Advocating for Jewish Well-Being in This Era of Antizionism
What Do We Mean When We Say Antizionism?
Last week, I met a new friend for coffee. She’s a fellow Jew and deeply involved in Jewish life. As one does, we started talking about the state of the world and she asked,“What do you mean when you say antizionism?”
I relayed what I know, that antizionism is hatred of Israel and the Jewish collective. My new friend then shared that some people believe that antizionism is disagreeing with the Israeli government. Another notion people hold is that antizionism is the opposite of Zionism. This made me think that more people need to learn about modern antizionism.
We need to be on the same page if we want to fight a hate of this magnitude.
Like so many of my Jewish friends and colleagues, I was in a state of shock after October 7th. I had never felt so unsafe and so hated before in my life. I had nothing to grab onto when I experienced personal attacks questioning my ethics and worse. When I tried to speak up it seemed like the game had changed and I hadn’t been notified of the new rules.
Antizionism is what much of today’s iteration of Jew hatred looks like. It functions just like the two other expressions of Jew hate: antijudaism and antisemitism, but it carries a flavor profile all of its own.
Harkening back to Soviet propaganda and authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, today’s antizionism jettisons Israel and anyone who supports it as a moral offender.
In its modern form, antizionism spews relentless conspiracy theories and libel. Words like “genocide,” “apartheid,” and “settler colonialism” are thrown around indiscriminately. Stigma about “Zionists” and Israel abound. Violence is perpetuated against Jews worldwide along with the likely denial that will soon follow.
This cycle of Jew hatred operates in every era. During ancient times, antijudaism proffered the infamous blood libel and later, antisemitism cast Jews as “dirty” and “greedy and “not white.” Fast forward to now as Jews are portrayed as “hyper-white” an inaccuracy along with the fact that our people lived long before the concept of race even existed.
In the mental health professions, students are taught “decolonizing” approaches that frame Jews as “oppressors” and “colonizers.” Antizonist social work groups share propaganda as truth flagrating the profession’s ethical codes.
Zionism is precisely the belief in the Jewish people’s self-determination in their ancestral homeland. Israel is the only country Jews can truly call home. It is a diverse nation made up of Jews of many backgrounds, Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, Bedouins, Druze, Circassians, Samaritans and Armenians. The majority of Israelis themselves hold a deep distrust of their current government.
Why is Israel, alone among nations, targeted while countries committing actual moral trespasses don’t even make the mainstream news?
If criticism of Israel was simply criticism of a government, why does it so often extend to Jewish and Israeli students, clinicians, professionals, clients, patients and people who merely believe Israel has a right to exist?
The historical and psychological inversions we are living with are unreal. Today’s antizionism sells nightmares as truth, wins elections and puts the Jewish people at high risk.
It’s critical that Jews in the diaspora and others who retain the ability to think for themselves understand antizionism as a dangerous ideology that threatens us all.
Below are two North American resources to learn from:
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