The following article has been published in AMUST by Julie Nathan.

Uri Avnery’s article, “The Fallacy of Rising anti-Semitism” (AMUST, 5 March), must be seen through the prism of Israeli domestic politics. Avnery, an Israeli citizen, wrote his piece as a long-standing critic of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and in the context of Israel’s impending election. Avnery berates Netanyahu’s call for European Jews to immigrate to Israel as a mere scare campaign.

But Avnery goes too far when he attempts to minimise antisemitism, and even to justify and legit­im­ise violent attacks against diaspora Jews by Muslims. Avnery’s excuse is that the motiv­a­tion for these attacks is anti-Israel, not anti-Jewish.

This “analysis”, which is often unthink­ingly embraced by Muslims living in western societies, is dan­ger­ously short-sighted. If it is accept­able to attack Jews, anywhere and every­where, for the real or imagined wrongs of Israel, then it is equally accept­able to attack Muslims, anywhere and every­where, for what is done in their name, and in the name of Islam itself, by avowedly Islamic groups or by Muslim-majority states. It is simply not credible to condemn Islamo­pho­bia while attempt­ing to ration­al­ise antisemitism.

Contrary to Avnery’s asser­tions, antisemitic incidents are on the rise, and the per­pet­rat­ors make no dis­tinc­tion between Jews and Israelis. Often their avowed motiv­a­tions have nothing to do with Israel.

All the data from the police services of European countries, the FBI, and others who monitor hate incidents, show that antisemitic incidents are increas­ingly prevalent, violent and murderous. In Britain, antisemitic incidents more than doubled in 2014 from the 2013 figures. In France, Jews comprise only 1% of the pop­u­la­tion, yet 50% of racist attacks are against Jews. In the USA, for the past ten-year period, attacks against Jews comprise 60 – 70% in the religious hate category. Even in Australia, there was a 35% increase in antisemitic incidents, including har­ass­ment and assault, during the 2014 period compared to the previous year.

Denying or min­im­ising antisemitism, does not help Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Israelis, or Palestini­ans. The end result is the under­min­ing of all genuine efforts at coun­ter­ing acts of bigotry and hatred of any kind.