Anti-Semitism is much older than Israel

‘Harry Potter’ star Miriam Margolyes has form. Noted for her vehement anti-Israel views, the Jewish actress didn’t hold back when she appeared on Monday night’s Q&A.

Asked to explain the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, and also in Australia, Margoyles had her answer ready to hand: it is all because of Israel and what it is doing to defend itself in Gaza.

According to Margolyes, people associate Israel with Jews, and Jews are killing innocent people. Therefore the actions of Israel makes people hate Jews.

Stop the killing, she seems to think, and the Jew-hatred will stop too.

It’s nonsense. Jews were hated long before the state of Israel was lawfully created in 1948 with the endorsement of the United Nations. Since then, Israel has had to defend itself against Arab states pledged to keep the hatred alive.

Palestinians have also long been relentless enemies of Israel. Since Israel left Gaza in 2005, more than 11,000 rockets have been fired from there into Israel.

Hamas was elected the governing party. Its charter commits Hamas to destroy Israel and murder Jews, and it counts on the support of Iran which has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”.
Many celebrities and fashionable intellectuals in the West are also determined to destroy Israel. Their weapon of choice is not the Qassam rocket but economic sanctions.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign was launched in 2005 by 171 Palestinian NGOs to force Israel to comply “with its obligations under international law.”

BDS claims to focus on Israel’s abuse of power and not on Jewish people or Judaism but the campaign objectives show this is not a nuanced critique of Israeli government policy. Instead it is a sustained attack on the very existence of the State of Israel itself.

Of course, BDS defenders like to point out that Jews like Miriam Margolyes are also questioning Israel’s legitimacy. So how can BDS be anti-Semitic?  But claiming that Jewish support somehow sanctifies BDS paints nothing more than a thin veneer of moral respectability over an ancient toxic bigotry.

Whatever form it takes today, whether physical attack or economic strangulation, there is an old name for this bigotry: anti-Semitism – the hatred of Jews.

And this hatred is alive once more. Israel’s policy in Gaza is just an excuse and not the cause. BDS activists, Muslim leaders and Islamist tyrants are all standing shoulder to shoulder against the Jews.

By trying to explain anti-Semitism away, Miriam Margolyes only legitimises the new and heightened dangers faced by Jews in Europe and around the world.

 

Rev Peter Kurti is a research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies.