Weaponization of antisemitism

The exploitation of the accusation of antisemitism, especially to delegitimize criticism of Israel or opposition to Zionism, is sometimes called weaponization of antisemitism. Cases of weaponizing antisemitism have arisen in various contexts, especially regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. There has been controversy over the concept of new antisemitism and the IHRA definition of antisemitism, both of which characterize some criticism of Israel and opposition to Zionism as antisemitic. Charges of antisemitism made in bad faith have been described as a smear tactic and likened to "playing the race card". Some anti-Zionist Jews have been accused of antisemitism and labeled "self-hating Jews".

The charge of weaponization has itself been criticized as antisemitic or rooted in antisemitic tropes, and as a rhetorical device employed across the political spectrum to delegitimize concerns about antisemitism, especially in anti-Zionist discourse.

History

In 1943, when a British court heard a case about Jews engaged in smuggling weapons into Palestine, future Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion called the case "a crude frame-up designed to defame the Jewish people" and called the speech of the defence counsel, who sought leniency for the defendants on the ground that they had been ensnared by a gun-running ring, "characteristic of the lowest type of anti-Semitism". Christopher Sykes wrote in 1965 that this incident began "a new phase in Zionist propaganda" in which "to be anti-Zionist was to be anti-Semitic". Propaganda theorist and activist Noam Chomsky has written that, although Sykes traced the origins of weaponized antisemitism to this episode, it was not until "the post-1967 period that the tactic has been honed to a high art, increasingly so, as the policies defended became less and less defensible".

According to historian of Israel Ilan Pappé, after the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)—with AIPAC founder Isaiah L. Kenen's support—sought to "portray certain 'anti-Israel' actions as anti-Semitic", especially with regard to international calls for Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank.