Is it True that Anti-Zionism is Not Antisemitism?

Is Anti-Zionism Antisemitism?

”Anti-Zionism is the belief that says Israel has no right to exist and shouldn’t continue existing [as a Jewish state]. It is not a theoretical position. It’s an effort to forcibly dispossess over six million Jews of a right they currently have. It doesn’t say that nation-states shouldn’t exist, just that the Jewish state – the only safe-haven for Jews around the world – shouldn’t exist.”

—Adam Levick, Co-Editor of CAMERA UK

This critical issue is part of the internationally-endorsed “International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s” (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. There is, however, a fringe movement to delegitimize this definition and paint it as a threat to free speech and Palestinian rights and activism. But there is nothing in the definition that problematizes advocacy for Palestinian self-determination. On the contrary, those who attack the IHRA definition want to lend an air of legitimacy to calls for the dissolution of the world’s only Jewish state.

Recommended Resources:

The Antisemitic Rhetoric of Anti-Zionists

“With Nazism widely recognized as the embodiment of evil, anti-Zionists attempt to link Zionism to Nazism. Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London and an avowed anti-Zionist, was suspended by the UK’s Labour Party in 2016 and resigned from the party in 2018 over his repeated false allegations of a Zionist-Nazi collaboration, twisting the emigration of Jews from Germany to Palestine in the 1930’s into Nazi “support” for Zionism.”

Debunking the Myth that Anti-Zionism Is Not Antisemitism

“Zionism is the belief that Israel has a right to continue to exist. Anti-Zionism is the belief that says that Israel has no right to exist, and shouldn’t continue existing. It is not a theoretical position. It’s an effort to forcibly dispose over six million Jews of a right that they currently have. It doesn’t say that nation-states shouldn’t exist, just that the Jewish state – the only safe-haven for Jews around the world – shouldn’t exist.”

Guardian letter by Palestinian artists and academics: Zionists are racists

“First, we should be clear: IHRA doesn’t define as antisemitic accusations that Israel has racist policies, only smears that it is intrinsically racist. The first sentence in the above principle conflates the two. Because, though all nations in the world can reasonably be accused of discrimination and racism on some level, when you argue that a state is, by definition, racist, you’re saying that it has no political or moral legitimacy: that it arguably has no right to exist.”