Weaponised?

 

It strikes me that there has been a modicum of both weaponisation and inverted-weaponisation, just as there has been with ‘racist’.

But here’s the thing. Defining antisemitism is essentially a task for Jews, just as defining anti-black racism has always been a task for non-whites. Why would anyone even care when a white person attempts to set the boundaries in a fashion that obviously suits their own political (or geo-political) biases?

Just because Israel says something is antisemitic does not mean that it is…or indeed, isn’t.

That’s why have the widely accepted IHRA ‘working’ definition of Antisemitism which anyone, Jewish or otherwise, can keep handy when reading relevant posts on social media…or the Guardian.

And frankly, online games of bigotry BINGO are all too easy to set up these days. 

 

For example...if the article or post makes “mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews” or accuses them “as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews”, BINGO! the author has an obvious pathological problem.

If the intent of the piece is to deny “the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” or if it applies “double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” BINGO! Antisemite.

The loudest and simplest shout of all comes when the author deploys “the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis” or openly draws “comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

BIIIIIIINGO!!!

Israel claiming something or someone is antisemitic when they may not be, is ultimately less prejudicial to the fundamental meaning of the notion, than so-called progressives in denial about their own deep-seated bigotry attempting to distract the entire culture from its agreed, speaker-neutral formulation for this variety of hate speech.