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October 1, 17:00 London time
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Whatever Happened to Antisemitism? Redefinition and the Myth of the ‘Collective Jew’
Antony Lerman
Antisemitism is one of the most controversial topics of our time. The public, academics, journalists, activists and Jewish people themselves are divided over its meaning. Antony Lerman shows that this is a result of a 30-year process of redefinition of the phenomenon, casting Israel, problematically defined as the ‘persecuted collective Jew’ among the nations, as one of its main targets. This political project has taken the notion of the ‘new antisemitism’ and codified it in the flawed International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s ‘working definition’ of antisemitism. This text is the glue holding together an international network comprising the Israeli government, pro-Israel advocacy groups, Zionist organisations, Jewish communal defence bodies and sympathetic governments fighting a war against those who would criticise Israeli Apartheid.
The consequences of this redefinition are alarming: suppressing free speech on Palestine/Israel, perpetuating occupation, reinforcing the denial of Palestinian rights, legitimising Islamophobia, and making Jews more, not less, vulnerable.
The Myth of the ‘Collective Jew exposed
The myth of Israel as the persecuted ‘collective Jew’ among the nations is central to the political
project of redefining antisemitism as ‘new antisemitism’ and codifying it in the IHRA ‘working
definition of antisemitism. The fundamental argument of the book is that this myth is politically,
philosophically, and conceptually unsustainable. And yet it plays a powerful role in the
perpetuation of occupation, denying Palestinians their rights and reinforcing the demonising of
Palestinians as the principal purveyors and disseminators of antisemitism. Exposing the
bankruptcy of this myth is of fundamental importance in dismantling the barriers to Palestinians
obtaining their inalienable rights.
Antony Lerman is Senior Fellow at the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, Vienna, Honorary Fellow at the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish Non-Jewish Relations, Southampton University and Associate Editor of Patterns of Prejudice. He was Director of the Institute of Jewish (Affairs (1991-96), then Founding Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (1996-1999 and 2006-09). He was one of the founders of Independent Jewish Voices. He is the author of The Making and Unmaking of a
Zionist: A Personal and Political Journey (2012), co-author of Bad News for Labour: Antisemitism, the Party and Public Belief (2019), founding Editor of Antisemitism World Report (1992-98). He has written on antisemitism, racism and other political issues for the Guardian, Independent, Prospect, Haaretz, New York Times, New Statesman, the Nation, London Review of Books, aufbau, Jewish Chronicle, openDemocracy, Middle East Eye and many other publications.
