Israel declares Brazil's president Lula 'persona non grata' over Gaza remarks it deems 'serious antisemitic attack'
So, what is antisemitism exactly? Oxford:
Hostility
towards and discrimination against Jewish people (although there are other
Semitic peoples, notably the Arabs, anti‐Semitism is only used to refer to
prejudice against Jewish people)
From <https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095417471>
Semite.
noun. Sem·ite ˈsem-ˌīt. : a member of any of
a group of peoples of southwestern Asia chiefly represented by the Jews and
Arabs.
At first sight the
term seems simple, it refers to bigoted attacks on Jews. But a Jew is not so easy
to identify, unless they are fundamentalist and wear the traditional attire,
anyone can be Jewish. Knowing that a person or group is Jewish is therefore a
matter of some degree of knowledge and calculation to discriminate. So the term
can also imply there is a systematic nature to such attacks, as in Nazi Germany.
Recently accusations and
reports of antisemitism have risen, chiefly because of the conflict in Gaza, and
the Israeli retaliation, after the terroristic attack on Israel by Hamas and
others on 7 October 2023 in the context of resistance to Israel’s long-term
occupation of Palestinian territories and the colonization of Palestine in 1948
after WWII by displaced Jewish refugees.
Why is this definition
different to racism? Usually with racism the ethnic identity of those who are
discriminated against is relatively more obvious due to, for instance, skin
colour or other physical characteristics of the group. With Jewish people,
racial characteristics are not present or relevant to the religion, so can only
be imagined and imposed, which would be antisemitic. Although the notion of
race itself is questionable in the sense that there are no actual different
human races, only distinct traits among the one human species. Because of the
problem of the loose identification of ‘the Jew’ and seeing Jewishness as a
race and/or nationality, discrimination against Jews, and so antisemitism, can
be against anyone to whom attaching the label is convenient for the interested
party.
Currently, the far-right
ruling government of Israel often uses or threatens to use the term. As above, for
example it calls the president of Brazil’s comments antisemitic, these are his
comments as presented on the BBC:
Speaking from an African Union summit in Ethiopia, Lula said:
"What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no
parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided
to kill the Jews.
"It's not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It's a war
between a highly prepared army and women and children."
From <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68332821>
Over 29, 000 Gazan
Palestinians have so far been killed in the bombardment of this fenced-in land,
and thousands are being starved by Israel’s blockading actions, supported by
the west led by the U.S., yet the comparison with the Holocaust by President Lula
remains unwise, and is not proportionate. But even so, does this statement deserve
being called antisemitic? Does not calling it antisemitic also cheapen the
argument? We have recently witnessed the
label being used repeatedly in inappropriate contexts to silence opposition to and
debate about various political activities, but of course most importantly about
Gaza. We must note that this can itself be antisemitism, and that the ruling
party of Israel has been antisemitic in precisely this sense. The systematic, state
supported, dehumanisation of an indistinct ethnic group (Gaza Palestinian Arabs
in this case) by the Israeli far-right is without any doubt a form of
antisemitism. It is a charge thus which can also be used against its own Jewish
citizens, such as when they protest this government. It may seem to be a
strange and awful historical irony that this is Israel, a Jewish state, that is
guilty of antisemitism, but recognizing this is not without precedent by some
prominent Israeli citizens:
Thus, Israel's most influential philosopher, Yeshayahu Leibowitz of the Hebrew University, had no difficulty calling the Israeli armed forces "Judeo-Nazis," and declared that Israel would soon be engaging in the "mass expulsion and slaughter of the Arab population" and "setting up concentration camps."
From
<https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hazony-jewish.html>
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