Tragically there is unimpeachable evidence that a significant anti-Semitic trend has emerged in Britain. That is evidently the conclusion of a new government-backed report to be published tomorrow.
That conclusion should have been apparent for a while but it does not go far enough. It leaves open the key question of why anti-Semitism has surged. Media bias and partisan teaching are often blamed, with some justification, but they are far from the full story. It is a key question which urgently demands investigation.
Although anti-Semitic sentiment is often framed as vociferous opposition to Israel rather than “Jews as Jews” – its prevalent contemporary form as anti-Zionism should be clear. It is not a rational criticism of Israel actions but, on the contrary, an assertion of canard that the Jewish state exemplifies the world’s evils. In the past Jews were often seen as personifying the supposedly wicked character of capitalism and modernity. Nowadays Israel is presented by its enemies as embodying the alleged sins of settler colonialism and western civilisation.
The sight of the crowd roaring in approval when Bob Vylan chanted “death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]” at the Glastonbury music festival captured the emergent mood. Since then the chant has been adopted at street protests, a rampage through an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne and leftist political events.
In relation to the latter an eminent Marxist professor admiringly shared a video clip of a restaurant owner in Spain evicting Israeli diners. It showed him accusing them of killing Palestinians and calling them “sons of bitches”. Naturally the learned academic sees himself as a staunch anti-racist.
Such sentiment has not emerged out of nowhere. Since the 7 October pogrom it has become increasingly common to slam anyone who supports Israel as a child killer, apartheid supporter or Nazi. Those who make such accusations brook no debate. The clear intent is to label any supporter of Israel as evil. That includes all Jews except those who explicitly disavow the Jewish state.
The charge of Israeli genocide in Gaza plays a similar role. Those who hurl the accusation are normally uninterested in the 1948 United Nations definition of the ultimate war crime. Contrary to that definition Israel is not engaged in a campaign “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. The insistence on the charge of genocide is essentially a way of saying that Israel is an irredeemably malevolent force which must be destroyed.
None of this is to claim that most let alone all Britons are anti-Semitic. But there are reasons for concern among a significant minority. For example, a survey conducted by YouGov in December 2023 found that a fifth of the British public said that Israel can get away with anything because its supporters control the media. Overall anti-Jewish sentiment, although still a minority view, was stronger among 18-24 year-olds than older sections of the population.
The increasing strength of such views raises the question of why they seem to be gaining ground. Two of the most popular explanations are to blame the media and to put the responsibility on education. While there is an element of truth in both charges neither provides the full story.
In relation to the media there is a high-profile debate, backed by substantial evidence, that the BBC in particular has consistent anti-Israel bias. That is not only that it sometimes criticises Israel’s actions but that the way it frames its coverage is systematically anti-Israel. For example, it shies away from recognising Hamas as a terrorist group. And when it covers Israeli military action in Gaza it often fails to explain what forces Israel is reacting against. Naturally there are always those who will make counter-claims of pro-Israel bias but arguments by Israel’s supporters are routinely met with such rebuttals.
A similar question could be raised in relation to schools. The national education union, the largest in Europe, has consistently taken an anti-Israel stance. For instance, last July it hosted an event in London called “How to talk about Palestine in our schools”. One teacher who attended was quoted as saying that: “The conference had speaker after speaker going on about the evil of Israel. After lunch they broke up into groups and I went into a smaller room where they were meant to be discussing antisemitism. Except they weren’t. It was all about Israel. So I stood up and pointed out that we were supposed to be discussing antisemitism. But I was told I needed to sit down — because the other people were ‘threatened’ by me”.
In the American educational system the situation is even worse. There is a concerted attempt to make ethnic studies (a form of critical race theory on steroids) a compulsory subject in public sector schools in several states including California. Among the core assumptions commonly taught in such courses is that Israel should be viewed as a colonial oppressor state.
Universities too have their fair share of academics promoting anti-Semitic ideas posing as principle anti-Zionism. This site has extensively documented this phenomenon. Typically these are concentrated in humanities and social science departments rather than natural sciences.
But the existence of a significant anti-Semitic strand in the media and the education systems is not the end of the story. On the contrary, it raises as many questions as it answers. In particular why a particular section of the professional middle class – academics, journalists and teachers – seems particularly attracted to anti-Semitic ideas. They see themselves as radical opponents of the cultural mainstream, and implacable enemies of racism, yet themselves promote anti-Semitic views.
The answer is related to the degradation of politics. Anti-Semitism comes to the fore when a section of the population is looking for simple answers to complex questions. It insists on seeing the world in black and white terms – with a clear binary distinction between good and bad – rather than recognising any shades of grey. This insistence on an essentially crude world view can apply to those who consider themselves as on the left just as it can to the right.
Anti-Semites typically have no room for doubt or complexity in their world view. They view themselves as implacably on the side of good while their opponents are entirely evil. An unhinged animosity to Israel becomes a way of demonstrating their virtue. By condemning Israel’s supporters as child murderers, Nazis and proponents of genocide they close down any chance of rational debate. Their ultimate conclusion is all too easily is that the only way to rid the world of such grave behaviour is to purge it of Jews. At a minimum they insist that Israel must be destroyed.
There are parallels between this simplistic world view and what Hannah Arendt, one of the great political thinkers of the 20th century, referred to as “thoughtlessness”. Anti-Semites typically do not want to have an internal dialogue with themselves about right and wrong. They reject any effort to understand the world from the perspective of others.
Opposing contemporary anti-Semitism should involve opposing both media bias and indoctrination in education. But it also means resisting a degraded politics which can only see the world in terms of a crude binary between good and evil.