Can the Jews have antisemitism?

Recently I saw a post online from a conflict resolution expert who said that we ought to avoid hate speech when talking about Israel to ensure that no one slips into the murky waters of antisemitism. The only comment on this post was from someone who wrote something along the lines of “well Israel are behaving like Nazis” (I can’t quote the comment verbatim because he has since blocked me). I replied to his comment with, “This is literally the main example of antisemitism disguised as being anti-Israel, congrats on proving our point so effortlessly.”

A few days later, I came across another post which covered a number of points for non-Jewish and non-Israeli people who insist on commenting on Judaism and/or Israel. The post read, “Did you ask a Jewish person to look at that first?” The point being that over the last 18 months, people had posted antisemitic hatred on their social media profiles while perhaps not having the right people by their side to verify whether or not their views were indeed hateful. I have to roll my eyes that the bar is this low, but yes it would be nice if people would consult their local Jew before sharing a video comparing us to vermin. It would indeed be even nicer if people didn’t need to consult their local Jew to understand that this comparison comes straight from the Nazi playbook of antisemitism. 

A woman, who of course works as a diversity consultant, commented that one mustn’t confuse antizionism with antisemitism. A sentiment shared by many I’m sure, but my Jew-dy senses were tingling and I had to keep reading the comments to find out more. The first reply to her comment was the question I had immediately asked in my head: “by talking so authoritatively here I assume you’re Jewish?” to which she replied, “Does it matter?” Well yes, it does, and I’ll come to that in a moment. I won’t give you all a play by play of the entire conversation, but it followed the usual whimsical pattern of “I don’t hate Jews, I hate Israel and here is a list of antisemitic reasons why…”. The original poster finished his side of the conversation by asking the diversity consultant, “Did you ask a Jewish person to look at your comment before posting it?”

Okay here’s one last example, on my Instagram page (@joshrosewrites – thank you very much) I posted an article on how the Jews of Hollywood have failed us (and continue to do so, looking at you Hannah Einbinder and Ben Platt) in their desperation to be seen by their liberal comrades as ‘good Jews’ by denouncing Israel and its roots that are woven within Judaism entirely, metaphorically removing their tzitzit and kippot and throwing them at the feet of their ‘progressive’ masters to step on. One person commented on my article once again with, “you need to stop conflating antisemitism and antizionism”. My first question to him was ‘are you Jewish?’. He was, of course, not. 

Here’s the thing. I don’t know of any other persecuted minority who is so constantly gaslit by their oppressors’ insistence on telling them what is and isn’t hateful. Criticism of the Israeli government is not antisemitic. Congrats on figuring that out. Questioning whether the State of Israel has a right to exist, definitely not okay. Comparing Zionism with Nazism, very much antisemitic. It’s so baffling that they can’t see the obvious antisemitism in their words, and I can’t quite understand why they love nothing more than comparing Jews with Nazis. It’s as if they can’t quite let the pesky Jews be comfortable shredding the trauma of the Holocaust, they have to bring it back to us in this ugly comparison of a totally incomparable situation. And it doesn’t have to be as vitriolic as comparing us with Nazis, it seems as though after every comment of ‘don’t conflate hatred of Israel with hatred of Jews’ comes a conveyor belt of antisemitism from the dog whistle to the explicit. I don’t know about you but I’m growing tired of reminding people that Zionism means Jewish self-determination in Israel and therefore ‘antizionism’ means denying Jews the right to their ancestral homeland. As much as you scream and shout, you can’t change the definition of Zionism or antisemitism to fit your antisemitic narrative. Calling yourself ‘antizionist’ or putting ‘Zionists not welcome’ on the doors of your ‘safe spaces’ is not the same as disagreeing with the Israeli government or even being ‘anti-Israel’ – it’s antisemitism, pure and simple. Helpful footnote here, harassing Jewish people outside synagogues and Jewish community centres does not make you an anti-Israel activist, it makes you a hateful antisemite carrying on the work that the Nazis didn’t get to finish.

On Instagram, on LinkedIn, in real life (and once with a handful of police officers during a particularly fiery exchange on Tottenham Court Road after which my mum WhatsApped me saying ‘please try not to get arrested’) I’ve been told by people who are not only not Jewish but very much antisemitic, that what they were saying wasn’t antisemitism. It’s the same as theway we’re told the group of masked thugs chanting for Intifada on the streets of London mean no harm, or ‘resistance by any means necessary’ is subjective, or Kneecap are speaking up for the underdogs, or that you can’t deny that Jewish people are disproportionately powerful, or Jews are known for being cheap, or the shooting of Jews in Washington is justified – do I need to go on? I could not imagine from the deepest pit of my being telling a black person or an Asian person who has experienced racism that they are mistaken – let alone if that racism came from me. It’s unfathomable. So, why as Jews are we so often expected to accept the judgement of what is offensive to us to come from other people? Not just other people, people who actively seek us out, offend us, murder us, and then tell us we have no right to be offended. 

Does any other ethnic minority have the definition of their persecution debated by outside groups? Does any other ethnic minority have to essentially lobby institutions to accept their definition of what their persecution looks like? The answer is a resounding and blood-boiling no. 

Consider this to be my statement to all future antisemites who insist on telling me what antisemitism is. I am no longer debating with you. I am no longer wasting my energy explaining to you why your hatred is hatred. If you wanted to avoid being antisemitic then you would have. Your insistence on gaslighting us into accepting your hatred is not going to occupy my time anymore. You can keep lying to yourself in an attempt to justify your hateful views, telling yourself that you’re doing the right thing as you hide behind virtue-signalling activism and words of nothingness. In time you’ll find out just how far off the ‘right side of history’ you are. I’d suggest a trip to any Jewish museumto try and assemble some understanding of Jewish history and persecution, but I’m afraid that empathy and decency cannot be learned and hatred cannot be removed, so I despair and hope I don’t have to encounter you too often. 

I hope that you don’t have any Jewish people in your life who you endanger with your hate, and I hope that you have many Jewish people in your life to show you that we’re just people who deserve protection from hatred and the basic ownership of defining what that hate looks like.