The ‘Anti-Zionist’ mask is slipping; everyone can see it’s just antisemitism

Most of us didn’t exactly need this evidence to know that when they scream about Zionists, they mean Jews, but in some ways, it is satisfying to see it so clearly spelled out.

When the mask and keffiyeh-wearing students scream ‘Zionists off our campus’, they don’t mean the vast majority of people in this country who, despite two years of anti-Zionist libels perpetuated in our media and formerly respected institutions such as the UN, recognise that Israel exists and shouldn’t be destroyed. They mean Jews. And when, earlier this month, a small army of Muslim men screamed ‘Zionist scum off our streets’ at what was billed as an anti-racist demonstration, they were talking about us too.

When Bob Vylan frontman Pascal Robinson-Foster ranted about Zionist bosses and then screamed ‘Death, death to the IDF’ at Glastonbury, his fans certainly knew who he was talking about: Reports of antisemitic attacks peaked in the 48 hours after his performance.

Zionism has become the icon of evil in the progressive world. For those who are simple enough to think that a utopia is somehow just around the corner, Zionists are the only impediment to everything being perfect. Greta Thunberg, who once wanted to save the world through her climate activism, now sees Palestinianism as the way to salvation, describing it as ‘a global movement for social and climate justice, liberation and decolonisation led by marginalised people.’

If only life were really so easy.

The non-Jewish world has always loved to project its own failings onto Jews and accuse us of the most offensive crimes against humanity, so we become the scapegoat whose destruction will lead to their salvation.

Anti-Zionism is the latest iteration of this Jew hatred: as the great Rabbi Sacks said, first they hated us for our religion, our ethnicity and now our nation state. And however much they cloak their hatred against us in the language of social justice, the fact that it requires so many lies – the genocide libel, the apartheid libel, the settler colonialist libel, the white supremacist libel – shows that it is simply the old hatred dressed in new, shinier ‘progressive’ clothes.

After the horrors of the Holocaust, it became unfashionable to be an antisemite. Anti-Zionism replaced it. At the European Jewish Association conference in Poland earlier this week, Swedish academic Dr Christer Mattsson described how his research had found that the word ‘Zionist’ had taken the place of the word ‘Jew’ with the same ugly connotations and tropes. ‘What we call anti-Zionism has become the dominant form of modern antisemitism,’ he said. ‘Disguising the same hatred as political critique.’

Ironically, the Palestinians, whom they claim to want to save, exist only as a vehicle for this hatred. They don’t care that Hamas is a fascist terrorist organisation which, in the last few weeks, has killed more than 100 Palestinians, including children. They have no interest in the fact that Lebanon truly is operating as an apartheid state where Palestinians aren’t allowed to buy land or do specific jobs. Anti-Zionism has nothing to do with real Zionism. It is simply a new way of hating Jews.

The rest of the world is beginning to see this, but now we need them to do something about it. Keir Starmer acknowledges that ‘from the river to the sea’ and ‘globalise the intifada’ are antisemitic, and he told this newspaper that he wanted to give the police new powers to tackle protests; he still refuses to follow the lead of France and Germany, which have banned these chants. 

London Victims Commissioner Claire Waxman told me she is trying to get the authorities to take this seriously, saying, ‘Targeting Jewish events and calling for Zionists to ‘go back home’ is offensive, racist behaviour that unequivocally targets Jewish people and would understandably cause alarm and distress. The Metropolitan Police and CPS should be progressing cases like these under the Public Order Act. That is precisely what the legislation is intended for.’

Three weeks after the ceasefire was signed, and we saw the horrors of antisemitic murders in Manchester, it is clear that these demonstrations are here to stay and have, in fact, become even nastier than they were before. Is it too much to ask for our government to do something about it?