Groucho Marxism

A brutal daylight knife attack on two Jewish men in north London last month has raised fears amongst British Jews. The attacker is reported to have a history of violence and also stabbed a Muslim man earlier that day. In response to these attacks – specifically the two on the Jewish men – the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has raised the terrorism threat level to ‘severe’. (Really?!) It goes without saying that we must oppose all violence against innocent civilians; but it is important to also consider the broader context within which these attacks occurred. Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza has so far claimed the lives of over 75,000 innocent civilians. Against this backdrop an attack on three civilians, none whom died as a result of their injuries, seems somewhat pale in comparison.

Nonetheless, capitalist politicians have been cynically attempting to use these attacks to undermine the anti-war movement. There has been a concerted attempt to lay the blame for these attacks on mass demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza, with many commentators from the capitalist establishment laughably labelling them as ‘hate marches’. The government’s ‘independent’ reviewer of terrorism legislation called this week for a moratorium on pro-Palestine marches, claiming that it was “impossible for them not to incubate antisemitism.” This has raised an angry response from the thousands, perhaps millions, of people who have been involved in these peaceful protests across the country since Israel unleashed its offensive in October 2023.

The root of racist division in society is not anti-war demonstrations but the capitalist system those calling for an end to the demonstrations all defend. Capitalism involves exploitation of the majority by a tiny minority, and such an arrangement requires division of the majority by the minority in order to function effectively. This explains why capitalist politicians attempt to scapegoat migrants for the problems that exist in society. Even so, despite the constant propaganda, recent polling shows that only 36% of British people think that ‘being British’ means being born in Britain, down from 74% in 2013. This suggests that racist division is actually decreasing in this country. We can reduce this division even further by organizing effectively.

On 16 May there will be a pro-Palestine march in London to commemorate the Nakba (Arabic for ‘catastrophe’): the violent displacement of Palestinians that occurred when the state of Israel was formed in 1948. A well-attended march will be a show of strength against the capitalist establishment both in Britain and internationally (particularly in Israel). Of course, marching alone is not enough; we also need a program for peace in the Middle East which protects the rights of Palestinians. Such a program will never exist under a system which seems to prioritize defending Israel above anything else. The lengths to which the British establishment goes to vilify and persecute those who criticize Israel seems to me to be indicative of state capture.

A subtle way in which Israel is defended that doesn’t often go remarked upon is through the use of the word ‘antisemitism’ to refer to bigotry against Jews. We already have a perfectly good word for such bigotry, namely: Judaeophobia. So why doesn’t that more accurate term get used instead? The reason, I think, is that referring to bigotry against Jews as ‘antisemitism’ is a way of subtly equating Jews with Semites. In reality, however, a Semite is anyone who speaks a language which belongs to the Semitic language family. That includes Hebrew, which is spoken by many Jews in Israel; but it also includes Arabic, spoken by Muslims and Christians in Palestine and across the Arab world, as well as other languages such as Amharic, spoken in Ethiopia.

I think that the widespread use of the word ‘antisemitism’ to refer to bigotry against Jews is an attempt – conscious or otherwise – to establish Jews as the true Semites and in so doing effectively erase Palestinian and broader Arab identity. This obviously plays right into Israel’s hands. Nobody in the mainstream media ever refers to attacks against Arabic-speaking Muslims as antisemitism, when technically they should. In fact the mainstream media barely mentions attacks on Muslims at all. It is notable that in all the furore about the attacks on the two Jewish men in North London, the attack on Muslim man by the same attacker earlier the same day barely received a mention. Does this not also count as terrorism?

The fact that those who accuse others of antisemitism often seem indifferent to the suffering of Muslims, particularly Arabic-speaking Muslims, makes me wonder whether there might also be something more to this. In accusing those who defend Palestinians of being antisemites, perhaps they are telling us that it is they themselves who are the real antisemites, as they do not care about the suffering of Semitic people such as Palestinians. It seems there may be some projection going on here. As the saying goes, every accusation is a confession. In my view, when referring to bigotry against Jews, it is high time we replaced the misleading, propaganda- and projection-laden term ‘antisemitism’ with the more accurate and neutral term ‘Judaeophobia’.