by Monika Schwarz-Friesel
The fight against anti-Semitism on the international level continues to be characterized by restraint combined with ignorance
Germans smile outside destroyed Jewish business the day after Kristallnacht,
Magdeburg, Germany, November 1938, photo via Wikipedia
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,067, January 18, 2019
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The
fight against anti-Semitism on the international level continues to be
characterized by restraint combined with ignorance – a potentially
deadly combination. European hand-wringing and the spouting of clichés
will never suffice; the extent of the rot must be acknowledged if it is
to be effectively confronted.
Almost every day in Europe there is a statement, a
workshop, or a symposium on anti-Semitism. An international conference
on the problem recently took place in Vienna, for example, under the
auspices of Austrian PM Sebastian Kurz. Do such activities have any
effect on European anti-Semitism, which grows by the day? Do they create
any obstacle to the enormous diffusion and radicalization of online
anti-Semitism – Jew-hatred 2.0?
Judging from the past ten years, little will
change. Eloquent speeches are given, appeals are published, clichés are
uttered about confronting Jew-hatred with a “resolute fight” and “with
all the severity of the law” – and after some head-shaking and
hand-wringing, everybody returns to business as usual.
For years, the main problem of the diverse
European authorities responsible for the fight against anti-Semitism has
been that they reside in a culture of clichés. True, there is a greater
awareness of the need to confront the spread of Jew-hatred. But to do
so, it is essential to act knowledgeably and avoid double standards.
Researchers have been warning for years about the
expansion, radicalization, and increasing normalization of Jew-hatred.
This is occurring throughout European society and is especially worrying
in terms of its focus on Israel. All the stereotypes of classical
Judeophobia are projected onto the Jewish state. Its Jewish population
is demonized and its right to exist contested. Little is done to reject
this newly dominant pattern, and Israel-related hate is becoming a
politically correct form of anti-Semitism.
Although this Israel-directed form of Judeophobia
is exacerbated by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it is rooted, as has
been shown empirically by recent research, in the age-old hostility
against Jews and Judaism. Consequently, the struggle against
anti-Semitism must keep its focus on the origin of the phenomenon: the
darker side of the roots of European culture in which the confrontation
between Judaism and earlier Christianity laid the foundations of Western
Judeophobia.
The present-day struggle against anti-Semitism is
not an easy task. It is painful, and indeed must be painful, if European
society is to grasp the full significance of the phenomenon and the
dangers it contains.
Today’s public debates on anti-Semitism are
frequently dominated by people who, while eager to express their
personal opinions, are clearly ill-informed about the long history and
chameleon-like character of Judeophobia. They are blissfully ignorant of
the way Jew-hatred over the centuries has kept the same semantics but
modified its forms and expressions according to changing circumstances.
Consequently, we hear passionate affirmations,
long since rejected by empirical research, that “rightist populism is
responsible for contemporary anti-Semitism,” or that “the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the main cause,” or that “classical
Jew-hatred is in retreat.” Completely misleading, too, is the assertion
that “anti-Semitism and Muslim-hatred are closely related,” or that
present-day Muslims suffer the same discrimination Jews once did.
A misleading, albeit common allegation is that not
enough research has yet been conducted on the problem of anti-Semitism.
In this way, the copious results of existing research on the subject
are swept under the rug and the real struggle against Jew-hatred is
pushed into the future. Also, in recent times we hear and read
frequently that “anti-Semitism has reached the middle of society.”
“Reached”? Jew-hatred always came from the educated social center. There
sit its most representative perpetrators. It has never been otherwise.
As in the past, present-day anti-Semitism
reproduces and multiplies Jew-hating tendencies deeply rooted in Western
consciousness. It follows the age-old pattern that attributes to the
Jews all the miseries of the world. Anti-Semitic rancor is always
directed against Jewish existence per se – and today, this
means the most vital symbol of Jewish existence, the State of Israel.
The opposition to Israel is now the meeting point of Jew-haters of
diverse political and ideological colors, the common ground of
present-day anti-Semitism. The old Judeophobia is projected onto the
Jewish state.
Here lies the critical point where European
official policy should intervene. Tirades of hate against the Jewish
state are found not on the margins but in the center of Western society.
Rancor against Israel feeds the dissemination of present-day
anti-Semitism more than any other factor.
Consider the common cliché, long ago debunked as
fiction and yet still repeated like a mantra: “Every critique of Israeli
policy is equated with anti-Semitism.” This is an absurdity. There are
clear criteria in the research on anti-Semitism distinguishing between
“critique of Israel” and “Israel-directed Jew-hatred.” There are no grey
zones in anti-Semitism.
Nevertheless, the anti-Semitic yardstick referring
to the condemnation of Israel is still not clearly perceived as a new
pattern of Jew-hatred. This must happen if Europeans are to confront the
continent’s increasing level of Judeophobia. Anyone who denies the
anti-Semitism of hashtags like #DeathtoIsrael or calls to boycott the
Jewish state is blind.
When political spokespeople (rightly) criticize
the new German right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland because of
its refusal to confront the frequent anti-Semitic utterances of its
supporters, but at the same time overlook (or even applaud) when Mahmoud
Abbas spouts well-known Judeophobic stereotypes in the Parliament of
the EU; or when Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rages against Israel with surreal
accusations; or when Jeremy Corbyn defames the Jewish state as an unjust
colonial creation – then these officials have a serious credibility
problem. It is not enough to criticize low-level neo-Nazis, Islamists,
or BDS activists. Anyone who seriously wants to address the problem
should look to the stage of international politics and step in
forcefully.
Anyone who shrugs off anti-Semitic raging has not
yet grasped that hate speech is a form of mental violence that contains
the potential for physical violence. In the end, mental arson turns into
physical arson.
The fight against anti-Semitism on the
international level continues to be characterized by restraint combined
with ignorance. Both are deadly – first for Jews, later for democracy.
Monika Schwarz-Friesel is a cognitive scientist and anti-Semitism researcher at the Technical University of Berlin. Together with Jehuda Reinharz she published Inside the Antisemitic Mind: The Language of Jew-Hatred in Contemporary Germany (2017). A German version of this essay appeared recently in the Jewish-German weekly Jüdische Algemeine.
Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/european-anti-semitism/
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