In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Him, and may His peace and blessings be upon His final Messenger, Muhammad.
Curious, isn’t it? When people speak up for the rights of Palestinians, accusations of anti-Semitism from those who would deny these rights are rarely far away.
But even the most cursory and simple definition of anti-Semitism throws this all into question.
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, anti-Semitism is:
Hate or strong dislike of Jews, or actions that express hate or dislike of Jews.” [1]
Those making these allegations of anti-Semitism — particularly supporters of the Zionist entity known as the “State of Israel” — face the impossible task of equating the fight for Palestinian rights with hatred of Jewish people.
Setting aside this outrageous claim for a moment, let us turn our attention to what the Palestinian people have endured — and continue to endure — under Zionist oppression.
Hatred of a people? More like love of justice!
Repeated international rulings against the Zionist regime
It is precisely because of the Zionist entity’s decades-long oppression of the Palestinians that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — the main judicial body of the United Nations — has declared that “Israel” is operating an apartheid regime and unlawfully occupying the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
Meanwhile, the ongoing murderous Zionist onslaught against the Palestinians in Gaza has brought the entity before the ICJ on genocide charges, and has resulted in “Israeli Prime Minister” Benjamin Netanyahu being indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
And yet, it is those who oppose these acts of mindless slaughter and disregard for human life, and call for the Palestinian people to have the same rights as other peoples, that are smeared by the Zionists as hate-filled anti-Semites.
Purposeful conflation of Zionism and anti-Semitism
As ever, many in the pro-Palestine movement, myself included, take great care to distinguish clearly between Jewish people and Judaism on the one hand, and the settler colonial ideology of Zionism on the other.
Regrettably, however, many Zionists and their partners among the Western political elite do not make this important distinction. In fact, they deliberately muddy the waters, and weaponise accusations of anti-Semitism to try and undermine the Palestinian cause.
After all, it is easier for such individuals to shut down descent by falsely accusing people of bigotry and hatred, than engage with the subject matter, which would in turn require a whole raft of twisted and intellectually dishonest mental gymnastics to even attempt to “justify” the ongoing depraved actions of Zionist forces in Gaza and beyond.
Exploiting the Holocaust to shield Zionist crimes
The truth is, I believe some Zionists making these accusations secretly wish the pro-Palestine movement were anti-Semitic — it would make their job easier. Especially as they find themselves defending the “Israeli” Occupation Forces (IOF), whose soldiers have shamelessly posted footage of their own war crimes on social media for the world to see — from home demolitions to the torture of captives.
After all, these are the same people who exploit the memory of the greatest crime against the Jewish people, namely the Holocaust committed by Nazi Germany and its allies during the Second World War, and use it as cover to commit their own genocide. Do Zionists really care about Jewish suffering at all? Or do they just see it as a shield to protect their colonial project?
Either way, Zionist arguments crumble with minimal cross examination. It appears to me that the defenders of the IOF and the Zionist entity’s actions risk falling into anti-Semitism themselves. By condemning anyone who believes that the Palestinians deserve to live free from the aforementioned crimes as anti-Semites, are they not inadvertently equating Judaism and Jewishness with war crimes and genocide? This is something that I, as a supporter of the Palestinian cause, would never do.
Palestinians didn’t choose their oppressors
Let us remember that the Palestinians were never “consulted” as to who their oppressors would be.
True advocates of Palestinian rights are lovers of justice; we would oppose anyone committing the crimes outlined above, no matter their religious, ethnic, or cultural background. It just so happens that, in this instance, the perpetrating military force and “government” are mostly made up of Jewish people.
Indeed, as a Muslim, I am against all tyrants irrespective of who they are, whether it be the equally genocidal Hindutva nationalists of India, the Chinese Communist Party, or anyone else. It is not the identity of the criminal that is important, but rather that the crime itself is prevented and the perpetrators are held to account.
I have as much animosity towards the Muslim government of Iran for its heinous crimes against the people of Yemen and Syria, as I do towards the Zionists dropping bombs on children’s heads in Gaza and terrorising Palestinian villages in the West Bank.
The main difference, however, is that the UK government, which claims to represent me alongside other British citizens of conscience, has backed the Zionist entity’s genocidal actions to the hilt, supplying the IOF with equipment, and giving the Netanyahu regime political cover as they enact these monstrous crimes.
My government’s active complicity in this horrific violence places a particular responsibility on people like me — and on many others in Britain who believe in justice — to speak out. These crimes are being carried out in our name, and we refuse to be silent.
Does Zionism only have Jewish backers?
The phenomenon of Zionist crimes, the direct support they receive — not to mention the tacit acceptance of them from others who should know better — is not by any means limited to Jewish people.
It may be true that the majority of the IOF and the Zionist entity’s population and leadership happen to come from Jewish backgrounds, but this obscures the bigger picture.
Firstly, let’s look within the IOF itself: there are plenty of non-Jews among these murderous forces. For instance, there are Zionists belonging to the Druze sect. There is even a Druze politician from Netanyahu’s party sitting in his fascistic coalition. [2] [3]
Muslim regimes complicit in silence and normalisation
Zoom out a little further and you will notice yet more non-Jewish helpers of Zionism, namely the Muslim governments who refuse to take action to save the Palestinians in Gaza.
These states could stop the genocide at speed, using only political and economic pressure. Those who have already shamefully established relations with the Zionists could have cut diplomatic ties, some could have threatened to withhold the fuel that they transport and sell to the entity, while others could have refused to continue their own ongoing normalisation processes.
As our beloved brother and geopolitical analyst Sami Hamdi has repeatedly pointed out, all of them could have used their own leverage against the Zionists’ main sponsor, the United States, to rein in “Israel’s” ongoing massacre.
Instead, these rulers refuse to do the right thing, prioritising trade, comfort, and access to Washington, as their brothers and sisters are massacred and starved in their tens of thousands.
Christian Zionists: bigger, bolder, more dangerous
Then there’s the global picture; this may come as a surprise to some, but there are more Christian Zionists than Jewish ones!
In fact, American Christian Zionists alone outnumber the entire global Jewish population. A 2018 estimate even suggested that the ratio was as high as four American Christian Zionists to every Jewish person worldwide, constituting a staggering majority. [4]
These Christians believe it is their Biblical obligation to support present-day “Israel” and to facilitate the movement of Jews to Palestine in order to bring about the second coming of Prophet Jesus (ʿalayhi al-Salām) and with it the End Times. To that end, Christian Zionists have funded, aided, and abetted Jewish Zionist settler colonial groups in the occupied West Bank in contravention of international law. [5]
And yet, major figures in this movement have expressed sentiments that I am sure many Jews would find deeply offensive and hateful.
For example, Pastor John Hagee, the Evangelical founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), America’s largest Zionist organisation, has publicly claimed that God allowed Hitler to carry out the Holocaust in order to bring the Jews to Palestine. [6]
Can someone who believes the Holocaust was a praiseworthy and Godly act really be seen as anything other than anti-Semitic, irrespective of whether they support “Israel”? Nonetheless, Zionist organisers still felt it appropriate for this man to address a pro-“Israel” rally of tens of thousands of people in Washington DC back in November 2023.
I would politely suggest that Zionists take note of the problem of anti-Semitism within their own ranks before laying allegations at the feet of those who simply think Palestinians deserve to live without daily oppression!
Are Zionists marginalising Jewish voices?
Many Jews also oppose Zionism and advocate for the Palestinians. Anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews, Holocaust survivors and their descendants, and other Jewish campaigners of various backgrounds are a regular fixture at pro-Palestine marches in London.
And why shouldn’t they be? This tradition is nothing new. It even dates back to long before the Zionist entity existed. [7]
Yet, this matter presents another of the great contradictions and pitfalls in Zionist claims that supporting Palestinian rights is anti-Semitic. In doing so, they are themselves marginalising and disenfranchising Jewish people who raise their voices for Palestine, especially those who cite Jewish ethics as the reason behind their decision to speak out. Ironically, Zionists are discriminating against other Jews based on their own dislikes.
Worse still, in Jerusalem, anti-Zionist Jews have themselves faced harsh and brutal violence at the hands of “Israeli” police for their outspoken protesting for justice for Palestinians and opposition to the very existence of the Zionist entity, condemning it as sacrilege in the eyes of their faith. [8]
Are we really to believe that these Jewish voices are anti-Semitic, but that John Hagee and his ilk are friends of Jewish people?
Questions we must all consider
Who are the real anti-Semites?
Is it those who seek to single out and conflate the world’s Jewish communities and their religion with Zionism — a brutal, colonial, and genocidal ideology, that is in fact supported by more non-Jews than Jews globally — all the while marginalising other Jewish voices who passionately support Palestinian rights on religious and moral grounds?
…or is it those who oppose this ideology and others like it, all the while calling for justice for all oppressed people, and believing Palestinians have a right to live in peace, security, and harmony in their historic homeland of Palestine?
This should not be a difficult question to answer!
Source: Islam21c
Notes
[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/anti-semitism
[2] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-druze-fighting-gaza-horrifies-lebanon
[4] https://youtu.be/Fo77sTGpngQ
[5] https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/factsheets/factsheet-christian-zionism/
[7] https://www.islam21c.com/politics/why-the-world-needs-to-know-about-edwin-s-montagu/
