Don’t put the “anti-semite” title up for sale!
I grew up thinking of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, PLO, as a terrorist group. Back in the days, the PLO was clearly engaged in a variety of ruthless activities targeting innocent Israelis and Jews around the world. Looking back, I truely believe that the PLO, certainly that of the time, was a terrorist organisation. For me, there is no doubt.
Then in later years, I learned that the word “terrorist” can actually be used for the benefit of anyone. For example, in the past decade, the ruthless dictator of Syria, Bashar al Assad, didn’t hesitate to kill many of his own civilians while at the same time labelling insurgents fighting for freedom in his country as “terrorists”. After all, why not? This strong word, “terrorist” serves a great purpose for him. It immediately allows him to strip “freedom fighters” of all their noble causes and present them as nothing but “terrorists” opposing the state.
Then comes a completely different term: “anti-semite”. You clearly know what that means. Still, let me recap: anti-semitism is hostility or prejudice against the Jewish people. It has cost the Jews millions of lives in the previous century, and more in the centuries before that. It is a phenomenon that still lives on today in Europe, America, Russia, Australia and beyond. It is strongly rooted in some eastern European cultures and elsewhere.
So I guess we can agree that both “terrorist” and “anti-semite” suck! It isn’t something that you would want to be called and neither would I. Right?
Actually, Hypothetically thinking, If I was to be labelled either one or the other, I am not sure which I would suffer from more. On an initial thought, I find both “anti-semite” and “terrorist” as repulsive and vile titles. But actually, as I once agreed with fellow soldiers in a hypothetical discussion we had in the 1990's— if we were present in Palestine in the late 1940’s when the British didn’t allow European Jewish refugees to enter the land, we too would probably be “terrorists” — or at least labelled as such by the British.
As my fellow soldiers and I fantasised in the 1990’s conversation, if we were around in the late 1940’s we would join those Jews who fought the British mandate with a clenched fist, bombing, kidnapping and more. I know — for my life it is (luckily) nothing but fiction, but projecting my personality of today back to that era, it isn’t unreasonable at all to see me as a “terrorist” — or at least labeled as such by the British Empire.
How about an “anti-semite”? Is there some era or time in the past future or present, in which I could be such? The answer is no, no and clearly no!
Well, Luckily to the best of my knowledge, I haven’t been labeled as “anti-semitic” (yet), but unfortunately, others around me do get to receive this title quite freely. In today’s rhetoric dealing with Israel and its occupation of the West Bank, it doesn’t take much to be called “anti-semite”.
I believe that right wing Israeli activists, supported by the popular public, have put the word “anti-semite” up for sale!
Many right wing Israeli politicians have found it convenient to associate criticism of Israel and its policy, especially of the occupation with “anti-semitism”. I am not exactly sure about the price tag… I am not sure if it is enough to oppose occupation, or perhaps you need to be an active boycotter of goods from settlements, or perhaps take part in a full Israel boycott (BDS) — something which I clearly oppose… Or maybe you can just be a general “leftist”. Perhaps there is a variable price…. Indeed, once the word is out there it is out there, and the stock market of “anti-semite” labels is free for all. Just use it!
You can listen to a very well articulated argument by Carolin Glik that strongly supports such use of “anti-semite”. She mentions three forms of anti-semitism that endanger American jews and then goes on to describe a fourth one: “Opposition of Israeli’s policies”. I clearly don’t agree with her on that point, but I must say that she makes a brilliant attempt at describing why “opposing zionism” is “anti-semitism”.
In fact, I think Carolin Glik is a very smart person with a distorted set of values. Scary! Especially since her “zionism” is certainly not my “zionism” nor the “zionism” practiced by my many friends and family living in Israel.
In any case, please stop short-selling the term “Anti-Semite”.