Julie Nathan
22 March 2017
The per­cep­tion and portrayal of Jews has varied over the millennia. Christian and Islamic sources have provided an abundance of negative ste­reo­types that have become so deeply ingrained into the culture of some societies that they are not even recog­nised as expres­sions of prejudice. In addition, views from the more secular modern period including the Enlight­en­ment, pseudo-sci­entif­ic theories on race and Nazi ideology, and responses to the modern Jewish state of Israel, have produced their own variants of age-old pre­ju­dices. Despite such disparate sources, many of the negative views about Jews have remained essen­tially unchanged over the centuries and millennia.
By studying the annual ECAJ Antisemitism Report for each of the four years from 2013 to 2016 (all of which I authored), a clear image appears of the con­tem­por­ary major ideas and themes hostile to Jews which are expressed in Aus­trali­an society and on online Aus­trali­an-based sites. The pop­ular­ity of these antisemitic themes are, however, not restric­ted to Australia.
The principal themes are:
• Jews as Christ-killers;
• Jews as bloodthirsty – the Blood Libel;
• the Jewish lobby as inor­din­ately powerful and ille­git­im­ate;
• Jews/Zionists as con­trolling banks, media, and politi­cians; and,
• Jews/Zionists as Nazis.
Some of these themes originate from theo­lo­gic­al anti-Judaism, and have been revital­ised through new wording. This is despite the increas­ing sec­u­lar­ism of the 20^th and 21^st centuries, at least in the West; and despite the Holocaust, in which six million Jewish men, women and children were hunted down and murdered simply because they were Jews, as part of a plan to eliminate Jews from the world. Other discourse, which is dressed up as ordinary political criticism, is also often accom­pan­ied by or includes older anti-Jewish motifs. Each of these themes is discussed below.
1. Jews as Christ-killers
The theme of Jews as “Christ-killers” includes not only the charge of deicide, but also the con­com­it­ant claims that Jews are a rejected and a cursed people, no longer chosen by God, and that Judaism has been super­seded and is no longer relevant.
The charge of deicide ori­gin­ated 1700 years ago and is viewed as a way to shift the blame for Jesus’ death from the Romans to the Jews in order to avoid Roman imperial wrath, and to attract Roman converts to the new religion, Chris­tian­ity. The idea that as “Christ-killers” the Jews were both intrins­ic­ally evil and abso­lutely powerful, and not only willing, but also able, to kill the Christian deity, took hold and developed deep roots in the psyche of European Chris­ti­ans. Although the idea of col­lect­ive Jewish respons­ib­il­ity for deicide was repu­di­ated by the Roman Catholic Church in 1965 (as was the idea that the Jews are “rejected or accursed by God”), the idea of Jews as “Christ-killers” continues to be expressed.
This theme is expressed more commonly in social media rather than openly in main­stream Aus­trali­an society. However, there have been incidents in which church sermons or school lessons have asserted Jewish culp­ab­il­ity for the death of Jesus. Even a prominent sportsper­son stated the charge as a matter of fact on Twitter in 2015: “Jesus wanted to help people but was killed by his own people” and “The Jews were the people who took him to the Romans and forced them to give the order because they couldn’t.” The sportsper­son sub­sequently apo­lo­gised for his tweets.
Some examples of this theme were expressed online in 2016 and include: “Jesus. […] He was the one they Crucified because he threw the money lenders out of the Temple.”; “You lot learned nothing from WW2. Not sur­pris­ing really… God sent you Jesus & you killed him, then he sent Mohammad but still you shunned the true message of God.”; “What an insult to think God Almighty would ‘choose’ child murdering zionists as His chosen ones over the billions of pious law abiding human beings He has created through­out time.”; “Satans chosen people”; “Dis­gust­ing! And they call them­selves “THE CHOSEN PEOPLE” ..Hahahahahahah…!!! The vomit of the world”; and “Zionism murdered our Lord Jesus Christ”.
It seems that if one wants to show how evil the Jews sup­posedly are, one invokes the charge of deicide – that the Jews killed Jesus. It is the easiest way to thor­oughly condemn Jews, because the accus­a­tion is widely ingrained in western and Muslim culture and appar­ently requires no explan­a­tion. It tells people that the Jews are innately evil, and the audience is invited to infer, depending on the context, that Jews do not deserve a fair go, even today.
The theme of Jews as Christ-killers, as rejected, cursed, and their faith super­seded, is also applied to Israel, as the nation-state of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland. It is used in support of arguments that Israel has no right to exist, and seeks to justify the destruc­tion of Israel as being ordained from above. This line of thinking says the Jewish people remain eternally rejected and cursed, and it emanates from some Christian and Muslim sources.
2. Jews as bloodthirsty – the Blood Libel
The Blood Libel ori­gin­ated in Europe during the Middle Ages, and referred to the false accus­a­tion that, for religious rituals and purposes, Jews kidnapped and murdered a Christian, often a child, in order to drink his blood. This libel was espe­cially popular during Easter when Chris­ti­ans were com­mem­or­at­ing the death of Jesus, whose cru­ci­fix­ion was blamed on the Jews. For many centuries, the Blood Libel was the primary means for inciting hatred against Jews, and it often resulted in massacres, sometimes of entire Jewish com­munit­ies. In 1840 the Blood Libel idea was brought to the Arab and Islamic worlds and was adopted by them when “the Jews” were falsely accused of killing a Catholic friar in Damascus, and “con­fes­sions” from local Jews were extracted under extreme torture. The friar’s tomb still bears an inscrip­tion that he was “murdered by the Jews”. The Blood Libel myth remained a popular idea well into the 20^th century in Europe and it remains a potent idea to this day, espe­cially in the Islamic world.
The Blood Libel conveys the false messages that: Jews are bloodthirsty; Jews are vile creatures; Jews are against humankind; Jews are innately murderous; Jews are evil; Jews are to be fought against. The theme also encom­passes the ideas that the Jews foment wars and revolu­tions, massacres and terrorism, diseases and plagues, and even manip­u­late earth­quakes and tsunamis, and other events, in order to result in the deaths of non-Jews on a massive scale.
Even in main­stream, con­tem­por­ary Australia, a par­tic­u­larly egregious example of the Blood Libel was seen in the Le Lievre cartoon published in the Sydney Morning Herald in July 2014. It portrayed a classical negative ste­reo­type of a Jew, complete with hook nose, religious head covering and Star of David. The character was shown operating a TV-type remote control as a detonator to blow up civilians in Gaza, with as little regard for human life as one would have in dis­patch­ing virtual enemies in a computer game. After some delay and detailed rep­res­ent­a­tions to the editor explain­ing the antisemitic elements of the cartoon, the newspaper published an apology.
The ABC TV Four Corners program “Stone Cold Justice” which aired in February 2014 had a segment which included un-invest­ig­ated and unsub­stan­ti­ated alleg­a­tions that Jewish soldiers “crucify” Palestini­an boys, a melding of the Blood Libel and Christ-killer themes. This inter­pret­a­tion is amply borne out by the grossly antisemitic comments that were posted on the Four Corners Facebook page in response to the program. It was only when these comments were exposed in other media that the ABC took action to remove them, some after a few days, and many only after five weeks.
The idea of Jews as murderers and morally corrupt was invoked by Sheikh Ismail Al-Wahwah, spokes­per­son for the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, at a public rally in Sydney in July 2014 where he stated: “The Jews… are the slayers of the prophets” and claimed that the Jews are a “hidden evil” from which the world must be freed. Al-Wahwah further stated that “The Jews are the most evil creatures of Allah. Moral cor­rup­tion is linked to the Jews” and blamed the Jews for pros­ti­tu­tion, usury, gambling, killing, and for cor­rupt­ing the world through media “art, cinema, and corrupt films, and with sex trade, drug trade, and moral depravity.”
The Blood Libel theme is commonly used in reference to Israeli Jews, who are portrayed as col­lect­ively guilty of a range of bloody and vile crimes. They are gen­er­ic­ally accused of delib­er­ately killing Palestini­ans, espe­cially targeting children, taking delight in blood lust, and com­mit­ting genocide against the Palestini­an Arabs. As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks suc­cinctly noted, Israel “is regularly accused of the five crimes against human rights: racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide. This is the blood libel of our time.”
At anti-Israel rallies, placards commonly bear Blood Libel type messages. They accuse Jews and Israel of delib­er­ately targeting and killing children in a ritual of blood lust, and of com­mit­ting genocide. Images on placards and props of babies are often spattered with red paint to portray the alleged bloodthirsti­ness of Israelis as a nation. A cartoon image of a Jew, with ste­reo­typ­ic­al hooked nose and claws, about to eat a gentile child was inserted into a video of an anti-Israel Al-Quds Day rally in Melbourne in 2012.
On social media, some examples of the Blood Libel include the following comments: “BLOOD THIRSTY ZIONIST MOTHER FUCKERS JEWS”; “typical zionazi blood­suck­ing cockroach behaviour”; “Zionism is the root cause of all the bloodshed”; “The Israeli army thirst for blood is insa­ti­able”; “killers, blood suckers”; “The jews started/supported/fueled almost every revolu­tion in Europe. Without the Jews, WWI and WWII wouldn’t have happened. Now because of them WWIII is imminent. […] mon­s­ter­ously evil, cold­hearted and blood­suck­ing maniacs they are. They are the monsters behind all cor­rup­tion of mankind. […] Fuck the jews, Hitler war damn right about them.” A comment posted in 2016 on the Facebook page of a prominent anti-Israel activist stated that: “Zionist Jews are nothing but evil, cruel, blood-sucking, money-stealing, land-grabbing, apartheid-enforcing, baby-killing, porn-producing, murdering, thieving, lying, cheating, cor­rupt­ing, evil occupiers.”
3. “Jewish lobby” as inor­din­ately powerful and ille­git­im­ate
The idea of a powerful and sinister “Jewish lobby” buying or unduly influ­en­cing or under­han­dedly manip­u­lat­ing decisions and events has featured in both the main­stream of society and on the fringes. This has been the objective meaning of many state­ments by main­stream academics, clergy, journ­al­ists, politi­cians, and others, regard­less of their sub­ject­ive inten­tions.
During the con­tro­versy at the Uni­ver­sity of Sydney in March 2015, when pro­test­ers attempted to shut down a lecture by a pro-Israel speaker, the announce­ment of an inquiry into the events by the uni­ver­sity admin­is­tra­tion led to a barrage of ref­er­ences by academics, students and others, in articles and comments about the supposed power of the “Israel lobby”. Without advancing a shred of evidence in support of their asser­tions, and without naming who they meant by “the Israel lobby”, one anti-Israel group claimed there was “intense pressure from the Israel lobby […] to sack” two academics involved in the protest. Another anti-Israel group urged the Vice-Chan­cel­lor not to become “the agent of the Israel lobby’s per­se­cu­tion”. One academic claimed that with a “snap [of] its fingers” by “the Israel lobby” the Uni­ver­sity had “jumped” to take action. The theme was repeated by several other academics and politi­cians.
In other contexts it has been suggested at various times by main­stream journ­al­ists, clerics and academics that Australia’s con­sist­ent support over the last 70 years for Israel’s right to exist in peace and security as the homeland of the Jewish people is due to the influence of “Jewish money”, sponsored trips to Israel, and fear of the alleged power of the “Zionist lobby” and the “Jewish lobby”.
Use of the term “Jewish lobby” is seen by many Jews as a smear and a form of vili­fic­a­tion of the Jewish community. It is irrel­ev­ant whether the term used is ‘Jewish lobby’ or ‘Zionist lobby’ or ‘Israel lobby’. Object­ively, the reference is a generic one to the Jewish community and its major organ­isa­tions, which over­whelm­ingly support Israel’s right to exist as the national home of the Jewish people. In effect, these terms seek to place the Jewish community and its major organ­isa­tions outside the normal fabric of society. The effect is to del­e­git­im­ise Jewish concerns, and to portray the Jewish community’s involve­ment in public discourse and main­stream society as ille­git­im­ate, sus­pi­cious, sub­vers­ive and sinister. This suggests that Jews are different to other citizens, ‘the other’. In effect, these terms play to dog-whistle racist politics with sub­con­scious messaging reflect­ing antisemitic con­spir­acy theories.
The “Jewish lobby” idea does not reference any par­tic­u­lar organ­isa­tion or organ­isa­tions or indi­vidu­als per se, but conveys the belief that non-Jewish politi­cians, journ­al­ists, academics and others, only support the Jewish community and/or Israel solely or primarily because of pressure or money from shadowy, undefined “Jewish” sources. The corollary is the belief that without “Jewish” influence or “Jewish” money, people would not be sup­port­ing either the Jewish community or Israel.
4. Jews/Zionists as con­trolling banks, media, politi­cians
The next step from believing in a powerful “Jewish lobby” which manip­u­lates or threatens or buys influence is that of believing that “the Jews” control, or are in the process of con­trolling, the banks, media and politi­cians – three major areas of power within most countries. In Australia, at least, such a view is not spoken openly within the main­stream, but remains on the fringes, of both the far right and far left.
This theme ori­gin­ated in a coherent form with the pub­lic­a­tion in 1903 of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a document that was entirely fab­ric­ated by the Russian secret police to try to deflect anti-Czarist sentiment. The Protocols purported to set out a secret plot by leaders of “inter­na­tion­al Jewry” to take control of and rule the world. In short, it claimed that Jews aimed to influence, infilt­rate and take control of gov­ern­ments, the media, and the banks; Jews were sup­posedly plotting to undermine and corrupt religion, morality, culture and society. The Protocols have been cited repeatedly by those advoc­at­ing violence or even genocide against the Jewish people. At the heart of The Protocols is the con­spir­acy theory.
Today, derog­at­ory ref­er­ences to “the Jews” has generally been replaced by derog­at­ory ref­er­ences to “the Zionists”. Yet the under­ly­ing object of the derog­a­tion is unchanged. Often a common iden­ti­fi­er of this theme is a reference to “Roth­schild”, the Jewish banking family, and more recently, to “Goldman Sachs”, an invest­ment company estab­lished by two Jewish Americans in the nine­teenth century. These brands are fre­quently ref­er­enced by anti­semites as a code for “the Jews” or Jewish control.
Some examples of this theme include the following comments on social media in 2016: “History is a lie written by Jewish bankers and sold by their puppet politi­cian who help sell the lies.”, “if you control the media like jews do anything goes”, “the Zionist con­trolled media”, “these filthy Goldman Sachs Zionist criminals”, “they have too much money in this world. If need be they can buy off anyone”, and “Our nation is now com­pletely under the control of the Inter­na­tion­al Invisible gov­ern­ment of World Jewry.”
5. Jews/Zionists as Nazis
This theme accuses Jews/Zionists/Israelis of being the same as, or worse than, the Nazis who murdered six million Jews. It most often occurs in reference to the Israel-Arab conflict. The theme is one of Holocaust inversion, Holocaust min­im­isa­tion, and often Holocaust denial.
This theme is not commonly expressed within the main­stream of society. However, it is commonly expressed by leftists and some extremist Muslims at anti-Israel rallies on their placards, and on social media. Its aim is to demonise the Jewish state of Israel and to legit­im­ise hateful or violent acts against Israel and sometimes Jews by referring to Israelis as Nazis.
Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, or Zionism to Nazism, or the Jewish Star of David to the Nazi swastika, as is common in anti-Israel discourse and protests, is recog­nised as antisemitic by virtue of it being a false analogy aimed at demon­ising Jews, and by min­im­ising the evil of the delib­er­ate and planned mass exterm­in­a­tion of six million Jews by the Nazis, and sometimes, in turn ret­ro­spect­ively jus­ti­fy­ing the Holocaust against the Jewish people.
In effect, the com­par­is­on means: as Nazi Germany was destroyed, so too it is morally just to destroy Israel; if the Israelis and Zionists are so evil, then maybe Hitler had good grounds for com­mit­ting genocide against the Jews; if Hitler had succeeded in wiping out the Jews, then there would be no Israel; and in ret­ro­spect, Hitler was doing the world a favour. These words impliedly justify acts of violence and murder against Jews in Israel and Jewish sup­port­ers of Israel.
The Nazi com­par­is­on places Jews as a group in the invidious role of being racist, evil and powerful. It denies that Jews are victims of racism. It has been used to justify the Nazi genocide against the Jews. It serves to place those who are hostile and opposed to Jews as being the victims of Jews, thereby framing their attacks on Jews as ‘only defending’ them­selves against the ‘evil’ of the Jews.
Con­clu­sion
The ideas in these five themes are irra­tion­al but powerful. There will always be people ready, for their own reasons, to spruik hatred against Jews. The extent of the influence of this hatred and prejudice can be gauged by a gradation of tests: firstly, whether any of these views have crossed over from the margins of society into the main­stream; secondly, whether people in the main­stream freely and openly give voice to such prejudice; thirdly, whether it has become part of ordinary accept­able discourse; and fourthly, whether such prejudice is acted upon through dis­crim­in­a­tion or violence against Jews. Each gradation marks a stepping stone where the antisemitism needs to be checked, countered and rebutted, to avoid a cata­strophe.
Racism, whether overt or covert, subtle or obtuse, casual or violent, is never accept­able. History has shown that societies that tolerate and accept racism against Jews often become a society where all will be caught up in a con­flag­ra­tion that “begins with Jews but never ends with Jews”. All forms of racism, including antisemitism, are a threat not only to the people they target but ulti­mately to all of us.
Julie Nathan is the Research Officer for the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry
This article first appeared in The Times of Israel