Antisemitism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Antisemitism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Part I – Antisemitism in the Arab anti-Zionist rhetoric
Abel Mordechai Bibliowicz
The Gaza War has brought to the surface, and to public awareness, the saturation of the discourse of the extreme political left in the USA and Europe with antisemitic language and slogans. This article puts forward the argument that the surge in antisemitism following October 7th originates in a unique trajectory and stems from a distinct context. This assessment makes the conceptual framework, and the toolkit, used to address traditional antisemitism ineffective and misguided. Although the manifestations of antisemitism 2024 fit, somewhat, past patterns – different countermeasures are needed.
Antisemitism is a baffling and disconcerting phenomenon to Jews and non-Jews alike. Traditional antisemitism is the complex, multi layered, ever baffling and ever-mutating social malignancy that emerges out of two millennia of anti-Jewish defamation and discrimination in the Christian West. To investigate the possible connection of the current surge in “antisemitic” events with traditional antisemitism, it is useful to analyze two connected, but separate processes:
Antisemitism in the Arab anti-Zionist rhetoric
Antisemitism in the Palestinian anti-Zionist rhetoric
Part I – Antisemitism in the Arab anti-Zionist rhetoric
Given the suggested layers of origination, it is necessary to survey the history and the current status of antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric and indoctrination in the Arab world – on which the current surge stands. Throughout the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, the saturation of the Arab and Palestinian discourse with antisemitic rhetoric has been noted and reported – and has facilitated and nurtured endemic hatred towards Israel and Jews worldwide. Since the dawn of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Arab countries and Palestinians did incorporate “off the shelf” pre-existent antisemitic content, slogans and tropes in their propaganda efforts against Zionism. This convenient “polemical borrowing” was and remains an ill-fitting, cumbersome and inadequate answer to the challenge posed by the Zionist movement.
However, despite this inadequacy, this “copy/paste” insertion of antisemitism into the Israeli-Arab conflict turned out to be an effective tool of anti-Zionist warfare. By infecting the polemical narrative of the political left with the conspiratorial and insidious mindset and language of traditional antisemitism, pro-Palestinian activists have been successful in the infusing their supporters with populist vigor and militancy. This success has led to the poisoning of minds and hearts throughout The West with antisemitic indoctrination and conspiracy theories.
It is noteworthy that these processes, among Arabs and Palestinians, are not historically or contextually identical and are currently diverging. This emerging gap is consequential but, hopefully, temporary. During the last decade a gap has emerged, between a Saudi-led recent, but paradigmatic, moderating and modernizing shift – and the Palestinian continuing addiction to antisemitic rhetoric and its wholesale immersion and saturation in extreme anti-Zionist, antisemitic and conspiratorial views. This peculiar and seldom noticed schism has occurred under the stewardship of MBS – the Saudi crown prince. It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia has also shifted from a decades-long promotion and financing of terrorism – to opposing extremism and to moderation in education, media and policy. The recent, ongoing and thorough de-indoctrination of education and media in Saudi Arabia and the UAE is an encouraging sign.
Abraham accords and the Saudi interest in pursuing an USA-Suni-Israel alliance, seem to reflect a paradigmatic shift in policy that is corroborated by the 2023-4 report of IMPACT (The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance) on educational policies in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab countries – pointing to a significant, persistent, and society-wide shift towards moderation and modernity. This gradual change is further corroborated by a variety of political, religious and legislative changes.
The ongoing strategic shift spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and the UAE has historical precedents in the transformation of Germany and Japan from deep and centuries-long extreme indoctrination, into democratic societies. Both underwrite and reinforce the hope for a plausible future de-indoctrination of Palestinian society. Indeed, Saudi support and the availability of de-indoctrinated Saudi and UAE texts and teachers can encourage, facilitate and enable a similar process in Palestinian society.
Saudi Arabia
Education Reforms in Saudi Arabia are especially deep and consequential. The Findings of the May 2023 report by IMPAC (The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance) shows continued progress toward moderation, openness, and peaceful development through a step-by-step process. 2023 saw the abolition of the “Courses System” study framework, whose textbooks contained many inflammatory examples, including on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Almost all previously identified hateful examples regarding Jews and Christians were removed. The removal of problematic examples promoting jihad and martyrdom, as noted in previous reports, has continued. This year, all problematic examples have been removed or altered; this includes removal of an interpretation of jihad as an offensive violent act, emphasizing instead the non-violent interpretations of jihad (namely, the jihad of the ‘Self’). Textbooks continue to highlight the importance of peace and tolerance, particularly the “Critical Thinking” books introduced in 2022.
Furthermore, radical religious ideologies are criticized. These include extremist religious groups, primarily the Muslim Brotherhood, which is described as an incendiary terrorist organization. Hezbollah, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hamas and Houthi militias are also denounced. Counterterrorism laws are taught in a newly introduced Applications of Law textbook.
The curriculum maintains Saudi Arabia’s dedication to the Palestinian Cause. A noteworthy reference is to “occupied east Jerusalem” as the capital of Palestine – a rarity in the curriculum of Arab or Muslim countries who overwhelmingly refer to all “Jerusalem” as the capital of Palestine. The portrayals of Israel and Zionism has shown further progress. Libelous examples were removed, notably those describing Zionism as a “racist European movement”; accusing Zionists of the 1969 al-Aqsa Mosque arson; and framing the expansionist intentions of Israel and takeover of religious sites as being the impetus for the Six-Day war. Israel is still not recognized on maps, but in some instances the name ‘Palestine’ was also removed. Several problematic examples still appear in some textbooks.
These changes reflect a deliberate effort to modernize and moderate Saudi Arabia, although challenges persist. These developments are encouraging signs that Saudi Arabia’s shift towards an emerging US -Saudi regional cooperation is a deep strategic and thorough turning point, that may lead to a new strategic architecture in the middle East, including a possible US-Israeli-Suni alliance that could usher-in a New Middle East. This utopian, but yet plausible, future – may usher-in also an Israeli-Palestinian transition towards a viable accommodation.
Egypt
The authors of a 2023 article of the IMPACT Institute, conducted a comprehensive study on school curricula in Egypt and reached many findings, some of them encouraging. They found that “a significant improvement with respect to Israel and Jews in textbooks for the 1st to 5th grades, which were rewritten as part of a reform implemented by the Egyptian Ministry of Education since 2018. (By 2030, the reform is expected to include the textbooks in all grades from 1st to 12th.) Although these are not the first positive changes made in Egyptian textbooks since the establishment of peace between Israel and Egypt in March 1979, the current wave of changes—whose beginnings were already evident in the previous decade—is exceptional considering that the peace agreement was signed more than four decades ago. Moreover, the ratio between conciliatory and hostile discourse toward Israel and Judaism in the textbook is more balanced than in other institutional platforms, such as the mass media.
As long as this trend described continues, takes root, and expands, the easier it may be in the future to create an atmosphere that is more conducive to expanding relations of peace and normalization between the two countries. At the same time, the overall picture is still ambivalent: Israel’s name does not appear in maps in the textbooks (except for one), and in some of them—in the context of the ongoing conflict in Palestine—it is still presented as a foreign, aggressive, and occupying entity whose existence lacks historical, political, and moral legitimacy. In addition, there is still a gap between the unequivocal praise for peace with Egypt that appears in Israeli textbooks and the dual messages with respect to Israel and Jews that appear in Egyptian textbooks.”
Egypt, dependent on Saudi and western financing is moving, slowly, in the direction
chartered by Saudi Arabia. If a US-Israel-Suni alliance materializes, Egypt’s enormous military buildup may become part of a new and secure Middle East – instead of a menacing military threat currently been watched with suspicion from Jerusalem.
To read the detailed investigation: https://cutt.ly/8eFS0NwU