New antisemitism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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[[Gerry Gable]], publisher of the anti-fascist ''[[Searchlight magazine]]'', agrees that "a lot of anti-semitism is driven by the left. There are elements who take up a position on Israel and Palestine which in reality puts them in league with anti-Semites." <ref name=Gable/> ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|The Sunday Times]]'' reported in August 2006 that "[w]omen pushing their children in buggies bearing the familiar symbol of the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] marched last weekend alongside banners proclaiming 'We are all [[Hezbollah]] now' and Muslim extremists chanting 'Oh Jew, the army of Muhammad will return'." British novelist [[Linda Grant (journalist)|Linda Grant]], a former [[Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp|Greenham Common woman]], told the newspaper: "What you’re seeing is an alliance of what used to be the [[far left]] with various Muslim groups and that poses real problems ... Part of it feels the wrong side is winning." <ref>Baxter, Sarah. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2309812,00.html "Wimmin at War"], ''The Sunday Times'', August 13, 2006.</ref> Radu Ioanid, director of the Meed Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors at the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]], writes in his foreword to ''Rising from the Muck'', [[Pierre-André Taguieff]]'s book about the new anti-Semitism in Europe, that during the student uprising in France in 1968, protesters could be heard shouting: "''Nous sommes tous des Juifs Allemands''" ("We are all German Jews") in support of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, one of their expelled leaders. In 2002, in contrast, the slogans heard at rallies in Paris were "Death to the Jews" and "Jews to the ovens." <ref name=Ioanidxi>Ioanid, Radu. Foreword [[Pierre-André Taguieff|Taguieff, Pierre André]]. ''Rising from the Muck: The New Anti-Semitism in Europe''. Ivan R. Dee, 2004, p. xi.</ref>

[[Image:ReportAllPartyParliamentaryInquiry.jpg|left|thumb|150px|A British parliamentary inquiry concluded that contemporary anti-Semitism in that country is "now more commonly found on the [[Left-wing politics|left]] of the political spectrum than on the [[Right-wing politics|right]]." <ref name=APP32>[http://thepcaa.org/Report.pdf "Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism"] {{PDFlink}}, September 2006, p.32.</ref>]]

After an attempted boycott of Israeli academics proposed by a British teaching union, the British parliament set up its All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, which reported in September 2006 after a 10-month inquiry. <ref name=APP>[http://thepcaa.org/Report.pdf "Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism"] {{PDFlink}}, September 2006.</ref> At the inquiry's launch, [[John Mann (politician)|John Mann]] MP said that anti-Semitism was once considered the preserve of the far right, but this is no longer the case. "We have to recognise that antisemitism is a [[virus]] and it [[Mutation|mutates]] to suit its surroundings ... The liberal and progressive Left is not immune." <ref name=inquiry>[http://www.thepcaa.org/inquiry_members.html Website of The All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism in the UK].</ref> The chairman, former Europe Minister [[Denis McShane]], describes what he calls a "witch's brew" of anti-Semitism involving left-wing activists and Muslim extremists, who use criticism of Israel as a "pretext" for "spreading hatred against British Jews." <ref name=Temko>Temko, Ned. [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1863808,00.html "Critics of Israel 'fuelling hatred of British Jews'"], ''The Observer'', February 3, 2006.</ref> (See [[New_anti-Semitism#United_Kingdom|below]] for more details.)

The report concludes that verbal abuse, harassment, and violence against Jews and their institutions in the UK has reached "worrying levels," and that contemporary anti-Semitism in that country is "now more commonly found on the left of the political spectrum than on the right." <ref name=APP32>[http://thepcaa.org/Report.pdf "Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism"] {{PDFlink}}, September 2006, p.32.</ref> Professor [[David Cesarani]] of [[Royal Holloway, University of London]] gave evidence that anti-Semitism "no longer has any resemblance to classical Nazi-style Jew hatred, because it is masked by or blended inadvertently into anti-Zionism, and because it is often articulated in the language of human rights. <ref name=APP32/> The report states that ignorance of the history of anti-Semitism means that some may not even realize that the language and imagery they use are part of the tradition of anti-Semitic discourse. <ref name=APP33>[http://thepcaa.org/Report.pdf "Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism"] {{PDFlink}}, September 2006, p.33.</ref>

A group of left-wing British academics, journalists, and activists founded what they call the [[Euston Manifesto]] in April 2006, a declaration of principles intended as a new rallying point for the democratic left. It declares that: "'Anti-Zionism' has now developed to a point where supposed organizations of the Left are willing to entertain openly anti-Semitic speakers and to form alliances with anti-Semitic groups. Amongst educated and affluent people are to be found individuals unembarrassed to claim that the [[Iraq war]] was fought on behalf of Jewish interests, or to make other 'polite' and subtle allusions to the harmful effect of Jewish influence in international or national politics — remarks of a kind that for more than fifty years after [[the Holocaust]] no one would have been able to make without publicly disgracing themselves." <ref name=euston>[http://eustonmanifesto.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=41 "The Euston Manifesto"], March 29, 2006.</ref>