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No, anti-Zionism is not anti- semitism

As an idea, a Jewish homeland was always controversial. As a

reality, Israel still is - and it is not anti-Jewish to say so

Brian Klug

Wednesday December 3, 2003

The Guardian

From the beginning, political Zionism was a controversial

movement even among Jews. So strong was the opposition of

German orthodox and reform rabbis to the Zionist idea in the name

of Judaism that Theodor Herzl changed the venue of the First

Zionist Congress in 1897 from Munich to Basle in Switzerland.

Twenty years later, when the British foreign secretary, Arthur

Balfour (sponsor of the 1905 Aliens Act to restrict Jewish

immigration to the UK), wanted the government to commit itself to

a Jewish homeland in Palestine, his declaration was delayed - not

by anti-semites but by leading figures in the British Jewish

community. They included a Jewish member of the cabinet who

called Balfour's pro-Zionism "anti-semitic in result".

The creation of the state of Israel in 1948 has not put an end to the

debate, though the issue has changed. Today, the question is

about Israel's future. Should it become a "post-Zionist" state, one

that defines itself in terms of the sum of its citizens, rather than

seeing itself as belonging to the entire Jewish people? This is a

perfectly legitimate question and not anti-semitic in the least.

When people suggest otherwise - as Emanuele Ottolenghi did on

these pages last Saturday - they simply add to the growing

confusion.

Ottolenghi contends that "Zionism comprises a belief that Jews are

a nation, and as such are entitled to self-determination as all other

nations are". This is doubly confused. First, the ideology of Jewish

nationalism was irrelevant to many of the Jews, as well as non-

Jewish sympathisers, who were drawn to the Zionist goal of

creating a Jewish state in Palestine. They saw Israel in purely

humanitarian or practical terms: as a safe haven where Jews could

live as Jews after centuries of being marginalised and persecuted.

This motive was strengthened by the Nazi murder of one-third of

the world's Jewish population, the wholesale destruction of Jewish

communities in Europe, and the plight of masses of Jewish

refugees with nowhere to go.

Second, you do not have to be an anti-semite to reject the belief

that Jews constitute a separate nation in the modern sense of the

word or that Israel is the Jewish nation state. There is an irony

here: it is a staple of anti-semitic discourse that Jews are a people

apart, who form "a state within a state". Partly for this reason,

some European anti-semites thought that the solution to "the

Jewish question" might be for Jews to have a state of their own.

Herzl certainly thought he could count on the support of anti-

semites.

What is anti-semitism? Although the word only goes back to the

1870s, anti-semitism is an old European fantasy about Jews. The

composer Richard Wagner exemplified it when he said: "I hold the

Jewish race to be the born enemy of pure humanity and everything

noble in it." An anti-semite sees Jews this way: they are an alien

presence, a parasite that preys on humanity and seeks to

dominate the world. Across the globe, their hidden hand controls

the banks, the markets and the media. Even governments are

under their sway. And when revolutions occur or nations go to war,

it is the Jews - clever, ruthless and cohesive - who invariably pull

the strings and reap the rewards.

When this fantasy is projected on to Israel because it is a Jewish

state, then anti-Zionism is anti-semitic. And when zealous critics of

Israel, without themselves being anti-semitic, carelessly use

language, such as "Jewish influence", that conjures up this

fantasy, they are fuelling an anti-semitic current in the wider

culture.

But Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is no

fantasy. Nor is the spread of Jewish settlements in these

territories. Nor the unequal treatment of Jewish colonisers and

Palestinian inhabitants. Nor the institutionalised discrimination

against Israeli Arab citizens in various spheres of life. These are

realities. It is one thing to oppose Israel or Zionism on the basis of

an anti-semitic fantasy; quite another to do so on the basis of

reality. The latter is not anti-semitism.

But isn't excessive criticism of Israel or Zionism evidence of an anti-

semitic bias? In his book, The Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz

argues that when criticism of Israel "crosses the line from fair to

foul" it goes "from acceptable to anti-semitic".

People who take this view say the line is crossed when critics

single Israel out unfairly; when they apply a double standard and

judge Israel by harsher criteria than they use for other states; when

they misrepresent the facts so as to put Israel in a bad light; when

they vilify the Jewish state; and so on. All of which undoubtedly is

foul. But is it necessarily anti-semitic?

No, it is not. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a bitter political

struggle. The issues are complex, passions are inflamed, and the

suffering is great. In such circumstances, people on both sides are

liable to be partisan and to "cross the line from fair to foul". When

people who side with Israel cross that line, they are not necessarily

anti-Muslim. And when others cross the line on behalf of the

Palestinian cause, this does not make them anti- Jewish. It cuts

both ways.

There is something else that cuts both ways: racism. Both anti-

Jewish and anti-Muslim feeling appear to be growing. Each has its

own peculiarities, but both are exacerbated by the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict, the invasion of Iraq, the "war against terror",

and other conflicts.

We should unite in rejecting racism in all its forms: the

Islamophobia that demonises Muslims, as well as the anti-semitic

discourse that can infect anti-Zionism and poison the political

debate. However, people of goodwill can disagree politically - even

to the extent of arguing over Israel's future as a Jewish state.

Equating anti-Zionism with anti-semitism can also, in its own way,

poison the political debate.

· Brian Klug is senior research fellow in philosophy at St Benet's

Hall, Oxford, and a founder member of the Jewish Forum for Justice

and Human Rights