Anti-Zionism or
Anti-Semitism?Yesterday,
Fox News Channel aired a report on growing anti-Semitism in Europe.
The reported cited a study sponsored by the European Jewish Congress
which found that anti-Semitism in Europe has increased since the
escalation of the Middle East conflict in 2000. It found that
"anti-Semitic statements came from pro-Palestinian groups as well as
from politicians and citizens from the political mainstream."
The report gave the impression that opposition to the Zionist State
and anti-Semitism are the same, when in fact just the opposite is
true. To support Zionism is to be anti-Semitic.
To read the Fox News Channel report
online,
CLICK HERE.
Today, in response to the Fox
Report, Brian Klug, a senior research fellow in philosophy at St
Benet's Hall, Oxford, and a founder member of the Jewish Forum for
Justice and Human Rights, published an article in "The Guardian"
entitled:
No, anti-Zionism is not
anti-Semitism
He describes how the British foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour
(sponsor of the 1905 Aliens Act to restrict Jewish immigration to
the UK), wanted the government to commit itself to a Jewish homeland
in Palestine, his declaration was delayed - not by anti-Semites but
by leading figures in the British Jewish community. They included a
Jewish member of the cabinet who called Balfour's pro-Zionism
"anti-Semitic in result".
His article concludes: "Equating anti-Zionism with
anti-Semitism can also, in its own way, poison the political
debate."
To read Mr. Klug's article in response to Fox News Channel,
CLICK HERE.
