House of Commons Adopts Motion Attacking Criticism of Israel -- Old and New Definitions of Anti-Semitism

House of Commons Adopts Motion Attacking Criticism of Israel -- Old and New Definitions of Anti-Semitism

A motion was unanimously adopted by Members of Parliament on February 25 that declared, among other things, "Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is wrong. But singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium -- let alone denying its right to exist or seeking its destruction - is discriminatory and hateful, and not saying so is dishonest;"

"Selective condemnation" is a tired and well-known trope used by the organized Zionist movement to shut down growing outrage over Israeli war crimes, occupation and violations of human rights. It is to the shame of the House of Commons that none of its members could muster the strength to speak out against a hackneyed phrase aimed expressly at having the state paint Canadians as "discriminatory and hateful" as well as "dishonest" if they raise their voices about Israeli crimes.

The rest of the motion condemns anti-Semitism and follows a Take Note debate on the evening of February 24 on "the troubling rise of anti-Semitism around the world." The debate was sponsored by Minister of Defence and for Multiculturalism Jason Kenney and Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.

During the debate and in the subsequent motion, MPs conflated criticism of Israel and support for the Palestinian right to resist with anti-Semitism by creating a new definition of anti-Semitism. Talk of "old anti-Semitism" and "new anti-Semitism" covers up the political meaning and use of these definitions in a manner which criminalizes political opposition to crimes committed by Israel as an occupying power in Palestine and denies the Palestinian Right of Return and statehood.

The debate in Parliament condemned what they called "old anti-Semitism," giving numerous examples of racist acts, including in Canada. It was noted that a neighbourhood in Montreal was vandalized with Nazi-esque graffiti the same day, similar to recent vandalism of mosques in different parts of Canada.

This provided MPs cover to introduce an entirely different concept.

"The new anti-Semitism," said Liberal MP Cotler, "involves the discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon, the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations, or their right to even live, with Israel emerging as the targeted collective Jew among the nations." Cotler further claimed that this "anti-Semitism" is masked "under the protective cover of the United Nations, under the authority of international law, under the culture of human rights and the struggle against racism."

Some MPs did raise an interesting question during the debate. Pointing out the recent rise of far-right, anti-Semitic forces in countries such as Hungary, and attacks faced by Jews there, they asked why the government does not remove Hungary from its list of "safe countries" and accept Hungarian Jewish refugees?

Jason Kenney responded by skirting the issue, "[S]hould we not permit people to immigrate from Hungary? The answer is of course we should. We receive Hungarian immigrants every year. Any Hungarian nationals and people from any country in the world are free to apply for immigration to Canada and to be treated fairly under our rules."

It was not long before the Take Note debate lapsed into equating the resistance of Palestinians with terrorism and discussing methods to disrupt pro-Palestinian activists in Canada.

Conservative MP David Sweet (Ancaster--Dundas--Flamborough--Westdale) denounced campus activities which highlight Israeli crimes. He asked why there is no support among the people for a "boycott initiative or apartheid week against Angola, Iran, Congo, or North Korea," states which are not occupying the homeland of or committing aggression against any other peoples. When another MP asked why university administrations do not ban pro-Palestinian activism, Sweet noted that he had implored the McMaster University administration to do so.

Liberal MP Gerry Byrne (Humber--St. Barbe--Baie Verte) also took the opportunity to label Palestinian resistance as "terrorist" with the sole purpose of killing civilians.

These misleading and irresponsible comments in the Parliament, and the timing of the debate point to serious dangers of criminalizing the broad support of Canadians for the rights of Palestinians and their condemnation of Israeli state terror.

Old and New Definitions of Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism does not refer to opposition to a Semitic cultural or linguistic group. It is a political term coined in the 19th century, that refers to anti-Jewish acts, ideologies and groups. The Jewish Encyclopedia defines anti-Semitism as, "A modern word expressing antagonism to the political and social equality of Jews." It relied on the assertion that the Jews are distinct as peoples from the nations to which they belonged, not on religious grounds but on a racial basis. The Jewish Encyclopedia states:

"The term 'Anti-Semitism' has its origin in the ethnological theory that the Jews, as Semites, are entirely different from the Aryan, or Indo-European, populations and can never be amalgamated with them. The word implies that the Jews are not opposed on account of their religion, but on account of their racial characteristics. As such are mentioned: greed, a special aptitude for money-making, aversion to hard work, clannishness and obtrusiveness, lack of social tact, and especially of patriotism."

In the modern era, anti-Semitism has been a prominent feature of the most brutal and reactionary political tendencies of the ruling classes. In 18th and 19th century Europe it was a feature of absolutist regimes, empires, feudal and capitalist countries alike, especially Tsarist Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Britain and others. It expressed itself in the reactionary tendencies of various states to organize pogroms, deny political rights to Jews, incite clerical and obscurantist hatred and distrust, organize electoral campaigns around boycotting Jews, and bar Jewish immigrants.

In the 20th century, anti-Semitism was a key feature of the most reactionary tendency of the monopoly capitalist class in Europe, namely fascism. This political tendency existed openly in all European countries outside the Soviet Union. Such elements constituted fifth columns in all those countries and laid the groundwork for Nazi takeover by the late 1930s. Before the fascist takeover of Europe, the fifth columnists were blunt instruments wielded by the ruling classes against the working people, communists and progressive and democratic forces, many of whom were Jews.

The Nazi takeover of Europe was facilitated by fifth columns of anti-Semitic, fascist and militarist forces along with the ruling circles of England and France. In Eastern Europe fascists, militarists and anti-Semites coalesced in collaboration with the Hitlerite Nazis against the Soviet Union and the peoples of their own countries. As was the case for the Nazis themselves, the twentieth century anti-Semitism fused with anti-communism in a crusade against "Judeo-Bolshevism." This culminated in a campaign to destroy or expel the European Jews and create a new fascist order in Europe dominated by an ethnic German state with "living space" on the lands of other peoples.

It was only the victory of democratic forces over fascism that consigned these tendencies to the underground and outside of what the world's people considered acceptable political discourse. These tendencies were kept alive on simmer in the postwar years by U.S. imperialism as a tool against communism and recruited for these purposes in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. They continue to exist and are being revived openly in various parts of the world, which Canada supports.

The concept of "the new anti-Semitism" asserts that not only is opposition to Zionism -- the ideology of the state of Israel and the imperialist project in the Middle East -- to be considered anti-Semitism, but "disproportionate" criticism of Israel is as well. Worldwide opposition to Israeli crimes against humanity and the defence of the rights of the Palestinians and other peoples suffering Israeli aggression is similarly dismissed as masked hatred of Jews. The new anti-Semitism fraudulently conflates Jewish people, who are members of many nations around the world, with the state of Israel itself.

Montreal Member of Parliament and McGill University law professor Irwin Cotler is a major proponent of the theory of the new anti-Semitism.

In a 2010 article in the National Post , Cotler attempts to make a distinction between "classical anti-Semitism" and the new form of anti-Semitism he claims exists: "In a word, classical anti-Semitism is the discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon the rights of Jews to live as equal members of whatever society they inhabit. The new anti-Semitism involves the discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations, with Israel as the targeted collective Jew among the nations."

Cotler also made this point at an informal meeting of the UN General Assembly on January 22, attended by the U.S., Canada and Israel as well as some of the main European powers like Germany and France. In his speech to the General Assembly, Cotler argued that attacks against Israel are a new kind of anti-Semitism and that "we need a new vocabulary to define it."

Zionism is the ideology which states that Jews should have a national homeland and state. In the 19th century this was not necessarily in Palestine but this idea gained some traction including individuals and groups engaging in acts of terror and the appropriation of Palestinian land. Zionism was turned into a significant material force by British and later U.S. imperialism. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 saw the British Foreign Secretary promise the land of Palestinian Arabs for the settlement of European Jews.

Far from promoting the political and social equality of Jews, the Zionist project of British imperialism sought to solve the "Jewish problem" in Europe by using them to man its outpost in the Middle East. Zionism, like other colonial ideologies, claimed Palestine as "a land without a people" for "a people without a land."

Today this tendency is given the most reactionary expression by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To bolster the illegal settlements through which Zionism is stealing more and more land from the Palestinians, Netanyahu declares that all the European Jews should leave their homelands and take up residence on Palestine's frontiers.

To this effect, the killing of a synagogue security guard in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 14 was cynically used by Netanyahu to call for "massive immigration" of European Jews to Palestine. Denmark's senior rabbi politely called this desperate proposal "disappointing." The Israeli government approved a $46 million fund on February 15 as part of targeting immigration of Jews from France, Belgium and Ukraine. Netanyahu effectively promotes that the only way for Jews to be safe is to leave their countries and join in occupying the land of and oppressing another people.

(TML Weekly No. 9, February 28, 2015)