Gaza march and rally in London, August 2014. Flickr. Some rights reserved.In tandem with the Gaza conflict this summer, a significant rise, by word and deed, of anti-Jewish sentiment in the UK and other countries has been recorded. This disturbing phenomenon is often perceived and experienced as ‘antisemitism’. However, how accurate or helpful is it to designate it as such?
I would contend--drawing on my experiences of nearly 50 years of engagement with people on both sides of the divide--that the growth in anti-Jewish sentiment, particularly in the Arab and Muslim worlds, is principally a product of the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab conflict. This conflict also accounts for the simultaneous and parallel phenomenon of the rise in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment in the Jewish world. The two phenomena should be considered alongside each other.
The correlation between the conflict and attitudes towards the Other is not one-way. During the Oslo period, not only were there rather few manifestations of hatred, but Jewish-Arab dialogue groups and other co-operative projects started to mushroom. Firm friendships across the divide were formed, some of which continue to prosper.
