COMMON MYTHS VS FACTS #17

Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism because it singles out the only Jewish state for denunciation. 

​Some see anti-Zionism as a way to hide anti-Semitism.

It is possible to be a staunch critic of Zionism and not to be anti-Semitic, however the two usually go together.  People who don’t like the Netanyahu government, are not anti-Zionist. That is part of the normal democratic debate.  It is taken a step further to anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism when it isn’t simply Israeli policy that has to change, but it is Israel, the only Jewish state in the world, that has to go.

Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. Many of us are critics of China’s occupation of Tibet, or Turkey’s occupation in northern Cyprus in violation of international law and putting down settlements. But none of those critiques call for the states themselves to be eliminated, but rather to change their policies. The double-standard of self-determination of one country over the Jewish state, falls under the United States State Department definition of anti-Semitism.