While anti-Semitism is difficult eradicated, it can and should be vigorously fought. One way to accomplish this is to promote Israel's extensive peace movement which has worked to bring Jewish and Palestinian Israelis together to promote tolerance, respect for religious and ethnic diversity. How could the peace movement help in the fight against anti-Semitism?
Before addressing this question, what is the status of anti-Semitism in the world today? With Israel's massive of bombing of the Palestinians in Gaza following HAMAS' brutal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, anti-Israeli sentiment has spread throughout the world. Israel today finds itself the most isolated in the International community it has ever been since its creation in 1948. The hostility to the Netanyahu government's policies in Gaza which have led to the death of over 68,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, has opened the door for anti-Semites to join the criticism of Israel.
Meanwhile, emigration by Israelis has increased significantly since 2022. Over 125,000 Israelis emigrated between 2002 and 2024. Much of the outflow of citizens is caused by concern that the country under the Netanyahu regime is trying to transform Israel into an authoritarian state by eliminating the power of its Supreme Court, the only check on legislative power. A reaction to the Gaza War was also a motivating factor, including its negative impact on the Israeli economy.
The Historical Roots of Anti-Semitism During the Crusades, Jewish merchants were among those who provided funds for notables to develop their armies and means to travel to the Holy Lands. To assure repayment of loans, land was held as collateral. When many Crusaders died from fighting, illness, or their ships sank, land was seized by merchants, including by Jews. This development deeply disturbed the powerful Roman Catholic Church.
In response, the Pope issued regulations regarding usury, i.e, forbidding the use of interest, intended to impede Jewish merchants from engaging in commercial transactions and prevent them from acquiring land. The reputation that Jews were a "money hungry" community was born. Meanwhile that religious fervor sparked by the Crusades resulted in Jewish communities in Europe being the target of numerous pogroms and even massacres. Ironically, Jews in Jerusalem fought with Muslims to prevent Crusader armies from seizing the city.
Anti-Semitism wasn't confined to sectarian Christianity. The notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion was published in Imperial Russia in 1903, one year after the 1902 Russian Zionist Conference. The Russian Empire having the world's largest Jewish population after the partition of Poland in the late 18th century, together with the Romanov's fear of the spread of European liberalism, may explain its Russian origins.
The Protocols claimed that an international Jewish conspiracy sought to take over the world. The rise of the Rothschild banking empire and other Jewish owed banks during the 19th century helped fuel belief in the Protocols' conspiracy. Their role in funding war efforts of Great Britain and France in particular promoted the belief that these banks wielded an excessive amount of power within British and French government circles
The spread of fascism in Europe during the 1930s and the coming to power of Adolph Hitler's Nazi regime led the Protocols to acquire greater legitimacy. Despite having been shown to be false in the early 1920s, in Nazi Germany teachers were told to teach that the Protocols were true.
In the United States during the Great Depression, anti-Semitism was spread by the German Bund, the American First movement and Father Charles Coughlin's National Union for Social Justice which accused American Jews of trying to force the United States to go to war against Nazi Germany.
In current American politics among the MAGA movement, anti-Semitism still abounds, promoted by Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes and many right-wing podcasters. Rightwing populist parties in Europe continue to echo, with some exceptions like Marine LePen's National Assembly (Rassemblement National) in France.
Fighting Anti-Semitism As this cursory overview shows, given its deep historical roots, combating anti-Semitism is no easy task. However, one of the strongest weapons in fighting anti-Semitism is to employ Israel's multi-ethnic and multi-confessional peace movement. Although it represents a small percentage of the larger Israeli population, it is powerful nevertheless. It is well organized and its members are passionate about achieving their goal of bringing an end to the hostility between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and creating an Israeli state with equality for all its citizens.
Nevertheless, few Jewish organizations outside of Israel have collaborated with the peace movement to help in the fight against anti-Semitism. Neither have Arab-American organizations reached out to peace groups in Israel which include many Palestinian Arab Israelis.
The argument offered here is that an effort by progressive Jewish and Arab American organizations could draw upon foundation support, e.g., the Soros Foundation, to develop a network of groups who would work towards the gaol of am independent Palestinian state (as legislated by the United nations in Resolution 181 of November 1947), peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians and an Israeli state where all its citizens enjoy equal rights.
Having workshops and conferences throughout the United States, and having them simultaneously included on social media as well as inviting the press and television stations, would offer a very different perspective on Israel. It's hard to remember any effort by Jewish groups in the United States to invite peace organizations from Israel to come to the United States to explain the work they're doing in Israel and the possibilities for change.
J Street, a liberal Zionist organization formed in 2007 (https://jstreet.org/), could take the lead in organizing workshops and conferences in different parts of the United States where Israeli peace groups could make presentations. As a strong opponent of efforts to annex the West Bank, it obviously doen not support the far-right ultra-nationalist. Netanyahu regime. Thus, there is every incentive for Arab American organizations to join J Street in hosting peace groups from Israel
Arab-American organizations , such as the American Arab Discrimination Committee (https:adc.org/, which was formed in 1980 by the late South Dakota senator, James Abourezq and is the largest Arab cil rights organization in the United States, would provide an ideal venue for a meeting with groups representing the Israeli peace movement. Headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, home to a large Arab and Palestinian community, the ADC has national political clout and could work with progressive Jewish groups to strengthen the peace movement in Israel.
Why would hosting Israeli peace organizations in the United States help in the fight against anti-Semitism? First, they would demonstrate that anti-Semites, who try to paint the Jewish people as a sectarian monolith. While there are Jewish settlers in the West Bank who are attacking Palestinian farmers and Palestinian villages and towns, other Israelis are working to create a society in which all citizens are equal.
Givat Haviva is one of the oldest organizations in Israel which which is dedicated to promoting dialogue and reconciliation between Israel's Jewish and Palestinian Arab citizens. It seeks to develop a civil society in which Jewish and Arab citizens better understand one another and work to create a shared vision of society. It was founded in 1949 by the Kibbutz Artzi Federation, and supported by the MAPAM party, the most left leaning party when Israel was founded.
Givat Haviva is named in honor of Haviva Reik, a Zionist who left Israel in 1939 to join British forces fighting the Nazis but was captured and executed in 1942. She was a member of Hashomer Hatzair, a socialist organization which supported the idea of a bi-national state in Palestine.
Givat Haviva received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 2001. Since 2015, Givat Haviva - the Center for a Shared Society - has been administered by Mohammed Darawshe, a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel. With its long history and success in bringing together Jews and Arabs in Israel, including many youth, it is a peace organizations which should be given widespread exposure in the United States.
Peace Now is one of Israel's oldest peace movements. Founded in 1978 by many prominent Israelis, including the late author, Amos Oz, Peace Now acquired prominence in 1982 after Israel invaded Lebanon. Although the invasion was to destroy Palestine Liberation Organization camps in souther Lebanon, General Ariel Sharon marched on to Beirut with the aim of the massacre of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps near Beirut. The Israeli army allowed a sectarian Christian militias, the Phalange, which opposed the PLO, to enter the camps and kill between 1300 and 3500 innocent civilians.
Peace Now was in the forefront in organizing a 400,000 strong demonstration in Tel Aviv (about 10% of Israel's population at the time) which demanded accountability for the massacre. A number of Israeli soldiers in Beirut refused to fight, a first in Israel's history. Sharon was lambasted in Israel's media because he had been authorized by then prime minister Menachem Begin to go no further than 25 miles into Lebanon. An investigation ordered by Begin followed and the Kahan Report's findings forced Sharon to step down as defense minister.
Adalah - the Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel was founded in 1996 as a non-sectarian organization dedicated to protecting the legal rights of Israel's Palestinian Arab citizens. Headquartered in Haifa, which has a large Palestinian Arab community, Adalah is highly respected for its vigorous advocacy for human rights and the rule of law. As its website states, "Respect for civil and political rights is a fundamental requirement of a legitimate democratic state."
Adalah has provided lawyers for numerous legal cases in which Palestinian Arabs who have been accused of promoting terrorism and given administrative detention, have had their homes demolished, or attempts to punish Aran Members of Knesset (MKS) for expressing views criticizing the Israeli government's treatment of its Palestinian Arab citizens. Adalah has set up a branch office in Beersheba in the Negev Desert where it works to protect the rights of local Bedouin communities.
There are dozens of other Israeli peace organizations filled with dedicated Jewish and Palestinian Arab citizens. Given them greater exposure in the United States and the West could both hep the peace process by gaining support for it, but undermine the narrative of anti-Semites that "the Jews" are a sectarian and repressive people who care nothing for anyone but themselves.
