Antisemitism

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities. Adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016 and formally adopted by over 40 countries, the European Parliament, and hundreds of institutions.

IHRA examples include:

• Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews
• Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews
• Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing
• Denying the Holocaust
• Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than to their own nation
• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g., by claiming the existence of Israel is a racist endeavor)
• Applying double standards by requiring of Israel behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation
• Using symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus) to characterize Israel or Israelis
• Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis
• Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel

Antisemitism often operates through double standards applied specifically to Jews and to Israel as the world's only Jewish state. The following questions are offered not as accusation but as honest self-examination. If your answers reveal a consistent pattern of exception-making for Jews and Israel that you do not apply elsewhere, that pattern warrants reflection.

Do you apply different standards of evidence?

• Do you accept claims about Jewish misconduct or Israeli atrocities without the evidence you would require before believing similar claims about others?
• Do you treat Israel or Jews as guilty until proven innocent, while extending the presumption of innocence to other parties?

Do you apply different standards of empathy?

• Do you feel empathy for hostages, rape victims, refugees, and the persecuted — except when they are Jewish?
• Are you moved by civilian deaths in other conflicts but find reasons to discount or minimize Jewish civilian deaths — including the 1,200 killed on October 7, 2023, the rape and abduction of women, the taking of infant hostages?
• Do you know that approximately 850,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries after 1948, but consider only Palestinian displacement?

Do you apply different standards of military conduct?

• Do you condemn Israel for civilian casualties caused by an enemy that deliberately positions combatants in hospitals, schools, mosques, apartment buildings, and tunnel networks beneath them — while excusing that enemy's deliberate use of civilians as shields?
• Do you hold Israel to a standard of zero civilian collateral damage that you do not apply to any other military in any other conflict?
• Are you aware that Israel distributed leaflets, made phone calls, and sent text messages warning civilians before strikes — and sent ground troops into danger rather than relying solely on air power — and do you weigh that against the civilian death toll?
• Do you compare Israel's civilian-to-combatant ratios unfavorably without comparing them to those of other modern urban conflicts (e.g., Mosul, Fallujah, Dresden)?

Do you apply different standards of language?

• Do you use the word "occupation" for Israel's presence in the West Bank but not for other territorial disputes or military presences around the world?
• Do you use the word "genocide" for Gaza but not for conflicts with vastly higher death tolls and clearer evidence of eliminationist intent?
• Do you use the word "apartheid" for Israel — where Arab citizens vote, serve as judges and members of parliament — but not for states with legally enforced ethnic or religious segregation?
• Do you expect Israel to accept a ceasefire that leaves Hamas intact and in power, while not expecting Hamas to release hostages or cease attacking Israeli civilians as a precondition?

None of these questions is a conclusive test. Criticism of Israeli government policy is not antisemitism. But a consistent pattern of applying uniquely harsh standards, uniquely withholding empathy, and uniquely demanding of Jews and their state what is not demanded of others — that pattern has a name.

The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), signed in 2021 by over 200 scholars of Holocaust studies, Jewish history, and related fields, offers an alternative definition: "Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, hostility, or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish)." The JDA explicitly states that the following are NOT antisemitic: supporting Palestinian rights, criticizing Israeli government policy, supporting a boycott of Israel, or describing Israel's founding as involving ethnic cleansing. JDA proponents argue that the IHRA definition, by treating some criticism of Israel as antisemitic, conflates political criticism with racism and has been used to suppress legitimate debate on university campuses and in public discourse.