Hymie Rubenstein, editor of REAL Indigenous Report, is a retired professor of anthropology, University of ManitobaIt’s called the world’s oldest hatred for good reason because antisemitism goes back to the beginning of the 6th century with the birth of Islam, in what is now Saudi Arabia.That is why Arab-born Troy Media columnist Gerry Chidiac’s assertion in Debunking the myth of Arab antisemitism that “the belief that we [Arabs] are inherently antisemitic and have been in conflict with Jews for centuries” is one of “many common misconceptions about Arabs” is itself a misconception, even though it is endlessly repeated by other Arab activists and their supporters.This does not mean he was incorrect to deny that Judaism and Zionism are synonymous. Indeed, some Jews in Canada and elsewhere, including Israel, are not Zionists, while many Western Gentiles are its most assertive supporters. But this does not negate that although modern Zionism originated in eastern and central Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, its core motive was bolstering the ancient Biblical attachment of the Jews and Judaism to the ancient historical region called Eretz Israel, the Promised Land of Israel.More particularly, there is a need to challenge Chidiac’s acceptance that antisemitism began as a “European malady… born in Europe in the Middle Ages” and that “There was no tradition of antisemitism in the Arab world. It was exported from Europe to the Middle East … There was no antisemitic literature, so antisemitic literature had to be translated from European languages to Arabic.”On the contrary, antisemitism is an ancient ideology nearly as old as Judaism itself. It’s a combined racial, religious, and ethnic prejudice, though well-documented in Christian societies, as Chidiac rightly asserts, is today much more prevalent in the Muslim world. In the Middle East, it is focused on the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel based on beliefs much deeper than regional territorial disputes having to do with the Palestinians, contrary to Chidiac’s attribution of this to Zionism.A deeply rooted antisemitic hatred that dwarfs the Palestinian statehood and land claims is featured in sacred Muslim texts that invite hostility against Jews. The Koran and the Hadiths (a collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammad) can be interpreted in ways that suggest Muslims and Jews are enemies, that Jews will be killed at the end of times, that Jews falsified scripture, and that Jews tried to kill Mohammed.Hamas’s 1998 Charter directs the killing of Jews, drawing on the Hadith saying: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’ ”In the early 20th century, the growing movement of political Islam saw Christians and Jews as waging war against Muslims and for being responsible for the alleged decay and Westernization of Islamic societies.Sayyid Qutb, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and one of the movement’s most influential thinkers, wrote a widely disseminated pamphlet entitled Our Struggle with the Jews, where he drew parallels between contemporary developments and Mohammed’s struggle with the Jews.Qutb also saw the return of Jews to Palestine as an evil that demanded punishment. “Let Allah bring down upon the Jews people who will mete out to them the worst kind of punishment, as a confirmation of His unequivocal promise: ‘If you return, then We return,’” he wrote.As well, Articles 22 and 25 of the updated Hamas 2017 Charter state:“The liberation of Palestine is the duty of the Palestinian people …. Resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws and by international norms and laws. At the heart of these lies armed resistance, which is regarded as the strategic choice for protecting the principles and the rights of the Palestinian people.”These “divine laws” may be found in the Koran and the Hadiths.The October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel was only the latest expression of these divine beliefs based on Hamas’s continuing support by a large majority of Palestinians.Accordingly, focusing mainly on the importation of European antisemitism and a chronic land claim dispute as explaining the October 7, 2023, Hamas's attack — to the exclusion of Islamic chauvinism — is perversely short-sighted.Sadly, Arab antisemitism is no myth.Hymie Rubenstein, editor of REAL Indigenous Report, is a retired professor of anthropology, University of Manitoba. He is co-author of Positive Stories About Indian Residential Schools Must Also Be Heard for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, where he is a senior fellow.
Hymie Rubenstein, editor of REAL Indigenous Report, is a retired professor of anthropology, University of ManitobaIt’s called the world’s oldest hatred for good reason because antisemitism goes back to the beginning of the 6th century with the birth of Islam, in what is now Saudi Arabia.That is why Arab-born Troy Media columnist Gerry Chidiac’s assertion in Debunking the myth of Arab antisemitism that “the belief that we [Arabs] are inherently antisemitic and have been in conflict with Jews for centuries” is one of “many common misconceptions about Arabs” is itself a misconception, even though it is endlessly repeated by other Arab activists and their supporters.This does not mean he was incorrect to deny that Judaism and Zionism are synonymous. Indeed, some Jews in Canada and elsewhere, including Israel, are not Zionists, while many Western Gentiles are its most assertive supporters. But this does not negate that although modern Zionism originated in eastern and central Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, its core motive was bolstering the ancient Biblical attachment of the Jews and Judaism to the ancient historical region called Eretz Israel, the Promised Land of Israel.More particularly, there is a need to challenge Chidiac’s acceptance that antisemitism began as a “European malady… born in Europe in the Middle Ages” and that “There was no tradition of antisemitism in the Arab world. It was exported from Europe to the Middle East … There was no antisemitic literature, so antisemitic literature had to be translated from European languages to Arabic.”On the contrary, antisemitism is an ancient ideology nearly as old as Judaism itself. It’s a combined racial, religious, and ethnic prejudice, though well-documented in Christian societies, as Chidiac rightly asserts, is today much more prevalent in the Muslim world. In the Middle East, it is focused on the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel based on beliefs much deeper than regional territorial disputes having to do with the Palestinians, contrary to Chidiac’s attribution of this to Zionism.A deeply rooted antisemitic hatred that dwarfs the Palestinian statehood and land claims is featured in sacred Muslim texts that invite hostility against Jews. The Koran and the Hadiths (a collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammad) can be interpreted in ways that suggest Muslims and Jews are enemies, that Jews will be killed at the end of times, that Jews falsified scripture, and that Jews tried to kill Mohammed.Hamas’s 1998 Charter directs the killing of Jews, drawing on the Hadith saying: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’ ”In the early 20th century, the growing movement of political Islam saw Christians and Jews as waging war against Muslims and for being responsible for the alleged decay and Westernization of Islamic societies.Sayyid Qutb, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and one of the movement’s most influential thinkers, wrote a widely disseminated pamphlet entitled Our Struggle with the Jews, where he drew parallels between contemporary developments and Mohammed’s struggle with the Jews.Qutb also saw the return of Jews to Palestine as an evil that demanded punishment. “Let Allah bring down upon the Jews people who will mete out to them the worst kind of punishment, as a confirmation of His unequivocal promise: ‘If you return, then We return,’” he wrote.As well, Articles 22 and 25 of the updated Hamas 2017 Charter state:“The liberation of Palestine is the duty of the Palestinian people …. Resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws and by international norms and laws. At the heart of these lies armed resistance, which is regarded as the strategic choice for protecting the principles and the rights of the Palestinian people.”These “divine laws” may be found in the Koran and the Hadiths.The October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel was only the latest expression of these divine beliefs based on Hamas’s continuing support by a large majority of Palestinians.Accordingly, focusing mainly on the importation of European antisemitism and a chronic land claim dispute as explaining the October 7, 2023, Hamas's attack — to the exclusion of Islamic chauvinism — is perversely short-sighted.Sadly, Arab antisemitism is no myth.Hymie Rubenstein, editor of REAL Indigenous Report, is a retired professor of anthropology, University of Manitoba. He is co-author of Positive Stories About Indian Residential Schools Must Also Be Heard for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, where he is a senior fellow.
