Anti-Semitism Among Semites

You missed the bus? The driver was clearly an anti-Semite. Too many steps in the building? Anti-Semitic architect, obviously.

In the Jewish community in which I was raised, this was a common joking response to mundane annoyances. Anti-Semitism was something we could joke about because we hardly noticed any real manifestation of this timeless sickness in our personal lives.

Sadly, though, to the world’s utter disgrace, anti-Semitism is very much alive. It has not left Europe, but it is thriving most acutely in the Middle East, and quite virulently among the Palestinian Arabs.

At an Institute Of Politics Forum event on Nov. 15, “The Israeli-Palestinian Challenge: A Shared Vision for the Future,” Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Minister of Information and Culture for the Palestinian Authority (PA) chastised the event’s moderator, Associate Professor of Government Eva Bellin, for her mentioning an accusation that the Palestinian Authority sanctions anti-Semitic propaganda in its textbooks and media. How could the Palestinians, themselves “Semites,” be anti-Semitic, Rabbo asked rhetorically. This accusation, Rabbo complained, “struck at my heart,” because the Palestinians and the Jews “are cousins.” This response, of course, simply obfuscates the very serious accusation with a neither new nor interesting linguistic fallacy.

The term anti-Semitism was coined by the German Wilhelm Marr in the 1880s and it was meant to distinguish itself from anti-Judaism. Whereas anti-Judaism was seen to be based on religious hatred, the new “enlightened,” “scientific” anti-Semitism was a hatred of the Jews as a race. The old anti-Judaism was outdated; anti-Semitism allowed its adherents to hate the Jews in a modern way. As the Oxford English Dictionary defines it, anti-Semitism is “theory, action, or practice directed against the Jews.”

The trick Rabbo was playing is based on the fact that the word “Semite” refers to descendents of the biblical figure Shem, the son of Noah. Arabs as well as Jews are supposedly descendants of this figure. There is a difference, though, between the etymology and the definition of a word, and this is a distinction that Rabbo pretended not to recognize. He used this verbal slight of hand to avoid addressing the shameful stain of Palestinian anti-Semitism.

If the Palestinians intend to ultimately live in peace with the Israelis, as Rabbo insists they do, they must teach their children tolerance of the Israelis, or at the very least avoid inculcating them with venomous hatred of Israelis and Jews. Breeding a new generation on this hate dooms it to refuse coexistence and condemns it to continue the violence of the past.

The Palestinian Authority must remove from its schools’ curricula textbooks that preach anti-Semitism. Ninth graders should not be learning that “one must beware the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal,” as they do on page 79 of their Islamic Education for Ninth Grade, according to a Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace report. Palestinian youth should not be taught that Zionism, the ideology that led to the creation of the state with which the PA claims to want to peace, and Nazism “are the clearest examples of racist belief and racial discrimination in the world,” as they are on page 123 of The Contemporary History of the Arabs and the World. The examples of anti-Semitism in Palestinian textbooks are endless.

Yasser Abed Rabbo undoubtedly knows about these textbooks. Rabbo focused on the term “anti-Semitism” rather than addressing the very real anti-Semitism that his government advocates because it was an easier topic. It allowed him to accuse and blame rather than to engage in serious self-reflection.

Self-critique is clearly not Rabbo’s favorite pastime. In fact, after over a year of Palestinian terror, murder, lynching and rampant violence, Rabbo’s best example of a recent Palestinian mistake was that they ought to have pushed harder for Israel to freeze settlement activity. The Palestinian choice to resort to violence did not come to mind.

The Palestinian leadership must be willing to look deep into its society’s culture and values and be ready to condemn those aspects that are antithetical to a potential peace with Israel. Saying that the Jews are the Palestinians’ cousins while continuing to teach Palestinian children that those cousins are treacherous and disloyal will only continue to deter a true peace between the two peoples. Palestinian youths must be taught that anti-Semitism is immoral, and Palestinian leaders have a responsibility to address their society’s flaws rather than simply blaming others.

Then perhaps one day the only sign of anti-Semitism—the hatred of Jews—will be when you hit your knee on the bedpost and curse the viciously anti-Semitic design.

Jonathan M. Gribetz ’02 is a social studies concentrator in Pforzheimer House. He is vice president of Harvard Students for Israel.