Attempts to paint antisemitism as a form of political expression rather than racism is far from a recent phenomenon.
asserted
Attempts → paint → phenomenon
The clearest example of where this idea fermented on the world stage was the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, which was held 25 years ago.
asserted
which → ferment → Durban
WCAR was billed as a global gathering to combat racism, xenophobia and intolerance.
asserted
WCAR → bill → racism
Governments, international organizations and civil society representatives assembled with the stated purpose of building a shared framework against racism in all its forms.
asserted
Governments → assemble → forms
There was a sense that history would be made.
asserted
history → be → ?
I was there to witness it unfold first-hand.
asserted
it → witness → ?
I had not travelled to Durban as an advocate or as someone looking to advance Jewish community concerns.
asserted
I → travel → concerns
In preparation for the conference, I had been commissioned to produce a report for the Government of Canada’s anti-racism secretariat that examined previous reports and recommendations on racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance.
asserted
that → commission → racism
In effect, I arrived in Durban expecting conversations about combating racism in all its forms.
asserted
I → arrive → forms
Instead, what I encountered there was almost the opposite.
asserted
encountered → encounter → what
And therein lies one of the bitter irony of the experience.
asserted
one → lie → experience
At the parallel NGO Forum, where civil society leaders from around the world were meant to give expression to the victims of racism and discrimination, the proceedings were transformed — or more accurately hijacked — into something much uglier.
asserted
proceedings → mean → something
What should have been a universal anti-racism gathering became, in too many instances, an effort to remove Jew-hatred from the world’s anti-racism agenda.
asserted
been → become → agenda
The spectacle was marked by manipulation, propaganda and a stunning willingness to excuse hostility toward Jews and dress it up as anti-Zionism or anti-Israel politics.
asserted
spectacle → mark → politics
Jewish participants from across the political spectrum arrived expecting solidarity.
asserted
participants → arrive → solidarity
Instead, many of us found ourselves asking whether antisemitism still counted as racism.
asserted
antisemitism → find → racism
Some participants described being harassed because they were visibly Jewish.
asserted
they → describe → ?
Copies of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the notorious antisemitic forgery, were circulated.
asserted
Copies → circulate → Zion
Posters equated Israel with Nazi Germany.
asserted
Posters → equate → Germany
Leaflets and slogans blurred, sometimes deliberately, any distinction between criticism of Israeli government policy and hostility toward Jews as a people.
asserted
Leaflets → blur → people
Conduct that would have been immediately condemned had it targeted virtually any other minority was tolerated, rationalized or ignored when directed at Jews.
asserted
it → condemn → Jews
It helped globalize the effort to recast the hatred of Jews as political opinion.
asserted
It → help → opinion
The very language of anti-racism was used to launder antisemitic expression.
asserted
language → use → expression
Jews were not denied the right to be protected in theory; rather, they were told that the hostility directed at them was not really hatred at all, but solidarity with the oppressed, anti-colonial activism or resistance to imperialism.
asserted
hostility → deny → imperialism
Rest assured that what happened at Durban wasn’t about Israeli government policy.
asserted
happened → rest → policy
It placed Israel, alone among the nations of the world, at the centre of the racism agenda.
asserted
It → place → agenda
It treated Jewish self-determination as singularly suspect.
asserted
It → treat → determination
It transformed Jews from a historically persecuted minority into the symbolic embodiment of oppression.
asserted
It → transform → oppression
Once that shift occurred, antisemitism could be dismissed as merely a political complaint.
uncertain
antisemitism → occur → complaint
At a spontaneous gathering of Jewish conference delegates, Irwin Cotler, who would go on to become Canada’s justice minister, warned against what he called the “partitioning of prejudice.”
asserted
he → go → prejudice
The phrase has stayed with me since.
asserted
phrase → stay → me
Racism cannot be opposed selectively.
asserted
Racism → oppose → ?
Human rights lose their moral authority when they are applied conditionally.
asserted
they → lose → authority
The moment hatred against a particular people is deemed understandable, fashionable or politically useful, the universalism on which anti-racism depends starts to collapse.
asserted
racism → deem → which
Durban revealed that collapse in real time.
asserted
Durban → reveal → time
The final United Nations declaration did not adopt the most extreme language advanced by activists, and thankfully it did acknowledge that antisemitism is a form of intolerance.
asserted
antisemitism → adopt → intolerance
But history remembers Durban at least as much for what unfolded in the civil society forum as for what appeared in the official diplomatic text.
asserted
what → remember → text
The NGO Forum exposed a fault line that has widened over the past quarter century: antisemitism is increasingly treated as debatable, contextual or somehow less apparent when conveniently associated with criticism of Israel.
asserted
antisemitism → expose → Israel
Jews are often required to prove that what they experience as antisemitism is indeed antisemitism.
asserted
experience → require → antisemitism
Expressions that would be condemned instantly if directed at other minorities are parsed endlessly when Jews are the target.
asserted
Jews → condemn → minorities
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
