Anti-Zionism Mutates into Anti-Semitism on the Political Left

To better understand this phenomenon in Europe, ADL asked partners in the UK, France, Germany and Spain to describe some of the expressions of left-wing political antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in their countries. The individual contributors are responsible for the content of those chapters and their positions may differ with standard ADL practice and/or policy.

Our British partner, the Community Security Trust, is the British Jewish community’s security agency, which monitors, reports on, and educates about antisemitism among other vital tasks for the safety and security of the Jewish community.

Our French partner, the politics and culture magazine “K., The Jews, Europe, the 21st Century,” reports on contemporary challenges and opportunities for Jewish life in France and elsewhere in Europe.

Our German partner, Amadeu Antonio Foundation, is one of Germany’s foremost independent non-governmental organizations working to strengthen democratic civil society and eliminate extremism, antisemitism, racism and other forms of bigotry and hate.

Our Spanish partner, ACOM, is a non-denominational and independent organization that strengthens the relationship between Spain and Israel, and whose work is inspired by the defense of human rights, democratic societies, civil liberties and the rule of law.

Those European contributions comprise the first sections of this report. Based on those essays, in the subsequent chapter, ADL analyzed common themes and notable differences among the four countries.

The final section adds ADL’s perspective on left-wing antisemitism in the political and advocacy spheres in the U.S. and provides suggested actions that can be taken to address antisemitism. To be sure, while not all antisemitism that has manifested in some elements of the political left in the U.S. is imported from Europe, lessons can be learned from this transatlantic phenomenon to protect against the mainstreaming of such antisemitism in U.S. politics.

United Kingdom
Political Parties and Leaders
It would be impossible to write about antisemitism on the left in British politics without writing about the Labour Party, particularly during the tenure of Jeremy Corbyn as its leader. Corbyn’s leadership lasted from September 2015 until he was replaced by Keir Starmer in April 2020. Though reports of antisemitism in the Labour Party did not begin with Corbyn’s ascent to the leadership, they increased markedly during his period as leader. This antisemitism was mainly, though not exclusively, concerned with attacks on “Zionists” and/or perceived supporters of Israel, although it was not limited to anti-Zionist discourse and often involved traditional antisemitic motifs. Such attacks included bullying and harassment of mainly Jewish Labour Party members at all levels of the party. 

This antisemitism manifested in various ways. One example is former Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Woking, Vicki Kirby. She tweeted in 2014 that “we invented Israel when saving them from Hitler who now seems to be their teacher” and “Who is the Zionist God? I’m starting to think it might be Hitler. #FreePalestine.” Kirby was deselected from running for Parliament and suspended by the party, but returned to her local branch in 2016 where she was elected vice chair of Woking Constituency Labour Party. Kirby was suspended again after the media reported on the story. 

Another case which prompted specific concerns that Labour’s antisemitism problems were institutionally embedded involved a party member called Alan Bull. He was an activist in his local Labour Party in Peterborough, who had been selected to be one of their candidates for election to the local authority. A complaint was made that he had posted a link on Facebook to an article denying the Holocaust. Bull was suspended while the complaint meandered its way through the Labour Party complaints process until the head of Labour’s disputes panel, Christine Shawcroft, emailed her colleagues on the Labour National Executive Committee saying:  

“I am concerned that party disciplinary procedures are being used in the pursuit of partisan disputes in local parties, wasting a great deal of staff time in the process,” adding “I think we should reinstate his [Bull’s] membership and allow him to contest the ward for which he has been selected.” 

The emails in which Shawcroft made these assertions were leaked to The Times newspaper, leading to her resignation (Shawcroft later said that she had not seen the alleged Holocaust denial). The incident served to highlight the institutional failings of a Labour Party that appeared incapable of taking action even in a clearcut case. Only once the issue was in the public domain was Bull prevented from standing as a council candidate and his membership of the Labour Party rescinded. 

Antisemitic discourse was found in social media posts published by Labour Party members at every level of the party hierarchy. Ordinary members, local councilors, candidates selected to stand for Parliament and sitting Labour Members of Parliament were all found to have posted antisemitic discourse. The mounting evidence of antisemitism in the party led the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Britain’s statutory human rights agency, to find that the Labour Party had broken the law by discriminating against Jewish members:

“The Party is responsible for three breaches of the Equality Act (2010) relating to; political interference in antisemitism complaints, failure to provide adequate training to those handling antisemitism complaints, harassment.” The equality body’s analysis points to a culture within the Party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it.

The situation at the time of writing is somewhat different to that which existed while the Labour Party was under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. This is largely due to the efforts made by the current Labour leadership to comply with the demands set forth by the EHRC following their investigation.

In the wake of the publication of the EHRC report, the new Labour leadership took steps to introduce a new disciplinary process, education about antisemitism for party officers and members, and to rebuild the confidence of Jewish party members. This change involved the party proscribing some small organizations that had been involved in spreading antisemitic discourse in the party (meaning Labour Party members could not also be members or supporters of these groups). Crucially, in line with the EHRC report, the party began to treat denial of the existence of antisemitism, or allegations that such complaints were a deliberate smear, as itself evidence of antisemitism.

In taking this action, Labour signaled to thousands of members, mainly from the far left of the party, that their views were unwelcome.  

An example of a group proscribed by the Labour Party involved a small organization called Labour Against the Witchhunt (LAW). The premise of this group was that antisemitism was a pretense, or witch hunt, being used to attack Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters. Now disgraced Professor David Miller was a frequent contributor to their online meetings, as was the U.S. academic Norman Finkelstein. The Community Security Trust highlighted one of their meetings in July 2020 at which Finkelstein claimed the Holocaust denier David Irving was “a very good historian”. At the same event Miller claimed that “The Zionist movement and the Israeli govt are the enemy of the left, the enemy of world peace and they must be directly targeted.” He also called the British government “the enemy.” Miller was no longer a Labour Party member at this time, but his views were indicative of broader attitudes in groups like LAW.

Pro-Palestine Activism
There is a strong crossover between the pro-Palestine movement, the far left of the Labour Party and other left-wing groups including some Trades Unions. Labour Party Members of Parliament and union officials often speak at demonstrations and events organized by Palestinian groups, placing them in a difficult position when antisemitism in some of these spaces is exposed. For example, in May 2021 Labour MP Naz Shah spoke at a demonstration where, during a different speech, protestors chanted “God, lift the curse of the Jews off the Muslims in Palestine.” Shah later condemned the comments, saying they “are not remarks I’d ever make.” Geraint Davies, Labour MP for Swansea West found himself standing among a crowd chanting “Khayber Khayber Ya Yahud Jaish al Mohammad Sa Yaud” (The Arabic phrase refers to the 7th Century Battle of Khybar, when Muslim armies expelled Jews from an area in the north-western Arabian Peninsula). This chant was ubiquitous across the UK at demonstrations held against Israel during that month. After the demonstration Davies tweeted that “I called in Swansea for an end to the killings of civilians in Palestine and Israel, peace and reconciliation, a two-state solution and adherence to international law. I therefore do not support any chanting in Arabic that followed that called for the opposite.”

Antisemitism within anti-Israel demonstrations was bad enough to warrant The Times newspaper running stories about it for two weeks running on the 23rd and 30th of May 2021. 

There are several examples of speakers at pro-Palestine demonstrations during the conflict in Israel and Gaza in May 2021 making statements that caused concern among the Jewish community. One of these was veteran left-wing activist Tariq Ali, who told a crowd of tens of thousands of people that “They have learnt nothing from what happened to them in Europe. Nothing” adding “Every time they bomb Gaza, every time they attack Jerusalem – that is what creates antisemitism. Stop the occupation, stop the bombing and casual antisemitism will soon disappear.”  

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is the main pro-Palestine campaign group in the UK that is active on the British left, and allegations of antisemitism regularly surface in relation to some of their activists. For example, a PSC member, Tapesh Abu Shaim, was elected to the National Executive Committee of the PSC in 2015 where he remained for 5 years. It emerged that Abu Shaim had published posts to his social media claiming Israel was behind ISIS and that “9/11 truth could be the answer to the Israel Palestine conflict.” It then emerged that in 2012 Abu Shaim had been given a personal tour around the Houses of Parliament by Jeremy Corbyn who was and still is a patron of the PSC. After those concerns had been published in the media, Abu Shaim was spotted at Labour Party conference manning a stall on behalf of the PSC. 

In addition, Kareem Denis, a rapper with the stage name ‘Lowkey’ who is a patron of both the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War Coalition, claimed on Iranian Press TV that “The mainstream media has weaponized the Jewish heritage of Zelenskyy the President of Ukraine to try to stave off these genuine inquiries into the groups fighting in Ukraine.” By “genuine inquiries” Lowkey was referring to Russian propaganda alleging support for Nazis in Ukraine, a trope often used to delegitimize Israel and its supporters.

The insistence that antisemitism is not present, when it obviously is, is sometimes farcical. In May 2018 at a meeting entitled Corbyn, Antisemitism & Justice for Palestine the Director of PSC said “there are those at the fringes of our movement who wish to articulate the cause for Palestinian rights through antisemitic narratives, through engaging in nonsense about Holocaust denial, or engaging in conspiracies about Israel’s power that draw on anti-Semitic tropes and we need to be clear that there is no place for you within our movement.” At the same event, a second speaker, Jonathan Rosenhead, said that there was “collaboration between the Nazis and the Jews, sorry the Zionists” while claiming that the actions of “Zionists” during World War II had resulted in the deaths of “hundreds of thousands of Jews.” Also sitting on the panel was a representative of the National Union of Teachers. None of them interrupted or disputed this rhetoric about “Zionists.”

Themes in Antisemitism on the Left
During the Corbyn years, the idea took hold that antisemitism was being used as a weapon to attack the Labour Party to impact its electoral success. This reinforced the long-standing belief on parts of the anti-Zionist left that false allegations of antisemitism are used to deflect criticisms of Israel (a phenomenon labelled ‘The Livingstone Formulation’ by British sociologist David Hirsh). In June 2022 Dr Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International General Secretary, claimed that “the accusations of being antisemitic, it’s really a way of silencing us” at an event in London regarding criticism being levelled against her organization. At the same meeting, Hagai Elad, the head of Israeli Human Rights organization B’Tselem, stated that Israel will “weaponize false allegations of antisemitism in order to silence and delegitimize.” Such reasoning has ensured that when antisemitism rears its head in left wing spaces, the person pointing it out is often seen as working on behalf of Israel rather than expressing genuine concerns. The EHRC addressed this in their report looking into antisemitism in the Labour Party and asserted that “suggesting that complaints of antisemitism were fake or smears” constituted “antisemitic conduct.” Jeremy Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party and to this day been prevented from sitting in Parliament as a Labour MP for publishing a statement with the claim that:

“One antisemite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media. That combination hurt Jewish people and must never be repeated.”

The Power of the Zionist Lobby
The idea of an all-powerful Israeli or Zionist lobby is one that has found swathes of appeal among the British left. It is common for British Jewish organizations or institutions to be referred to as an “pro-Israel lobby group.” By using such a term as a preface to a UK Jewish organization, the implication is being made that those Jews hold dual loyalty or are working against the interests of their own country. Ironically, it’s on Iranian state broadcaster, Press TV, where former Bristol University professor David Miller and former Labour Member of Parliament Chris Williamson respectively produce and present a series called ‘Palestine Declassified’ almost entirely devoted to trying to prove that British Jewish organizations have a Zionist or Israeli affiliation, thereby (it is claimed) doing the nefarious bidding of the Israeli state. 

….

United States
Lessons for the U.S. from the European Experience
When it comes of antisemitism in the U.S., there is a lot the U.S. Jewish community can learn from the experience of Jewish communities across Europe. This is especially true when it comes to anti-Israel trends and anti-Zionism, where we have seen a blurring of the lines between attacks on Israel and attacks on Jews and Jewish identity. 

Over the past few years, we’ve seen several examples of this, including how anti-Zionist rhetoric and terminology popular in European left circles, are increasingly utilized by some in U.S. political far left.

The most striking example of the permeation of anti-Israel trends into American society is what happened during the May 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict when tensions over Israel resulted in incidents of antisemitism directed at Jews and Jewish institutions in the United States.  

During prior periods of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, ADL observed a spike in antisemitic incidents across Europe, including during Israel’s conflicts with Hamas during 2012 and 2014. In 2014, dangerously violent incidents included the firebombing of a synagogue in Germany, firebombings of a Jewish community center and a kosher store in France, attempts to attack and invade synagogues in France, and Jews being attacked in public.  

While such violent outbreaks of antisemitism had previously been limited to communities outside the U.S., that changed during the May 2021 conflict.  

During that period, ADL recorded 251 incidents across the U.S. from May 11 — the official start of military action — through the end of the month, representing an increase of 115 percent over the same period in 2020.  

Notable incidents included: Jewish diners in Los Angeles attacked by individuals in cars carrying Palestinian flags shouting “You should be ashamed of yourselves” and reportedly making anti-Jewish slurs; a pro-Palestinian convoy in New York City driving through the 47th Street diamond district, an area with a heavy Jewish business presence, throwing firecrackers while shouting antisemitic slogans; a man wearing a kippah in New York going to a pro-Israel demonstration who was attacked by 5 men, one of whom yelled, “dirty Jew;” and in Las Vegas, a Jewish male having a conversation about the Israel-Hamas conflict with a stranger, was told Jews are “baby killers” who “are not going to exist.”

For those who doubted the connection between anti-Zionism and acts of antisemitism, this was proof that not only was there a very real link, but that linkage was no longer only evident outside the U.S.  

Each of the four countries examined in this paper provide examples of manifestations of left-wing antisemitism that are not dissimilar to trends we have observed in the U.S. And each offers warnings about how anti-Zionism and antisemitism could further manifest itself within elements of left leaning groups within the U.S. political realm. 

Use of Violent Language:  
The use of pro-intifada language, like we see in Germany, has entered into social justice circles in the U.S. This is particularly shocking, considering that the two Palestinian intifadas were intense periods of violence. They included suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings and other terror attacks, resulting in over 1,000 Israeli civilians killed and many thousands more injured. Whether or not they are aware, those who chant in support of the intifada are effectively endorsing a renewal of violence against Israeli civilians. 

We have seen several examples of how support for the intifada has made it into anti-Israel protests, including on American university campuses. In addition, we have seen social media pages of U.S.-based anti-Israel groups feature expressions of support for a Palestinian intifada against Israel.  

Some examples of this include: 

·  In January 2023, pro-Palestinian students at the University of Michigan, who were protesting a speaking engagement on climate change by Vice President Kamala Harris, were recorded chanting “There is only solution: intifada revolution!” and “Long live the intifada!” 
·  In January 2023, Rabab Abdulhadi, a San Francisco State University associate professor who has repeatedly expressing support for Palestinian terrorists, was given an award from the Middle East Studies Association.  
·  In November 2021, the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine group at University of Chicago released a zine, or student-generated activist pamphlet, with an image depicting two Molotov cocktails and the text, “Cheers to Intifada.” 

Use of Conspiracy Theories:  
The antisemitic notion of Jewish / pro-Israel lobby control over the government’s actions, which we see in the UK and France, is unfortunately a familiar trope in the U.S. Indeed, it is one of the oldest antisemitic tropes, which has infested societies for hundreds of years, and was prominent in the infamous forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. 

The myth of Jewish power has long been espoused by those on the far right, as well as on the far left.  However, in recent years, we have seen accusations from more prominent and mainstream figures, who falsely claim that some Jewish and pro-Israel groups are unduly influencing U.S. foreign policy - in governments, academic circles, and elsewhere - in favor of Israel. They often claim that these groups are using their “power” to stifle any criticism of Israeli government policies. Some elected officials have even blamed their failure to get elected or re-elected on the so-called Israel lobby.  

Examples of this include:  

·  After former Human Rights Watch Director Ken Roth, who has been harshly critical of Israel in recent years, was rejected from a fellowship position at Harvard University, a January 2023 article published in the Nation blamed the decision on conspiracy theories about Jewish control, power and financial influence. (Note: Harvard later reversed its decision and offered Roth the fellowship.)
·  In September 2022, anti-Zionist journalist Philip Weiss wrote “Just how powerful is the Israel lobby? My answer is that the lobby controls U.S. policy with respect to Israeli persecution of Palestinians.” 
·  Following her 2021 Democratic primary loss, candidate Nina Turner blamed “evil money” - a reference to the support the winning candidate received from pro-Israel groups – for her failed campaign.

·  In a 2019 social media post, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar suggested that Israel’s allies in American politics were motivated by money rather than principle, tweeting “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” (a reference to $100 bills). Omar subsequently apologized, following discussions with Democratic colleagues.

The use of classical antisemitic tropes about Jewish control is not limited to the extreme left nor to discourse about Israel. Indeed, on the extreme right, we have also witnessed nefarious claims that Jewish financiers like George Soros and groups of “Globalists” - often used as code for “Jews” - are working secretly to undermine US interests and control things behind the scenes. 

Use of Soviet-era Terminology:  
Much like in France, we have seen the adoption in the U.S. of Soviet-era tactics to brand Israel as an extension of colonialism and the label of Zionism as racism. We see this type of language from anti-Israel NGOs and activist groups who seek to put the Zionist movement in the same category as European colonialism by falsely arguing that Jews have no claim to Israel. Some Members of Congress have even started adopting similar rhetoric in their public statements and letters. There are even those who compare the crimes committed against the Native Americans to the experience of Palestinians. 

Some examples of this include: 

·  In a 2021 letter, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and several other Members of Congress, referred to Israel’s policies in the West Bank as “settler colonialism,” language that seeks to equate Israel with the colonialist policies of European governments. By labeling the Palestinians as the sole indigenous population, it attempts to cement the notions that Jews have no claim to or history in the land.  
·  In a 2021 Facebook post, the Jewish Voice for Peace NGO detailed how the infamous 1975 UN Resolution that Zionism = Racism is still applicable today.  

·  The NDN Collective, a grassroots Indigenous group based in South Dakota that advocates self-determination for Native peoples, published a position paper arguing that “origins of zionism are firmly rooted in colonial european ideas of ‘civilization’ that we find across our own history in North America.” [sic]