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Modern anti-Semitism

In a report to the first United Nations conference devoted to anti-Semitism on June 21, 2004, the Secretary General Kofi Annan noted "alarming resurgence" of anti-Semitism in the world: "It is clear that we are witnessing an alarming resurgence of this phenomenon in new forms and manifestations," Annan said. "This time the world must not, cannot be silent." ,

Tikkun magazine ran a series of article on the resurgence of anti-Semitism across the world.

• The New Anti-Semitism, by Miriam Greenspan. Tikkun Magazine

The Anti-Defamation League stated that: "The events of September 11, the American campaign against terrorism and the Palestinian intifada against Israel have created a dangerous atmosphere in the Middle East and Europe, one that 'gives anti-Semitism and hate and incitement a strength and power of seduction that it has never before had in history.'"

• The New Anti-Semitism in Europe and The Middle East: Threat is "Potent and Very Real" ADL Leader Says in Major Address

Straw-man anti-Semitism

Some hold that one of the new forms of anti-Semitism is the claim that Zionists view all criticisms of Israel or of Zionism as anti-Semitic. Supporters of Israel are then branded as being excessively sensitive, or dishonest, or as attempting to stifle reasonable criticism and debate. In this view, Zionist groups (presumably mainly Jewish) are crying wolf. According to many Jewish groups, this argument is anti-Semitic.

Anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism

In his article Human Rights and the New Anti-Jewishness, Irwin Cotler, the new Minister of Justice for Canada, defines thirteen indices of discrimination against Jews that characterizes the "new anti-Jewishness". Cotler states:

In a word, classical or traditional anti-Semitism is the discrimination against, or denial of, the right of Jews to live as equal members of a free society; the new anti-Semitism-incompletely, or incorrectly, as "anti-Zionism"... -involves the discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations. What is intrinsic to each form of anti-Semitism-and common to both-is discrimination. All that has happened is that it has moved from discrimination against Jews as individuals-a classical anti-Semitism for which there are indices of measurement (e.g., discrimination against Jews in education, housing, or employment)-to discrimination against Jews as people-a new anti-Semitism - for which one has yet to develop indices of measurement.

The Catholic Church has recently spoken on this subject as well, stating "We oppose anti-Semitism in any way and form, including anti-Zionism that has become of late a manifestation of anti-Semitism." http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=449338

Natan Sharansky has suggested that anti-Semitism masquerading as anti-Zionism can be distinguished from legitimate criticism of Israel if it fails the "3D" test, as follows:

The first D is the test of demonization. Whether it came in the theological form of a collective accusation of deicide or in the literary depiction of Shakespeare's Shylock, Jews were demonized for centuries as the embodiment of evil. Therefore, today we must be wary of whether the Jewish state is being demonized by having its actions blown out of all sensible proportion. For example, the comparisons of Israelis to Nazis and of the Palestinian refugee camps to Auschwitz -- comparisons heard practically every day within the "enlightened" quarters of Europe -- can only be considered anti-Semitic. Those who draw such analogies either do not know anything about Nazi Germany or, more plausibly, are deliberately trying to paint modern-day Israel as the embodiment of evil.

The second D is the test of double standards. For thousands of years a clear sign of anti-Semitism was treating Jews differently than other peoples, from the discriminatory laws many nations enacted against them to the tendency to judge their behavior by a different yardstick. Similarly, today we must ask whether criticism of Israel is being applied selectively. In other words, do similar policies by other governments engender the same criticism, or is there a double standard at work? It is anti-Semitism, for instance, when Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while tried and true abusers like China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria are ignored. Likewise, it is anti-Semitism when Israel's Magen David Adom, alone among the world's ambulance services, is denied admission to the International Red Cross.

The third D is the test of deligitimation. In the past, anti-Semites tried to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish religion, the Jewish people, or both. Today, they are trying to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish state, presenting it, among other things, as the last vestige of colonialism. While criticism of an Israeli policy may not be anti-Semitic, the denial of Israel's right to exist is always anti-Semitic. If other peoples have a right to live securely in their homelands, then the Jewish people have a right to live securely in their homeland.

Genocidal anti-Semitism

Genocidal anti-Semitism is the public call for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. Examples include the covenants of some terrorist organizations which publicly call for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews anywhere.

Political anti-Semitism

Some claim that it is anti-Semitic to deny that the Jewish people have a right to self-determination in Palestine while simultaneously allowing other peoples, such as Arabs and Kurds (and in particular Palestinian Arabs), to have their own forms of nationalism. Critics of this claim argue that most diaspora ethnic groups (and many other ethnic groups) are not usually assumed to have any particular right to self-determination (as for instance the Romani, the Parsis, or the Hakka).

Ideological anti-Semitism

The belief that all forms of Zionism are racist, and that Israel is an apartheid state that must be removed, is labelled "ideological anti-Semitism" by some.

Theological anti-Semitism

This refers to the teaching among certain bodies that Judaism is inherently deceitful, evil, and is the enemy of Islam in the Middle-East.

Cultural anti-Semitism

Cultural anti-Semitism refers to what is seen by some as a growing acceptance of public anti-Semitism in universities, in parliaments, among the literate, public intellectuals, and the human rights movement. However, apart from the claims made by special-interest groups, there is no almost no substantial evidence that anti-Semitism is prevalent among these social circles.

There are several conflicting views on whether anti-Semitism is still widespread or on the rise. According to a report written at the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism, at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), there have been recent outbursts of anti-Semitism which may reflect a trend. However, according to the Pew Research Center, the data show that there has in fact been a decline in anti-Semitism in Europe.

These reports are available online:February 2003 European Union Report on the new anti-Semitism;Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists

A number of book-length treatments about a possible, recent rise in anti-Semitism have been published of late. However, critics have accused the authors of factual distortion, rhetoric masking political agendas, and a lack of objectivity, which has given rise to the publication of several opposing views as well.