The Essential Difference between Zionism and Judaism by Shaykh Abdalhaqq Bewley

I am writing this to elucidate something that I believe to be generally recognised but that I have not seen clearly articulated elsewhere. It concerns the use of the term “antisemitism”. The adjective “antisemitic” has long ceased to have anything to do with semitic ethnicity and has come exclusively, in its present usage, to mean anti-Jewish. By definition an antisemite is now a person who is against Jews. However, it is an accusation that has, for instance, recently been levelled at many people participating in demonstrations against the present Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Yet the truth is that the demonstrators are not anti-Jewish. They are pro-Palestinian and in many cases anti-Zionist, in as far as the present policies of the Israeli government can be seen as furthering the political goals of the Zionist movement, but they are not against Jewish people. 

 

What has happened is that for a considerable period of time there has been a concerted and deliberate effort to equate Zionism – the political movement to establish a permanent homeland for Jews in Israel – with Judaism itself. The two things are in reality, of course, in no way synonymous. The one is a venerated, ancient religion and the other a modern political movement. But this connection between the two has been brought about so that supporters of Israel can accuse anyone who opposes Israel and its policies of being antisemitic. As we know, the accusation of antisemitism has, since the unspeakable horrors of the Second World War and the necessary measures to protect the Jewish community that followed it, become a powerful and effective indictment against anyone accused of it. But the end result of what has been done is that it has made it possible to by extension label anyone who is actively pro-Palestinian as antisemitic. 

 

Its effectiveness as a weapon on this basis can be seen in the way that it was used to oust Jeremy Corbyn firstly from the leadership of the Labour Party and then from the party itself. Jeremy Corbyn was clearly pro-Palestinian and against political Zionism – in as far as it affected Israeli government policy and its implementation – but he was in no way anti-Jewish. No one could be less anti-Jewish. So he was not in fact antisemitic. Yet the fact that Zionism and Judaism have been conflated enabled his enemies to wield the weapon of antisemitism against him and ensure his removal. It is now being used in the same way to discredit those demonstrating against Israel’s actions in Gaza. The demonstrations are pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist but they are certainly not anti-Jewish. 

 

The grave danger in what has happened is that that the conflation of Zionism and Judaism might actually come to be seen to be a reality and that people might indeed start to view Zionism and Judaism as the same thing. This would lead to the Jewish community being wrongly blamed for the actions of the Israeli government, something which must be avoided at all costs. It is, therefore, absolutely vital that the distinction between Zionism and Judaism is clearly delineated and the responsibility for the awful situation of the Palestinians in Gaza laid where it actually belongs, at the door of the Zionist policies of the Israeli government, aided and condoned by its international supporters, and nowhere else.