Anti-Zionism is the new language of an old hatred |
Hatred survives by adapting.
It learns the language of each generation. It finds new justifications. It makes itself sound moral, even righteous.
Antisemitism has done this for over two thousand years. Today, it often calls itself anti-Zionism.
Many who embrace anti-Zionism insist they oppose only Israel, not Jews. They present their position as political, ethical, even humanitarian. But when examined honestly, anti-Zionism does not merely criticize policies. It denies something far more fundamental: the right of the Jewish people to exist as a sovereign nation in their ancestral homeland.
No other people on Earth are asked to justify their right to exist as a nation. Only the Jews.
That fact alone should force serious reflection.
Zionism did not emerge in a vacuum. It emerged from necessity.
For nearly two millennia, Jews lived as minorities everywhere. They were expelled from England in 1290, from Spain in 1492, and subjected to waves of pogroms across Europe and the Middle East. Even in societies where Jews contributed deeply to culture, science, and commerce, they were never fully secure.
The Holocaust was not an anomaly. It was the most extreme expression of a long pattern.
Six million Jews were murdered while the world debated whether to accept Jewish refugees. Many countries refused them entry. Jews learned a painful lesson: survival without sovereignty was never guaranteed.
Zionism was the answer to that lesson.
It was not a movement of conquest. It was a movement of return. Jerusalem had been the center of Jewish identity for over 3,000 years. Jewish presence in the land never disappeared, even after the Roman Empire attempted to erase Jewish identity by force.
When Israel declared independence in 1948, it did so under international legal recognition through the United Nations. Within hours, five neighboring Arab armies invaded, openly declaring their intention to destroy the new state.
Israel did not fight to expand. Israel fought to survive.
This is why anti-Zionism cannot be separated from antisemitism.
Criticism of Israeli government policies is legitimate. Israelis themselves engage in fierce internal criticism every day. That is the strength of democracy.
But anti-Zionism does not stop at criticism. It rejects the legitimacy of Israel’s existence altogether. It demands that the world’s only Jewish state cease to exist.
This demand is not applied to any other nation.
There are countries born from colonialism, conquest, and war across every continent. Yet only one country is singled out as uniquely illegitimate. Only one people’s right to self-determination is treated as a moral crime.
This double standard is not accidental.
Throughout history, antisemitism has always reshaped itself to match the dominant moral language of the time. In medieval Europe, Jews were demonized in the name of religion. In the twentieth century, they were demonized in the name of race. Today, they are demonized in the name of human rights.
The accusation has changed. The target has not.
Israel’s existence represents something deeply threatening to those who carried ancient antisemitic assumptions into the modern world. It represents Jewish self-determination. It represents Jewish safety without dependence on the protection or tolerance of others.
It represents the end of Jewish vulnerability as a permanent condition.
As a Muslim, I believe this reality must be confronted honestly.
Supporting the Jewish people’s right to exist in their homeland does not contradict justice. It affirms it. Justice cannot be selective. It cannot grant rights to every people except one.
Anti-Zionism, when stripped of its language and examined in its practical meaning, calls for the dismantling of the only Jewish state on Earth. It calls for the removal of Jewish sovereignty.
History has taught us to recognize what happens when Jewish sovereignty disappears.
The world has seen the consequences before.
We should not pretend not to recognize them now.