Any discourse about the terror state of Israel is going to draw in strange characters, including express antisemites, and I’ve been noticing a sparse but present range of bigoted language and sentiment in response to Israel’s invasion of Gaza. I can’t tell if people are merely erroneously equating the state of Israel with Jews broadly (as Israel itself does), or this is a cynical hijacking of the anti-imperialist movement by right-wingers and other bad actors. Either way, it’s not too uncommon to hear people express inappropriate hatred of Jewish people in general when criticizing Israel specifically.
I want to be absolutely clear that I have not seen a single instance of such behavior on this site, but it does exist elsewhere, even if in small amounts. Obviously, the problem of imperialist genocide goes far beyond, and does not necessarily encompass, Jews or Judaism, and it’s clear that communists understand this far better than most.
With all that in mind, is there a way to educate these folks? When you see antisemitic remarks like I’ve described, what do you say?
Swiftly, efficiently, and wherever you see it. Antisemites are going to be antisemites regardless, but don’t let people who you care about fall into these dark holes of hate. The existence of Anti-Zionist Jews should be evidence enough that what’s happening in Palestine doesn’t represent all Jews/ Judaism. Joe Slovo was high ranking Jewish politician in the ANC, served as commander of one of it’s military wings at one point, and served under Nelson Mandela as a minister as well. He was also very much against the apartheid of the Zionist regime. Highlighting the unified struggles of multinational & interreligious groups is a fast way to dispel antisemitic garbage.