When Europe replays the 1930s
My observation points to a disturbing phenomenon: the recycling of old demons in new guises. Anti-Semitism, which we thought had been relegated to the extreme fringes, now dresses itself up in the “acceptable” costume of anti-Zionism or “criticism of Israel.” What is striking, however, is not the political criticism of a state—which is legitimate in a democracy—but the systematization of this criticism, its obsessive nature, its excessive selectivity, and the shift from politics to identity. When it is no longer just the decisions of a government that are being attacked, but writers, athletes, artists, and even anonymous Jews in Europe, we are no longer dealing with opinion: we are dealing with stigmatization.
The history of the 1930s teaches us that hatred rarely takes hold head-on at first. It advances in disguise, cloaked in rationality or justice, claiming to be moral, then, little by little, it designates a convenient scapegoat. Today, anti-Semitism no longer declares itself as such: it disguises itself. Doors are closed to creators because they are “associated” with Israel, concerts are “canceled,” films are boycotted, just as yesterday works were banned on the pretext of an ‘undesirable’ origin. We talk about “political solidarity,” but what is really at stake is the assignment of an identity that no one asked for.
To call it anything else is to resort to euphemism. Targeted exclusion on the basis of membership—real or supposed—is not called “debate” or “social justice,” but discrimination. And in this case, discrimination against Jews. Words matter: when an entire community is summoned to “pay” for an armed conflict thousands of miles away, it is anti-Semitism. When writers are disqualified because of their birth and not because of their writings, it is anti-Semitism. When a soccer player is booed not for his performance but for his identity, it is still anti-Semitism.
The harsh reality is this: under the guise of morality, Europe and part of the world are replaying mechanisms that we hoped had been buried. We express outrage at little cost, but that outrage translates into an old logic of exclusion. If this is not anti-Semitism, then the word no longer has any meaning.