New antisemitism refers to the concept that a form of antisemitism, typically manifesting as anti-Zionism, developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The concept dates to the early 1970s, and was popularized in The New Anti-Semitism by Arnold Forster and Benjamin Epstein of the Anti-Defamation League.
Proponents of the concept generally argue that anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel – or double standards applied to Israel's conduct (some also include anti-Americanism, anti-globalization, and Third-Worldism) – represent an evolution in the appearance of antisemitic beliefs that are linked to antisemitism, or constitute disguised antisemitism, particularly when emanating from the far left, Islamism, and the far right simultaneously. Some call this a third political wave of antisemitism, after the religious and racial forms dominant in previous periods, and constituting the first and second waves.
Critics argue that, in practice, the concept is used to weaponize antisemitism by conflating political anti-Zionism, criticism of the Israeli government, or comparisons between the Israeli government's actions and the Holocaust with racism or support for violence against Jews, while stifling both political debate and freedom of speech about the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Supporters of the concept, however, have criticized these arguments as antisemitic and rhetorically irrelevant to the contested reality of new antisemitism.
Critics further argue that the concept defines legitimate criticism of Israel too narrowly and demonization too broadly, trivializing the very notion of antisemitism.
History of the concept
1960s: origins French philosopher Pierre-André Taguieff argues that the first wave of "the new Judeophobia" () emerged in the Arab-Muslim world and the Soviet sphere following the 1967 Six-Day War. He cites papers by Jacques Givet (1968) and historian Léon Poliakov (1969) discussing the idea of a new antisemitism rooted in anti-Zionism. cites the following early works on the new antisemitism: Jacques Givet, , Paris 1968. idem, , No. 13-14, Spring-Summer 1968, pp. 116–119. Léon Poliakov, , Paris 1969 Shmuel Ettinger, , , No. 14, 1975, pp. 141–157. Michael Curtis, ed., Antisemitism in the Modern World, Boulder, 1986. He argues that anti-Jewish themes centered on the demonical figures of Israel and what he calls "fantasy-world Zionism": that Jews plot together, seek to conquer the world, and are imperialistic and bloodthirsty, which gave rise to the reactivation of stories about ritual murder and the poisoning of food and water supplies.
After the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)—with AIPAC founder Isaiah L. Kenen's support, according to historian Ilan Pappé—sought to "portray certain 'anti-Israel' actions as anti-Semitic", especially with regard to international calls for Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank. In 1974, ADL leaders Arnold Forster and Benjamin Epstein published The New Anti-Semitism, which identified anti-Zionism as a "new antisemitism", an idea the ADL has sought to popularize since the early 1970s.
1970s: early debates Writing in the American Jewish Congress' Congress Bi-Weekly in 1973, the Foreign Minister of Israel Abba Eban identified anti-Zionism as "the new anti-Semitism", saying:
In 1974, Arnold Forster and Benjamin Epstein of the Anti-Defamation League published the book The New Anti-Semitism. They expressed concern about what they described as new manifestations of antisemitism coming from radical left, radical right, and pro-Arab figures in the U.S.. See for instance chapters entitled: "Gerald Smith's Road" (19–48) "The Radical Right" (285–296) "Arabs and Pro-Arabs" (155–174) "The Radical Left" (125–154) Forster and Epstein argued that it took the form of indifference to the fears of the Jewish people, apathy in dealing with anti-Jewish bias, and an inability to understand the importance of Israel to Jewish survival. Writing in 2025, Jewish American activist Simone Zimmerman writes that, since the 1970s, the ADL has "conflated the safety of Jews with support for the state of Israel" and that it "has sought to popularize the concept of the 'new antisemitism,' the idea that Israel as 'the Jew on the world stage,' was being unfairly singled out for criticism in ways that echoed old school antisemitism."
Although many reviewers criticized Forster and Epstein's work for conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, Earl Raab, founding director of the Nathan Perlmutter Institute for Jewish Advocacy at Brandeis University, argued in Commentary that a "new anti-Semitism" was indeed emerging in America, in the form of opposition to the collective rights of the Jewish people, but he criticized Forster and Epstein for conflating it with anti-Israel bias. Edward S. Shapiro, in A Time for Healing: American Jewry Since World War II (1992), wrote that "Forster and Epstein implied that the new anti-Semitism was the inability of Gentiles to love Jews and Israel enough."
1980s to present day: continued debate
Historian Robert Wistrich addressed the issue in a 1984 lecture delivered in the home of Israeli President Chaim Herzog, in which he argued that a "new anti-Semitic anti-Zionism" was emerging, distinguishing features of which were the equation of Zionism with Nazism and the belief that Zionists had actively collaborated with Nazis during World War II. He argued that such claims were prevalent in the Soviet Union, but added that similar rhetoric had been taken up by a part of the radical Left, particularly Trotskyist groups in Western Europe and America.Wistrich, Robert. "Anti-zionism as an Expression of Anti-Semitism in Recent Years" , lecture delivered to the Study Circle on World Jewry in the home of the President of Israel, December 10, 1984.
Definitions and arguments for and against the concept
A new phenomenon In 2003, Irwin Cotler, professor of law at McGill University and a scholar of human rights, has identified nine aspects of what he considers to constitute the "new anti-Semitism":Irwin Cotler cited Genocidal antisemitism: calling for the destruction of Israel and/or the Jewish people. Political antisemitism: denial of the Jewish people's right to self-determination, de-legitimization of Israel as a state, attributions to Israel of all the world's evils. Ideological antisemitism: "Nazifying" Israel by comparing Zionism and racism. Theological antisemitism: convergence of Islamic antisemitism and Christian "replacement" theology, drawing on the classical hatred of Jews. Cultural antisemitism: the emergence of anti-Israel attitudes, sentiments, and discourse in "fashionable" salon intellectuals. Economic antisemitism: BDS movements and the extraterritorial application of restrictive covenants against countries trading with Israel. Holocaust denial. Anti-Jewish racist terrorism. International legal discrimination—"denial to Israel of equality before the law in the international arena".
Cotler defines "classical or traditional anti-Semitism" as "the discrimination against, denial of or assault upon the rights of Jews to live as equal members of whatever host society they inhabit" and "new anti-Semitism" as "discrimination against the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations—the denial of and assault upon the Jewish people's right even to live—with Israel as the 'collective Jew among the nations.
Cotler elaborated on this position in a June 2011 interview for Israeli television. He reiterated his view that the world is "witnessing a new and escalating ... and even lethal anti-Semitism" focused on hatred of Israel, but cautioned that this type of antisemitism should not be defined in a way that precludes "free speech" and "rigorous debate" about Israel's activities. Cotler said that it is "too simplistic to say that anti-Zionism, per se, is anti-Semitic" and argued that labelling Israel as an apartheid state, while in his view "distasteful", is "still within the boundaries of argument" and not inherently antisemitic. He continued: "It's [when] you say, because it's an apartheid state, [that] it has to be dismantled—then [you've] crossed the line into a racist argument, or an anti-Jewish argument."
Jack Fischel, former chair of history at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, writes that new antisemitism is a new phenomenon stemming from a coalition of "leftists, vociferously opposed to the policies of Israel, and right-wing antisemites, committed to the destruction of Israel, [who] were joined by millions of Muslims, including Arabs, who immigrated to Europe ... and who brought with them their hatred of Israel in particular and of Jews in general." It is this new political alignment, he argues, that makes new antisemitism unique. Mark Strauss of Foreign Policy links new antisemitism to anti-globalism, describing it as "the medieval image of the 'Christ-killing' Jew resurrected on the editorial pages of cosmopolitan European newspapers".
Rajesh Krishnamachari, researcher with the South Asia Analysis Group, analyzed antisemitism in Iran, Turkey, Palestine, Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia and posited that the recent surge in antisemitism across the Muslim world should be attributed to the political expediency of the local elite in these countries rather than to any theological imperative.
The French philosopher Pierre-André Taguieff argues that antisemitism based on racism and nationalism has been replaced by a new form based on anti-racism and anti-nationalism. He identifies some of its main features as the identification of Zionism with racism; the use of material related to Holocaust denial (such as doubts about the number of victims and allegations that there is a "Holocaust industry"); a discourse borrowed from third worldism, anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, anti-Americanism and anti-globalization; and the dissemination of what he calls the "myth" of the "intrinsically good Palestinian—the innocent victim par excellence".
In early 2009, 125 parliamentarians from various countries gathered in London for the founding conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism. They suggest that while classical antisemitism "overlaps" modern antisemitism, it is a different phenomenon and a more dangerous one for Jews.
A new phenomenon, but not antisemitism
Brian Klug, then a senior research fellow in philosophy at St Benet's Hall, Oxford—who provided expert testimony in February 2006 to a British parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism in the UK, and in a November 2004 hearing on antisemitism at the German Bundestag—argues against the idea that there is a "single, unified phenomenon" that could be called "new" antisemitism. He acknowledges that there is reason for the Jewish community to be concerned, but he contends that any rise in antisemitic incidents is attributable to classical antisemitism. Proponents of the new antisemitism concept, he writes, see an organizing principle that allows them to formulate it, but it is only through this concept that many of the examples used as evidence of it count as examples in the first place. That is, the creation of the concept may be based on a circular argument or tautology. He argues that it is an unhelpful concept because it devalues the term "antisemitism", leading to widespread cynicism about its use. People of goodwill who support the Palestinians resent being falsely accused of antisemitism.