How Right and Left conflate anti-Zionism and antisemitism to stymy Palestinians

AMOS GOLDBERG: From the far right to progressives, groups that will not tolerate criticism of Israel all delegitimise the validity of a Palestinian liberation movement

ON ISRAELI HOLOCAUST Remembrance Day, many mark the struggle against antisemitism as part of the terrible legacy of the Holocaust. There is no doubt that antisemitism, and any other form of racism and bigotry, must be fought decisively.

However, one of the most disturbing phenomena of the last decade or two is the identification of anti-Zionism and even harsh criticism of Israel with antisemitism, as well as the reverse identification of "contemporary" antisemitism first and foremost with anti-Zionism and even criticism of Israel.

The identification of criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism with antisemitism is unfounded if only because some of the harshest opponents of Zionism were Jews

These identifications are serious because they are derived from alleged lessons of the Holocaust. And so it appears that any substantial criticism of Israel and Zionism is perceived in public opinion, and especially among national and international political and cultural institutions, as an ideological continuation of the Holocaust.

Thus the emancipatory struggle of the Palestinians for liberation and decolonisation is tagged as a struggle that is in fact a direct continuation of the Holocaust and Nazism.

The identification of criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism with antisemitism is unfounded if only because some of the harshest opponents of Zionism were Jews. In fact, from the moment Zionism appeared on the stage of history at the end of the 19th century, opposition to it was born within the Jewish world.

FULL STORY Anti-Zionism and antisemitism: How right and left conflate issues to deny Palestinian rights (Middle East Eye)

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