The Antisemitic Alphabet: From A-Z. A Is For…

The A to Z’s of the current moment, from Antisemitism to Zionism. First entry: A is for…

This is part of a series on antisemitism, Israel, Zionism, and current events in 2023-2024 (5784).

The intent of this series is to educate, dispel antisemitism and bigotry, and combat propaganda that endangers both Jews AND Palestinians. The misinformation around Israel and Jews is vast and ancient, well-designed, and widespread, and contributes directly to perpetuating the conflict and elevating violence above a peace process.

• Follow @doingjewish on Instagram to get these first
• Ahistorical – as in historical revisionism, or fake news! The biggest lie: Claiming Jews aren’t indigenous to the land of Israel and are somehow European.
• Al-Aqsa Mosque – built atop Judaism’s holiest site, and the fake reason for the Oct 7 attacks; the Arab world likes to claim it’s constantly under attack when it’s literally protected by the IDF and the Jerusalem Waqf, a Jordanian (Palestinian) organization.
• Antisemitism and Antizionism – there are entire books about these and these days, keyboard activists love to claim that antisemitism isn’t real — and define it for Jews, while crying that every other minority group gets to define themselves and the hatred of their groups. They also regurgitate ancient antisemitic tropes, and more recent ones — specifically, those built on Soviet-era propaganda. Lastly, Antizionism: a uniquely antisemitic take that ONLY Jews aren’t indigenous to anywhere, that ONLY Jews can’t have safety and self-determination, and ONLY Jews are [insert antisemitic trope here] for daring to take any land back, even legally.
• Appropriation – per the far left, cultural appropriation bad! Yet the biggest cultural appropriation in history is the theft of the Torah and the Holy Land, and claiming they are Christian and Muslim.
• Arabization – the spread of Islam was fast and violent, and somehow this form of colonialism is just A-OK with people because its perpetrators aren’t white.

Ahistorical

“Ahistorical” refers to ideas and claims that aren’t supported by history or evidence; they are lies. These include: Jews aren’t native to Israel, Jews colonized Israel, Jews are (all) white, and other inversions of history.

The ahistorical propaganda around Israel, Palestine, and Anti-Zionism is easily debunked, yet is believed by more people globally than there are Jews in the world. Hence, we are terrified and on the defensive.

Ahistorical propaganda about Jews that is pervasive includes:

• Jews are from Europe / are White
• Jews colonized/invaded Palestine (including those green maps)
• Palestinians welcomed Jews to Palestine
• There was peace before 1948
• “Jesus was Palestinian”
• There was no temple on the temple mount (and Muslims were always there, including an ancient mosque well before Islam)

Further reading on Ahistorical propaganda:

• https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/lies-about-1948
• https://aijac.org.au/fresh-air/disappearing-palestine-the-maps-that-lie/
• https://honestreporting.com/misleading-palestinian-maps-twist-the-truth/
• https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/origin-of-quot-palestine-quot

Al-Aqsa

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is Islam’s 3rd-holiest site, where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven. It’s also built on top of Judaism’s FIRST holiest site, intentionally, because that is what Arab colonizers did to show their might.

The two Jewish temples, including (for our Christian friends) the one Jesus attended in the Christian Bible, stood where this mosque now does. Anti-Israel countries and much of the Arab world deny that a Jewish temple ever stood here, and Jews are not allowed on the Temple Mount, our holiest site. The site, in the middle of Jerusalem, is actually controlled by Jordan.

• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Al-Aqsa-Mosque
• https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/supreme-moslem-council-recognized-jewish-connection-to-temple-mount
• https://honestreporting.com/origins-judea-israel-palestine/

Antisemitism

Antisemitism is hatred of Jews. Period. Only Jews get to define this, just like people of color should be the ones defining racism.

Examples of antisemitism include:

• Ancient tropes that Jews control everything
• Assertions about Jews that, if applied to any other group, would seem and be racist
• Ahistorical erasure of Judaism, Israel, and our history and practices (including appropriation by Christians, Muslims, and Christians cosplaying as Jews / Jews for Jesus types)
• Targeting Israel and ONLY Israel for hate, misinformation, and destruction
• Holocaust inversion and denial, and denial/support of October 7 atrocities

Further reading: Antisemitism

• https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism
• https://www.ajc.org/news/10-tough-questions-on-antisemitism-explained
• https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/antisemitism
• https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/enough-gaslighting
• https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism

Anti-Zionism

You’ll find that anti-Zionism overlaps extensively with antisemitism. Firstly, “antisemitism” is one word; there’s no word “Semitism”. “Semitic” refers to a language group, not peoples; the term “antisemitism” was coined by a Jew-hater to sound more scientific.

Anti-Zionism is the idea that Israel shouldn’t exist, is illegitimate, and that Jews specifically don’t deserve self-determination. This is ahistorical and antisemitic. Cultural appropriation of Jewish history, sites, and personal stories is antisemitism, and it leads to real violence against us; all peoples deserve safety and self-determination.

Appropriation

Not only have Jewish history and sites been appropriated, but Judaism and Jewish bodies themselves.

From Jesus to Ann Frank, people love dead Jews—while not showing the same concern for living Jews, especially when we are in danger.

The biggest cultural appropriations in history include the Tanakh – the Jewish Bible – being stolen, mistranslated, and weaponized against us for 2,000 years.

More on Appropriation:

• https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/progressive-replacement-theology
• https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/02/supersessionism-hard-and-soft
• https://www.newsweek.com/when-cultural-appropriation-historical-revisionism-are-acts-war-opinion-1576970

Arabization

Arabization is the process of cultural change in which a non-Arab society becomes Arab via colonization and violence.

The Arab world conquered the Levant in CE 634; modern-day Israel was largely de-arabized in the early 1900s and especially after 1948. The Muslim conquests of the Mediterranean, including SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa), stretched from the Arabian peninsula to Al-Andalus – Spain and Portugal. This was violent colonization (see Al-Aqsa), and by the 800s, through settler colonization and oppression, Arabs became the majority population in modern Israel/Palestine. Modern extremist groups, and much of larger Arab culture, believe that once conquered, a land must remain Muslim; this worldview led to a refusal to accept terms for a state of Palestine over and over, and it is the crux of the modern conflict. The Jews have offered land for peace repeatedly; the Arabs largely—and explicitly—want it all back.

• https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/the-arabization-of-eretz-israel
• https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/the-arab-colonization-of-the-levant
• https://dbpedia.org/page/Arabization
• https://medium.com/progressme-magazine/how-arab-colonialism-conquered-the-middle-east-73a247c7465d
• http://www.mideastweb.org/islamhistory.htm