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The weaponization of antisemitism, also described as the politicization of antisemitism or instrumentalization of antisemitism, is the bad faith use of the charge of antisemitism against a person for political purposes, notably with respect to criticism of Israel. It is a form of playing the race card and an "appeal to motive".

Suggestions of such actions have been notable during phases of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in the adoption of the controversial Working definition of antisemitism by various organizations, the 2014-20 allegations of Antisemitism in the UK Labour Party, and the 2023 United States Congress hearing on antisemitism.

It is considered to be a type of cancel culture, and a smear campaign. According to Joshua Leifer, an editor of Dissent magazine, the goal of such public relations campaigns is to shift any criticism of the actions of the Israeli government "beyond the pale of mainstream acceptability".

When used against Muslim groups, it has been described by Rutgers Law School Center for Security, Race, and Rights as an "Islamophobic trope".

It has been claimed that Anti-Palestinianism is a foundation of such actions, and has been compared to similar actions taken during apartheid South Africa.

History

Charges of antisemitism against supporters of Palestinians has a long history, including against prominent individuals such as Nobel Peace Prize winners President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Scholar such as John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein have described a pattern where accusations of antisemitism rise immediately following aggressive actions by Israel: following the Six-Day War, following the 1982 Lebanon War, the first and second Intifadas and the Israeli bombardments of Gaza.

Weaponization for the purpose of silencing criticism of Israel or advocacy for Palestinian human rights may be based on the false logic that since Israel's leaders claim to represent all Jews worldwide, criticism of those leaders must be equivalent to prejudice against all Jews. Chomsky described it as follows in 2002:

With regard to anti-Semitism, the distinguished Israeli statesman Abba Eban pointed out the main task of Israeli propaganda (they would call it exclamation, what's called 'propaganda' when others do it) is to make it clear to the world there's no difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. By anti-Zionism he meant criticisms of the current policies of the State of Israel. So there's no difference between criticism of policies of the State of Israel and anti-Semitism, because if he can establish 'that' then he can undercut all criticism by invoking the Nazis and that will silence people. We should bear it in mind when there's talk in the US about anti-Semitism.

Bibliography

• Winstanley, Asa (2023). Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn. G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. OR Books. ISBN 978-1-68219-381-5.
• Steinberg, Bernie (2023-12-29). "For the Safety of Jews and Palestinians, Stop Weaponizing Antisemitism". The Harvard Crimson.
• Waxman, Dov; Schraub, David; Hosein, Adam (2022-07-04). "Arguing about antisemitism: why we disagree about antisemitism, and what we can do about it". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 45 (9): 1803–1824. doi:10.1080/01419870.2021.1960407. ISSN 0141-9870.
• Levi, Lili (2023-04-09). "Politicizing Antisemitism Amid Today's Educational Culture Wars". Lewis & Clark Law Review.
• Butler, J.; Jewish Voice for Peace (2017). On Antisemitism: Solidarity and the Struggle for Justice. G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1-60846-761-7.
• Finkelstein, Norman (2008). Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24989-9.
• Robinson, W.I.; Griffin, M.S.; Falk, R.A. (2017). We Will Not Be Silenced: The Academic Repression of Israel's Critics. AK Press. ISBN 978-1-84935-277-2.
• 104 civil society organizations (2023-04-04), "Human Rights and other Civil Society Groups Urge United Nations to Respect Human Rights in the Fight Against Antisemitism", Human Rights Watch{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• 128 scholars of Jewish history and Holocaust studies (2022-11-03). "Scholars to UN: Don't adopt 'weaponised' antisemitism definition" (PDF). EUobserver. Retrieved 2024-01-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Lerman, Antony (2022). Whatever Happened to Antisemitism?: Redefinition and the Myth of the 'Collective Jew'. Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-3879-8.
• Feldman, David; Volovici, M. (2023). Antisemitism, Islamophobia and the Politics of Definition. Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-031-16266-4.
• Gould, Rebecca Gould (2023). Erasing Palestine: Free Speech and Palestinian Freedom. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-83976-902-3.
• Friedman, Lara (2023-09-05). "Targeting Free Speech & Redefining Antisemitism: How Pro-Israel Actors Are Using US Laws to Attack Palestinian Activism & Solidarity". University of the Pacific Law Review. 54 (4).
• White, Ben (2020-02-01). "Delegitimizing Solidarity: Israel Smears Palestine Advocacy as Anti-Semitic" (PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies. 49 (2): 65–79. doi:10.1525/jps.2020.49.2.65. ISSN 0377-919X.
• Plitnick, Mitchell; Aziz, Sahar F. (2023-11-23). Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine Israel Discourse (PDF). Rutgers University Law School Center for Security, Race, and Rights.
• Mearsheimer, J.J.; Walt, S.M. (2008). "The Grea Silencer". The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 191–196. ISBN 978-0-14-192066-5. Retrieved 2024-01-01.
• Chomsky, Noam (2002). "Anti-Semitism, Zionism, and the Palestinians" (PDF). Variant (magazine). 2 (16).
• 'Abd al-Hay, Walid; Centre, Al-Zaytouna (2021-10-14), Israel’s Employment of "Anti-Semitism", Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations, retrieved 2024-01-01
• Franklin, Shai (2013-05-08). "Israel's Overplayed 'Anti-Semitism' Card". HuffPost. Retrieved 2024-01-01.
• Marcus, Kenneth L. (2010). "Anti-Semitism Denial and Minimisation". Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America. Cambridge University Press. pp. 67–69. ISBN 978-1-139-49119-8. Retrieved 2024-01-01.
• Hirsh, David (2010). "Accusations of malicious intent in debates about the Palestine-Israel conflict and about antisemitism The Livingstone Formulation, 'playing the antisemitism card' and contesting the boundaries of antiracist discourse". Transversal: 44–77. Retrieved 2024-01-01.

References

1. 128 scholars of Jewish history and Holocaust studies 2022.
2. Levi 2023.
3. 104 civil society organizations 2023.
4. Waxman, Schraub & Hosein 2022.
5. Harpin, Lee (2020-07-07). "Former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy tells Expo event antisemitism 'weaponised' to silence Palestinian struggle". The Jewish Chronicle.
6. Ahmed, Nasim (2023-09-15). "Weaponised definition of anti-Semitism is a 'tool' to undermine free-speech". Middle East Monitor.
7. Stern, Kenneth (2019-12-13). "I drafted the definition of antisemitism. Rightwing Jews are weaponizing it". the Guardian.
8. Winstanley 2023.
9. Graeber, David (2020-04-12). "The Weaponisation of Labour Antisemitism". Double Down News.
10. Steinberg 2023.
11. Roth-Rowland, Natasha (2020-07-28). "False charges of antisemitism are the vanguard of cancel culture". +972 Magazine.
12. White 2020.
13. Leifer, Joshua (2019-08-26). "Israel's one-state reality is sowing chaos in American politics". +972 Magazine. The Israeli government long ago adjusted its public relations strategy for the post-two-state reality, spending vast sums of money to oppose the BDS movement, despite its relative marginality, and combat what is often called "delegitimization" of Israel. Today, the Israeli hasbara apparatus's most active front is the attempted redefinition of anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, with the goal of rendering any opposition to the occupation, Zionism – or even simply Israeli policies themselves — beyond the pale of mainstream acceptability.
14. Plitnick & Aziz 2023.
15. Giacaman, Faris (2022-10-15). "Anti-Palestinianism makes the weaponization of antisemitism possible". Mondoweiss.
16. Kasrils, Ronnie (2020-12-17), Against the Witch Hunt: On the Instrumentalization of Antisemitism in Britain’s Labor Party
17. White 2020, p. 67: "Israeli officials, as well as Israel advocacy organizations internationally, have a long history of charging Palestinians and their allies, as well as Israel's critics and human-rights campaigners, with anti-Semitism. Prominent individuals are not exempted."
18. Mearsheimer & Walt 2008, p. 190: "Supporters of Israel have a history of using fears of a "new antiSemitism" to shield Israel from criticism. In 1974, when Israel was under increasing pressure to withdraw from the lands it had conquered in 1967, Arnold Forster and Benjamin Epstein of the ADL published The New Anti-Semitism, which argued that anti-Semitism was on the rise and exemplified by the growing unwillingness of other societies to support Israel's actions. In the early 1980s, when the invasion of Lebanon and Israel's expanding settlements triggered additional criticisms, and when U.S. arms sales to its Arab allies were hotly contested, then ADL head Nathan Perlmutter and his wife, Ruth Ann Perlmutter, released The Real Anti-Semitism in America, which argued that anti-Semitism was on its way back, as shown by the pressure on Israel to make peace with the Arabs and by events like the sale of AWACS aircraft to Saudi Arabia. The Perlmutters also suggested that many "anti-Semitic" actions, which they define as acts not motivated by hostility to Jews, may nonetheless harm Jewish interests (and especially Israel's well-being), and could easily bring back genuine anti-Semitism. The troubling logic of this argument is revealed by the fact that there was little mention of anti-Semitism during the 1990s, when Israel was involved in the Oslo peace process. Indeed, one Israeli scholar wrote in 1995 that 'never before, at least since the time Christianity seized power over the Roman Empire, has anti-Semitism been less significant than at present'. Charges of anti-Semitism became widespread only in the spring of 2002, when Israel came under severe criticism around the world for its brutal behavior in the Occupied Territories. … Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident who is now a prominent Israeli author and politician, declares, 'The new anti-Semitism appears in the guise of 'political criticism of Israel', consisting of a discriminating approach and double standard towards the state of the Jews, while questioning its right to exist.' The implication is that any one who criticizes Israel's actions … is opposed to its existence and is therefore hostile to Jews. But this is a bogus charge, because it conflates criticism of Israel's actions with the rejection of Israel's legitimacy.
19. Muzher, Sherri (2005-10-27). "Beyond Chutzpah: An Interview with Professor Norman Finkelstein". Campus Watch. Whenever Israel faces a public relations debacle such as the Intifada or international pressure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, American Jewish organizations orchestrate this extravaganza called the 'new anti-Semitism.' The purpose is several-fold. First, it is to discredit any charges by claiming the person is an anti-Semite. It's to turn Jews into the victims, so that the victims are not the Palestinians any longer. As people like Abraham Foxman of the ADL put it, the Jews are being threatened by a new holocaust. It's a role reversal – the Jews are now the victims, not the Palestinians. So it serves the function of discrediting the people leveling the charge. It's no longer Israel that needs to leave the Occupied Territories; it's the Arabs who need to free themselves of the anti-Semitism.
20. ^ Chomsky 2002.
21. Gutman, Abraham (2021-05-27). "Supporting Palestinian rights is antisemitic because Israel wants it to be". nbcnews.com. It is this conflation between Israel and Judaism, one that is baked into the foundation of Israel and perpetuated by its leaders, that leads to a problematic tautology: Israel's leaders represent all Jewish people, and thus by definition any criticism of Israel must be criticism of all Jewish people — and hence antisemitic. This tautology allows accusations of antisemitism to be weaponized, particularly against people who speak up about Palestinian rights — sometimes in ridiculous ways.

• Antisemitism
• Political pejoratives