Abstract: Loin d’avoir disparu, la haine des Juifs est entrée dans un nouveau régime en se fixant sur Israël, cible d’une guerre médiatique de haute intensité. L’antisionisme radical, dont l’objectif est la destruction de l’État juif, représente en effet la dernière figure historique prise par la judéophobie. À ce titre, négatrice du droit à l’existence d’une nation, elle constitue l’une des principales formes contemporaines du racisme. Pour comprendre comment s’est accomplie la mondialisation de cette nouvelle configuration antijuive, l’auteur dissèque le nouveau discours de propagande des ennemis déclarés d’Israël tel qu’il s’est développé au cours des années 2000-2010. La nouvelle vision antijuive, qui consiste à « nazifier » les « sionistes » en tant qu’« agresseurs » et à « judaïser » corrélativement les Palestiniens en tant que « victimes », permet d’accuser les « sionistes » de « génocide » ou de « palestinocide ». Ce discours de propagande est replacé dans son contexte international, marqué par une menace islamiste centrée sur l’appel au jihad contre les Juifs.
Analysant divers matériaux symboliques exploités par la nouvelle propagande antijuive — images ou discours —, P.-A. Taguieff donne à comprendre comment et pourquoi la haine des Juifs, plus d’un demi-siècle après la Shoah, a pu renaître sous les habits neufs de l’« antiracisme » et de l’« anticolonialisme » et, grâce aux médias, se diffuser en recueillant l’assentiment d’individus parfois convaincus d’être étrangers à tout préjugé antijuif.
Abstract: Placards carrying images of swastikas superimposed on the Star of David and the Israeli flag were commonplace in street-level protests about the recent Israeli military actions and the conflict in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009. Allusions between Nazi genocidal practices and the activities of the Israeli state were also drawn in some of the speeches at protest meetings and press commentary on the conflict. Although this was not the first occasion that the ‘Nazi card’ had been played against Israel and Jews, the prevalence of the phenomenon appears to indicate its growing normalisation. Playing the ‘Nazi card’ is a discursive act involving the use of Nazi or related terms or symbols (Nazism, Hitler, swastikas, etc.) in reference to Jews, Israel, Zionism or aspects of the Jewish experience. It manifests in words uttered in speech or in writing, or in visual representations such as artwork, drawings, caricatures, cartoons, graffiti, daubings and scratchings, or visual expressions such as a Nazi salute or the clicking of heels. In many instances, the playing of the Nazi card is unquestionably antisemitic. However, the inclusion of particular modes of criticism of Israel in definitions of antisemitism has provoked controversy. The result has been a war of words which has stagnated into an intellectual and discursive cul-de-sac of claim and counter-claim about what does and does not qualify as antisemitism. Because of this, in focusing on discourse, this report attempts to shift the focus of analysis of contemporary antisemitism onto new ground: away from labelling and defining the problem, to an understanding of the consequences of particular discourse. By unravelling and dissecting various manifestations of the phenomenon, the report reveals how the playing of the Nazi card scratches deep wounds by invoking painful collective memory of the Holocaust. It also offers some recommendations as to how the problem might be addressed.
Abstract: Worauf lassen wir uns ein, wenn wir Antisemitismus begreifen wollen? Meinen wir ein Gefühl, ein Ressentiment, eine Haltung, ein Gerücht oder gar nur ein Vorurteil über eine bestimmte soziale und kulturelle Gruppe, die Juden genannt wird? Ressentiments gegen Juden kommen von Rechten, Linken, der Mitte, von Muslimen, sogar von anderen Juden.
Vor diesem Hintergrund ist es Zeit, Bilanz zu ziehen, und eine erweiterte Fassung des mittlerweile zum Standardwerk avancierten Sammelbandes zur Frage des »neuen Antisemitismus« vorzulegen. Die bisherigen Beiträge werden ergänzt um neue Texte, unter anderem zur aktuellen Situation in Großbritannien, Frankreich und Polen sowie um Erörterungen zur Agitation im Netz und um eine Untersuchung zu antisemitischen Einstellungen unter Flüchtlingen. Die älteren Texte sind jeweils zudem durch ein Postskriptum der Autoren angereichert. So ist das Buch nun mehr als ein Diskussionsband, es ist eine Dokumentation und eine Fortsetzung der globalen Debatte über den »neuen Antisemitismus« zugleich.
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Education against, Antisemitism: Far right, Antisemitism: Left-Wing, Antisemitism: Muslim, Antisemitism: New Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Monitoring, Antisemitism: Discourse, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Terrorism, European Union, Integration
Abstract: Il serait dramatique, et éminemment regrettable, qu'aucune voix ne s'élève aujourd'hui pour dénoncer « l'antisémitisme », dont les manifestations spectaculaires se sont multipliées au cours des deux dernières années - sans que les médias ne leur accordent la moindre place, à quelques exceptions près, - au moment même où se produit une très forte résurgence. Pierre-André Taguieff nous alerte sur cette seconde vague, post-nazie, ayant pris une forme tout à fait nouvelle : héritière des arguments traditionnels de l'antisémitisme, elle allie antisionisme et processus d'islamisation. Il la nomme nouvelle judéophobie. Ses expressions les plus récentes : en France, la multiplication des actes déliquants contre des synagogues, mais aussi les insultes et menaces adressées à des familles juives installées en banlieue, et tout récemment, un certain match de football France-Algérie ; au niveau international, la conférence de Durban, à la fin du mois d'août 2001, au cours de laquelle se jouèrent des pressions énormes pour stigmatiser et exclure les organisations israéliennes et juives ; et puis, les déclarations d'Oussama ben Laden depuis le 11 septembre. Dans le nouveau contexte géopolitique qui s'est brutalement dessiné, les intellectuels et la presse français restent curieusement muets, comme pétrifiés. Ils sont pris entre les thématiques de la victimisation sociologique des jeunes de banlieue et la dénonciation du fanatisme islamique. Pourtant, il est urgent de refuser intolérance et fanatisme, de décrire une évolution inquiétante très précisément, et de dénoncer toute pensée « amalgamante ». Le livre est né d'une communication donnée par l'auteur au Sénat lors du colloque « Les nouveaux visages de l'antisémitisme », le 14 octobre 2001.
Abstract: Antisemitism has been around since the existence of Jews. Recently, it has manifested itself worldwide in a contemporary form. New antisemitism refers to the use of double standards towards the State of Israel, demonizing its acts as well as questioning the country’s raison d’être. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, present in many aspects of everyday life from trade to academia, is widely regarded as the most obvious type of new antisemitism. While there are several studies focusing on the emergence of new antisemitism in the Western world, there is a lack of academic research regarding its existence and forms of manifestation in Central and Eastern Europe. There are even fewer reports examining the phenomenon from a regional perspective based on a uniform set of criteria. This research fills this gap by examining the different forms of anti-Semitism in the Visegrád countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), with a particular focus on new anti-Semitism. This report examines the phenomenon in country-specific case studies, considering the region’s historical, legal, and political context in its comprehensive analysis.
Abstract: Judaken discusses the various strands that constitute the so-called ‘new antisemitism’. He argues that this is not the first time a new crisis of antisemitism has been heralded. Indeed, in the wake of every major struggle in the Arab-Israeli conflict since the Six Day War, prominent scholars and advocates have sounded the alarm about a crisis resulting from the rise of what they designated a ‘new antisemitism’. Moreover, what writers point to as the vectors of the new antisemitism—Holocaust denial, the antisemitism of the extreme left, antisemitism in the Islamic world, anti-Zionism as antisemitism, even anti-racism as antisemitism—all have a fairly long history. What has changed are the role of information technologies and the geo-global context in which they function. These technologies have both facilitated the global dissemination of antisemitism as well as furnishing new means of combatting it. At bottom, this electronic warfare is both a symptom and a cause of the global forces at work in antisemitism today. After delineating the constellation of factors in the rise of global antisemitism post-September 2000, Judaken then draws on the work of Léon Poliakov, Judith Butler, Jean-Paul Sartre and the Frankfurt School, among others, to assess what Pierre-André Taguieff most aptly calls the ‘new Judaeophobia’.
Author(s): Beloff (Lord); Benz, Wolfgang; Billig, Michael; Cesarani, David; Cohn-Sherbok, Dan; Cruise O'Brien, Conor; Elazar, Daniel J.; Dinerstein, Leonard; Fein, Helen; Gebert, Konstanty; Glazer, Nathan; Gould, Julius; Jakobovitz, Immanuel (Lord); Kushner, Tony; Leibler, Isi; Lerman, Antony; Marrus, Michael R.; Mitten, Richard; Pelinka, Anton; Pouakov, Leon; Raab, Earl; Rotensreich, Nathan; Roth, Stephen J.; Schnapper, Dominique; Strauss, Herbert A.; Wisse, Ruth R.; Wistrich, Robert; Wodak, Ruth
Abstract: We recently addressed the following statement and questions on the strength and nature of anti-Semitism in the 1990s to a number of Jews and non-Jews throughout the world:
Talk of a ‘revival’ or ‘resurgence’ of anti-Semitism is now commonplace. This seems to be the result of developments in the former USSR and in Eastern and Central Europe since 1989, but also of increasing reports of anti-Semitic incidents taking place throughout Western Europe and similar problems emerging in North America, South America, Australia and South Africa.
1) How serious is the recent ‘resurgence’ of anti-Semitism? Is this in any sense a global phenomenon? Is talk of a ‘revival of antisemitism’ justified?
2) What are in your view the most important contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism? Should anti-Semitism still mainly be seen as a phenomenon of extreme right- and left-wing politics and ideology, or is contemporary anti-Semitism more seriously present in popular culture, within political and social élites, in the school playground?
3) What role, if any, do you think the conflict between Israel and the Arab world is playing in fostering anti-Jewish sentiment? How important is the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism in this context? To what extent is anti-Semitism today taking the guise of anti-Zionism?
4) Finally, if there is indeed an upsurge in antiswemitism, what do you think are its major causes? What part is nationalism, particularly in the Commonwealth of Independent States and in Eastern and Central Europe, playing in causing or exacerbating contemporary anti-Semitism? Do you agree that there was until recently a post-Holocaust taboo on anti-Semitism that has now been lifted?
Abstract: Never since the end of World War II have anti-Jewish sentiments gained such currency in France among so many different social groups. Never have these sentiments been so publicly expressed and met so little intellectual and political resistance as they have since the year 2000. As the number of anti-Jewish incidents escalates, the anti-racist demonstrations that ordinarily would respond to them are nowhere in sight. Important questions therefore need to be put now about the shockingly common acceptance of anti-Semitic attitudes and behavior. In this important book, Mr. Taguieff surveys the landscape of contemporary anti-Semitism, describing its leading figures, the role of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the Islamic influence in promoting anti-Zionism, and the blindness, complacency, or connivance of various institutions, groups, and individuals. The new wave of anti-Semitism spreading around the world, the author shows, is based on a polemical and fanciful amalgam of Jews, Israelis, and "Zionists" as representatives of an evil power. In the eyes of the new anti-Jews, the world's ills can be explained by Israel's existence. The chief accusation, purveyed especially by international Islamic circles and the heirs to Third Worldism, is that "Zionism," far from being a respectable nationalism like that of the Palestinians, is actually a form of colonialism, imperialism, and racism. The old European anti-Semitism, Mr. Taguieff notes, was a particular kind of racism, directed against Jews. The new worldwide anti-Semitism seeks to turn the charge of racism against the Jews.
Abstract: Wo liegt die Grenze zwischen legitimer Kritik an Israel und Antisemitismus? Hat sich der Antisemitismus in der Ideenwelt des Islam etabliert? Inwieweit spielen bei linkem Antizionimus antisemitische Topoi eine Rolle? Seit einigen Jahren gibt es eine neue, weltweit geführte Debatte über den Antisemitismus. Nicht mehr Rechtsextremismus und Vergangenheitsbewältigung stehen dabei im Vordergrund, sondern die kontroversen Positionen gegenüber dem Nahostkonflikt. In zahlreichen Originalbeiträgen dokumentiert der Band den internationalen Stand der Debatte erstmals für das deutsche Publikum. Mit Texten von Omer Bartov, Ulrich Beck, Micha Brumlik, Ian Buruma, Judith Butler, Dan Diner, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Thomas Haury, Jeffrey Herf, Tony Judt, Gerd Koenen, Matthias Küntzel, Antony Lerman, Andrei Markovits, Michael Walzer, Robert Wistrich und Moshe Zimmermann.
Abstract: Beller's review article takes as its starting point the essays published in a recent collection exploring the question of a ‘new antisemitism’. He claims that this debate has generated more heat than light. Warnings about the rise of a new antisemitism in Europe, especially on the left, are greatly exaggerated, largely unjustified and approach a form of psychological ‘projection’. Anti-Zionism is not necessarily antisemitism. Zionism is an ethnonationalist ideology and, as such, contradicts the universalist logic of the socialist and liberal left; the enthusiastic support for Israel by European socialist parties from 1948 until the 1970s was anomalous. Nevertheless, the recent critical approach taken by the liberal European media to Israeli policy is not usually anti-Zionist, but rather holding Israel to its own high moral standards. If there is conflation between anti-Zionist and antisemitic attitudes this reflects the similarly conflating Zionist belief that Israel is the expression of the Jewish people's right to national self-determination. Some manifestations of Arab/Muslim anti-Zionism do indeed exhibit the worst forms of antisemitism. However, there are reasons for this hostility. Heated assertions decrying the denial of the right of Israel to exist are distractions from the very problematic issues raised by Arab grievances. A deeper question here involves the conflict between the Muslim world and two forms of western modernity: neo-conservative, uniform, nationally based rationalism; and the more ‘postmodern’, critical and pluralist tradition of European (and American) left/liberal intellectuals. Ironically, current American and Israeli policy now represents the former ‘modernity’, while the latter, critical tradition derives to a great extent from the experience of the Jewish diaspora. The diasporic Jewish tradition is the model to which Israel and its supporters should look to secure Israel's peaceful, sustainable future.
Abstract: The purpose of this document is to catalyze a systemic approach in London. Meeting
the challenge of Israel's delegitimization requires a loosely coordinated and orchestrated
response, sometimes even taking a personal or non-public form. Therefore, all parties
will have to leave their comfort zones: Israel will have to let Jewish communities lead
the counter-attack in places, such as London, that require nuance and cultural
sensitivity; and Jewish institutions will have to allow for innovative thinking, new tools,
and aggressive experimentation that usually takes place outside of the established
community. All parties will have to come to terms with the idea that it takes 'all
instruments in the orchestra' to win this fight. Importantly, critics from the political left,
because they represent liberal values, are also an invaluable voice in delegitimizing
Israel's delegitimization, notwithstanding their common criticism of the Jewish
community's traditional institutions and the policies of the State of Israel.
Topics: Sociology, Jewish Community, Jewish Organisations, Jewish Renewal, Jewish Continuity, Security, Insecurity, Antisemitism, Antisemitism: New Antisemitism, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community
