What is antisemitism—and why do differences in interpretation matter?
terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th, and the outbreak of war in Gaza, there has been a sharp increase around the world in reports of antisemitic incidents. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an NGO based in New York City, says that in the two weeks after the attack the number in America quintupled compared with the same period last year. Britain and France have reported similar spikes.
Social media have amplified the problem. On X, formerly Twitter, antisemitic posts soared by an astounding 919% the week after Hamas’s attack, compared with a week earlier, as assessed by the ADL. (Islamophobic posts also increased.) Several large companies, including Apple and Disney, suspended advertising on X after a report by Media Matters for America, an activist group, found that ads had been placed next to antisemitic posts.
Elon Musk, who owns X, added to the furore when he endorsed an antisemitic post that accused “Jewish communities" of “pushing…hatred against whites." He has since apologised. Some antisemitic incidents are clear in their intent. The ADL says that on October 15th, for example, a woman was punched in the face in New York City.
When she asked her assailant why, she was told “You are Jewish". But other examples are treated with ambivalence. Many condemn the slogan “From the River to the Sea, Palestine shall be free", which is heard at many pro-Palestine events, as an incitement to the ethnic cleansing of Jews and destruction of Israel.
Yet others see it as a legitimate rallying cry for the establishment of a Palestinian state. In this fraught context, how should antisemitism be defined? The term was coined in 1879 by Wilhelm Marr, a German journalist and proselytising antisemite. Hostility towards Jews had
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