there is no doubt that the Nazis believed in this scientific justification for their rabid antisemitism, it is still just antisemitism at the end of the day. It’s important to note that his “scientific” prejudice also impacted several other communities such as the Romani community and the disabled.
As stated earlier, the Nazis strengthened their argument that the Jews were a “dangerous subspecies” by also referencing and utilising the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Both “racial science” and the “proven” Jewish conspiracy served to legitimise and rationalise Nazi antisemitism.
Antizionism Continues the Pattern
Antizionism at its root was an attempt by the Soviets to legitimise antisemitism in a post-Shoah world. Because of the horrors of the Shoah, the Soviet Union could not openly discriminate against Jews so instead, they focused their Jew-hate on Zionism. This was their legitimisation of antisemitism, but many Jews and Zionists can see through it, just as the Washington Post reported Soviet Jews seeing through it in the 1970’s. We have to understand this attempt follows a historic trend. Antisemitism has always been legitimised by those who perpetrate it. They justified their murder of Jews by the fact that Jews murder non-Jewish children, they explained their belief in the fact that the Jews control the media and the world through The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Nazis legitimised their murderous brand of antisemitism through scientific racism (as well as the Protocols). That is what antisemites do, it is what they have always done.
Despite the fact that the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1992, its antisemitic legacy did not die with it. We see it in the hate spouted by Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn and US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar. They view Israel as a “white colonial settler state” that commits the worst human rights abuses in the world and is obsessed with money. Labour Party members have even compared Israel to the Nazis. The modern heirs to Soviet antisemitism — whether they know it or not — and there are those who seem not to know — are using antizionism to rationalise attacks on Jews.
Modern anti-Zionists use the same rhetoric that their Soviet ideological ancestors used. They say, “I am not antisemitic, I am just anti-Zionist.” That is not the case. They are one in the same. We have to fight against antizionism (and by this I mean an obsessive hatred of Israel, not fair criticism of Israeli government policy) in the way that we would any form of antisemitism. Otherwise, it will continue to fester and spread just like it has in the past. Antizionism is not a legitimate political position, it is hate.
