Anti-Zionism, in its current incarnation, has evolved into a particularly pernicious ideology, one that is far removed from any legitimate critique of Israeli policies. It has become a worldview that not only denies the right of the Jewish state to exist but also rejects Israel’s legitimacy entirely, regardless of its borders.
This ideology often repurposes age-old antisemitic tropes for modern purposes, reinforcing prejudices under the guise of political discourse. At its core, anti-Zionism is not simply a political stance but a tool of deep-seated prejudice, employed to rationalize and even justify the actions of groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
Central to this narrative are two enduring myths: the baseless claim that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people and the revisionist trope that Israel or the Jews are colonial oppressors.
The accusation that Israel is engaged in a campaign of genocide against the Palestinian Arabs is not only false; it represents a grotesque distortion of the term “genocide,” a word that carries the weight of humanity’s darkest moments – whether one thinks of the Holocaust, the Rwandan slaughter, or the unspeakable atrocities inflicted upon the Yazidis by ISIS.
When ISIS rampaged through northern Iraq in 2014, they unleashed a campaign of terror against the Yazidi people that was, in every sense, genocidal. Thousands were massacred; women and children were enslaved, raped, and subjected to other horrific abuses; and an entire people faced the threat of annihilation simply because of their religious identity. That is what genocide looks like: a deliberate, systematic attempt to erase an entire group from existence.
In stark contrast, the situation in Gaza and the West Bank tells a different story. The Palestinian population has, in fact, grown significantly over the decades. Since 1967, Gaza’s population has increased from around 350,000 to over two million, while the West Bank has seen its population rise from about 600,000 to nearly three million.
These figures are the very antithesis of a genocidal trend. To suggest that Israel, a nation in a perpetual state of self-defense, is engaged in genocide against a population that has steadily increased is not only absurd but deeply insulting to the victims of real genocides.
The most twisted irony, however, is that this accusation is often leveled against Israel by those who support or excuse the actions of Hamas – a group whose very charter explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel. The Hamas Charter, adopted in 1988, is clear in its aims. It states, without ambiguity, that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam obliterates it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
This is not mere rhetoric; it is a declaration of intent, a blueprint for the annihilation of the Jewish state, rooted in an ideology that demands Israel’s obliteration.
Hamas’s actions over the years have mirrored this vision. From the thousands of rockets indiscriminately fired at Israeli cities to suicide bombings aimed at maximizing civilian casualties, Hamas’s campaign is designed not merely to terrorize but to destroy. Unlike the fabricated claims made against Israel, Hamas’s ambitions are clear, documented, and persistently pursued.
The fact that this reality is often ignored or excused by those who accuse Israel of the very crimes Hamas seeks to commit is a testament to the moral inversion at the heart of anti-Zionism. And if anyone still needs a reminder – though it is shocking that such reminders are necessary – let October 7 be seared into our collective memory. The horrors of that day were too brutal, too grotesque, for anyone to pretend ignorance. You know what happened, and worse still, by refusing to name it – brutal and indiscriminate terrorism – you implicitly condone it.
To equate the defensive actions of a democratic state with the barbarism of groups like ISIS or with the explicit aims of Hamas is not merely a misrepresentation; it is a profound moral corruption. Such comparisons trivialize the immense suffering endured by those who have been the true victims of genocide and obscure the very real dangers posed by ideologies that seek Israel’s destruction.
In this perverse narrative, those who openly declare their intent to annihilate are recast as the aggrieved, while the state striving to protect its citizens from such threats is condemned as the aggressor. This is the fundamental falsehood at the core of anti-Zionism – one that must be exposed and challenged for the gross distortion it truly is.
THE OTHER unforgivable lie, used by the Marxist/Islamofascists on streets across the liberal democratic Western world and social media, is that Zionist Israel is a colonial oppressor. This belies the fact that the Jews of the ancient world came home, with legal authority first from the League of Nations and then the United Nations.
It is deeply offensive to many Jews to have their central credo of “Next year in Jerusalem” and their return to Zion turned on them as an act of aggressive conquest. Israel is a beacon of light for non-Jewish Arabs and all faiths who freely work, vote, and rise to the highest positions of office to be smeared with claims of being a colonial oppressor. The Jews/Israelites are the first indigenous people to rebuild a modern state in their ancestral homeland.
As recently as August 13, on Tisha B’Av, the Jews in Israel and around the world commemorated the destruction of their ancient Temple in Jerusalem. This incontrovertible historical fact is etched on Titus’s Arch at the entrance to the Colosseum in Rome. In 1947, Arab Palestinians and Jewish Palestinians had the opportunity to declare statehood. The Jews went for it; the Arabs went to war and lost.
And yet these truths fall on deaf ears and a perceived oppressor/oppressed narrative prevails.
Hamas's designation as a terror org. by many countries must be acknowledged
Hamas, it should be noted, is a group designated as a terrorist organization by many Western governments, including the UK. Its charter explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state in its place. Yet, in the anti-Zionist narrative, Hamas is often portrayed not as a terror group, but as a legitimate resistance movement. This whitewashing of Hamas’s actions is facilitated by the widespread dissemination of the genocide myth. By framing Israel as a state engaged in the systematic destruction of Palestinians, Hamas’s own acts of terror – such as launching rockets at civilian populations – are rebranded as acts of self-defense against an existential threat.
Equally disturbing is the modern resurrection of the blood libel, a slander that dates back to the Middle Ages, accusing Jews of using the blood of non-Jewish children in religious rituals. Today, this vile accusation has been rebranded to suggest that Israel deliberately murders Palestinian children and civilians. The narrative is perpetuated by frequent claims that Israel targets children in its military operations, often without any context or evidence.
The reality, however, is that Israel’s military conducts operations under some of the strictest rules of engagement in the world, designed to minimize civilian casualties even when facing an adversary like Hamas, which routinely uses civilians, including children, as human shields.
Hamas’s strategy of embedding its military infrastructure within civilian areas, including schools, mosques, and hospitals, is a deliberate tactic designed to provoke civilian casualties and fuel international outrage against Israel. The fact that these tactics succeed, despite Israel’s standard-setting efforts to avoid civilian harm, demonstrates the power of the modern blood libel in shaping global perceptions.
Hamas benefits immensely from these distortions. By portraying Israel as a child-killing regime, Hamas justifies its acts of terror as noble resistance, conveniently sidestepping the fact that its tactics – embedding military operations within civilian areas – are designed to provoke civilian casualties and incite international condemnation against Israel.
Anti-Zionism relies heavily on these myths to sustain its ideological framework.
By casting Israel as a genocidal state and reviving the blood libel in a modern form, anti-Zionists do more than just criticize Israel; they seek to demonize and dehumanize it, delegitimize its right to exist, and whitewash the violence perpetrated by groups like Hamas.
This strategy feeds into broader currents of antisemitism, where Israel (and the Jews by association) are not merely an adversary but an inherently evil entity. The accusation of genocide and the claim that Israel targets children are not just rhetorical devices but strategic weapons, carefully crafted to vilify the Jewish state on the global stage and justify violent resistance against it and its people worldwide.
Consider the reactions to the conflicts in Gaza over the past decade. Time and again, the media and public discourse have been fixated on the tragic images of civilian casualties, particularly children, while willfully ignoring the context of Hamas’s brutal military strategies or the extensive measures taken by the Israeli Defense Forces to avoid civilian casualties.
This selective outrage, fueled by the anti-Zionist narrative, has insidiously led to a growing acceptance of Hamas as a legitimate player, despite its open commitment to Israel’s annihilation and its reliance on terror as its chief weapon.
But what of the Israeli children? Where is the concern for the danger they face and the trauma they endure at the hands of these same forces of terror? Are their lives less valuable, their suffering less real? Do they not count?
The real danger of anti-Zionism lies in its capacity to obscure truth and perpetuate hatred under the guise of legitimate political critique. By repackaging ancient prejudices for a modern audience, it succeeds in mobilizing support for an ideology that, at its core, denies the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.
To challenge these narratives effectively, it is crucial to recognize the mechanisms at play and understand the deeply ingrained prejudices that drive them. Only by exposing the falsehoods at the heart of anti-Zionism can we begin to address the broader issue of how antisemitism continues to manifest in the guise of political discourse in the 21st century.
Catherine Perez-Shakdam is the executive director of We Believe In Israel. Daniel Frohwein is the executive director of Grassroots Proactive Strategy.