Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Wistrich
Published June 2008
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center
for Public Affairs
Antisemitism has been present in Great Britain for almost a thousand years of recorded history. In the
twelfth century, Catholic medieval Britain was a persecutory society, particularly when it came to Jews. It
pioneered the blood libel and the church was a leader in instituting cruel legislation and discriminatory
conduct toward Jews.
English literature and culture are drenched in antisemitic stereotypes. Major British authors throughout the
centuries transmitted culturally embedded antisemitism to future generations. Although they did not do so
deliberately, it was absorbed and has had a long-term, major impact on British society.
In the new century the United Kingdom is a European leader in several areas of antisemitism. It holds a
pioneering position in promoting academic boycotts of Israel. The same is true for trade-union efforts at
economic boycotts. There is also no other Western society where jihadi radicalism has proved as violent
and dangerous as in the UK.
In the UK the anti-Zionist narrative probably has greater legitimacy than in any other Western society.
Antisemitism of the "anti-Zionist" variety has achieved such resonance, particularly in elite opinion, that
various British media are leaders in this field. Successive British governments neither share nor have
encouraged such attitudes-least of all Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. They have shown
concern over antisemitism and the boycott movement and tried to counteract them. However, Trotskyites
who infiltrated the Labour Party and the trade unions in the 1980s have been an important factor in
spreading poisonous attitudes. The BBC has also played a role in stimulating pro-Palestinian and anti-
Israeli attitudes over the years.
"The United Kingdom has been a European leader in several areas of antisemitism in the new century. It holds a
pioneering position in promoting academic boycotts of Israel. The same is true for trade-union efforts at
economic boycotts.
"Although the anti-Zionist narrative is worldwide and widespread in the European Union, this discourse in the UK
probably exceeds that of most other Western societies. Thus antisemitism has achieved a degree of resonance,
particularly in elite opinion, that makes the country a leader in encouraging discriminatory attitudes. Trotskyites
who infiltrated the Labour Party and the trade unions back in the 1980s are an important factor in spreading this
poison."
Prof. Robert Wistrich holds the Neuberger Chair for Modern European and Jewish History at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. Since 2002 he has been director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study
of Antisemitism at that university and has been vigorously involved in the struggle against its inroads.
He adds: "There is also no other Western society where jihadi radicalism has proved as violent and dangerous as
in the UK. Although antisemitism is not the determining factor in this extremism, it plays a role. This Islamist
radicalism has helped shape the direction of overall antisemitism in the UK.
"Another pioneering role of the UK, especially in the area of anti-Israelism is the longstanding bias in BBC
reporting and commentary about the Jewish world and Israel in particular. Double standards have long been a
defining characteristic of its Middle East coverage. This has had debilitating consequences. The BBC plays a
special role owing to its long-established prestige as a news source widely considered to be objective. It carries
special role owing to its long-established prestige as a news source widely considered to be objective. It carries
a weight beyond that of any other Western media institution.
"One characteristic of English antisemitism has been its often understated nature, in keeping with British
tradition. That makes it more effective because one does not become aware of it so easily. One example among
many is the British journalist Richard Ingrams, who was editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye for twenty-
three years starting in the 1960s. He once wrote in the Observer that he threw away unread all correspondence
he received from people with Jewish names regarding the Middle East because, he thought, they must be biased
on the subject. If someone were to tell him he is an antisemite he would, of course, reject that. But would he
publicly write the same thing about Arab correspondents?"
"From the Norman Conquest of 1066 onward there was a steady process-particularly during the thirteenth
century-of persecution, forced conversion, extortion, and expropriation of Jews. This culminated in the expulsion
of the Jews from England in 1290 under Edward I. It was the first ejection of a major Jewish community in
Europe. It is important to bear this in mind because it is not widely known, least of all in England. I grew up there
and went to grammar school and to Cambridge University and do not recall that this was ever mentioned. On the
contrary, we were taught at school about the chivalry of Richard the Lionheart, not the massacres of Jews by
Crusader kings.
"Britain was not only the first country in medieval Europe to expel Jews but also one of the last to take them
back. It took slightly more than 350 years for this to happen. The return of the Jews to the British Isles began
very quietly and informally in 1656 under Oliver Cromwell. This was the beginning-drop by drop-of the formation a
new community that over time would contribute a great deal to British society."
"I grew up on English literature. When I was sixteen we had to prepare for the advanced-level certificate. In our
syllabus were several of the classic English works. They included Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from the
late fourteenth century; Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta from the late sixteenth century; and William
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice of the same period, which until today has remained one of the most
popular plays of the English theater.
"One interesting question is how could Shakespeare draw such a portrait of Shylock probably without ever
encountering a real flesh-and-blood Jew? There are many theories about that. Yet he and Marlowe before him
managed to portray the Jews as major villains whom the populace would instantly recognize as the ‘antitype.' I
am not, of course, saying Shakespeare was an antisemite in the ideological sense (his portrait of Shylock is
more complex than that). But the force of the anti-Jewish stereotype is so powerful that this is what is ultimately
retained in the ‘collective unconscious' of English culture.
"This Shylock image influenced the entire West because it fits so well with the evolution of market capitalism
from its early days. Shakespeare portrayed the subject in a way that is to a certain extent realistic, reflecting the
rise of a commercial society in Venice and of economic competition. But Shylock has come to embody an image
of the vengeful, tribal, and bloodthirsty Jew, who will never give up his pound of flesh. Rightly or wrongly, this is
what most people remember. Shylock is the English archetype of the villainous Jew. Those who talk about how
what most people remember. Shylock is the English archetype of the villainous Jew. Those who talk about how
humanistic, universal, and empathetic his portrait is, are ignoring not only how it was perceived at the time but its
historical consequences."
"The entire episode shows striking similarities with trends in left-wing political circles in recent years. The radical
"The entire episode shows striking similarities with trends in left-wing political circles in recent years. The radical
Left asserts that former prime minister Tony Blair was led by the nose into a disastrous, neo-imperialist war in
Iraq by a clique of rich British and American Jews. The so-called American neoconservative conspiracy had
spilled over to Britain, serving Ariel Sharon and the Likud government that was then in power in Israel. British
trade unionists, then and now, proved susceptible to this kind of conspiracy theory."
Right-Wing Antisemitism
"The theme of ‘warmongering Jews' became especially popular in the 1930s with the rise of British fascism under
its aristocratic leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, who came originally from the Left. British fascism was stopped by
active mobilization against it. Contrary to what would happen a few years later, the communists were among the
most militant antifascists in the East End. The Jewish community, which included many working-class Jews,
had a kind of unwritten alliance with the Left to stop fascism. That tradition unfortunately seems to be dead and
buried today.
"In the Second World War, Britain was not willing to attempt to rescue the Jews of Europe in any meaningful
way. It was not only imperial Realpolitik that made the British close the gates of Palestine. We know that
officials in the Colonial and Foreign offices and people in the administration in Palestine were far from immune to
antisemitic sentiment while supporting an Arab state after the 1939 White Paper.
"During the war the British government was obsessed by the fear that their fight against Hitler could be construed
as a war on behalf of the Jews. To avoid ‘fighting a Jewish war' became a kind of alibi for the British authorities
to do almost nothing for the Jews. Britain's solemn commitment to create a Jewish National Home in Palestine
was in fact betrayed in the hour of greatest need for European Jewry. This is a serious stain on the British
record, which until then had many positive sides."
Toynbee
"In the 1950s and 1960s Arnold Toynbee, the renowned British philosopher of history, was immensely popular. I
had to read him at school and as an undergraduate at Cambridge University. He came to shockingly anti-Zionist
conclusions presented in the grand style of historical generalization. As an Englishman he felt superior to the
German Gentile barbarians who had infamously inflicted the Holocaust on the Jews. But he also claimed that the
Jews were worse than the Nazis because they had knowingly imitated their evil deeds and become ruthless
persecutors. Today, a disturbingly large number of English people-misguided, intoxicated, and half-brainwashed
by parts of the media-would probably agree with Toynbee.
"Toynbee ranted on about the ‘expulsion' of the Palestinians, which he considered a crime of a greater order than
that committed by the German Nazis! Israeli ambassador Yaacov Herzog demolished his arguments in a debate
in the early 1960s in Montreal. But the mud stuck. After all Toynbee was an elite figure of the British
establishment. He promoted these ideas before they became fashionable. The Left only fully embraced these
distorted views after 1967.
"In the 1970s, I was actively involved in such debates when I wrote my doctorate at University College, London.
The campus war had heated up and was at full blast in 1975 after the UN ‘Zionism is racism' resolution. There
were efforts to ban all Jewish societies on British campuses. This was stopped by a militant and determined
campaign. The time was not yet ripe for the brazen antisemitism of the kind we find today in Britain and much of
Europe, but it was certainly there beneath the surface.
"In the 1970s, the anti-Zionists in Britain-some of them Jews and expatriate Israelis-were already vilifying Israel
as an ‘ethnic cleansing' and ‘racist' state. Even then there were claims that Zionism equals apartheid. Among the
most extreme demagogues were Jewish Trotskyites, who were the most vitriolic in their loathing for Zionism."
Trotskyites
"It is a curious fact that Trotskyites have been influential in left-wing circles in the UK-at least in comparison to
other European countries. Only in France does one find anything equivalent. There seems to be no obvious
reason connected to British society or culture. Perhaps it is related to the weakness of the Communist Party,
which faded quickly in the 1950s in Britain. Unlike in France and Italy, communism was never very powerful on
the British Left. Trotskyism could therefore fill the vacuum. It is an alternative form of communism that bears
many parallels with the Stalinism that the Trotskyites love to hate and vilify. Of course, the Trotskyites were
hunted down in the Soviet Union and eliminated by Stalinist communists. This persecution had antisemitic
undertones.
"Trotskyites have been characterized by an intense polemical energy and have often been in the forefront of the
‘anti-imperialist struggle.' With the collapse of official communism after 1990 in most parts of the world, they saw
a chance for themselves to become what they call a ‘revolutionary vanguard.'
"In their concept of the world, Zionism has for decades been inextricably linked with global capitalism and
American imperialism. These were also the hackneyed phrases of Soviet propaganda. The communist empire
has collapsed, of course, but the Trotskyites are still running with the ball. Their numbers are small but they have
tenacity, ideological discipline, and use clever tactics of infiltration. They have practiced these more effectively
in recent decades in the UK than perhaps anywhere else. Trotskyites infiltrated the Labour Party and the trade
unions in the pre-Blair era. We see the bitter fruits in boycott actions today against Israel, sparked by people who
went through this anti-Zionist indoctrination and have passed it on.
"Trotskyites are organized in the Socialist Workers Party, which was very active in the 1970s. It has become a
larger political factor in recent decades. I watched the huge antiwar demonstration in London in February 2003.
The two main organizers were the Muslim Association of Britain-close to the Muslim Brotherhood-and the
Socialist Workers Party. They formed a Marxist-Islamist alliance against the war in Iraq and on the issue of
Palestine-which was a major unifying factor. In my forthcoming book on global antisemitism since 1945 I analyze
this ‘Red-Green Axis' at considerable length.
"In the demonstration there were antisemitic insinuations and intonations in the slogans and catchwords used.
The protest came at the time when the ‘cabal' theory that the Jews had seized control of American and British
foreign policy was being widely advanced. It was crudely asserted in Britain, Europe, the Middle East-and to a
lesser degree in the United States-that Bush's war in Iraq was being fought on Israel's behalf. This echoes the
antisemitic notions of the late 1930s about ‘warmongering Jews' pushing the West into an unnecessary conflict
with Nazism."
"Galloway is an intellectual lightweight and rabble-rouser. He sees a revolutionary potential in the Muslim
immigrants in Britain, a kind of ‘substitute proletariat' that could help revive the lost dreams of international
socialism. Being against Israel and America is what brings the far Left and radical Islamists together. They have
very little in common on issues such as feminism, attitudes toward homosexuals, or secularism."
Muslim Antisemitism
"Then there is the more general Muslim contribution to antisemitism in Britain, which is growing all the time and
has become a significant factor. The exploration of Muslim attitudes in the UK is still in its infancy.
Nevertheless, it appears that close to half of British Muslims believe in a Jewish conspiracy that dominates UK
media and politics.[4] The percentage of Muslim perpetrators of violent antisemitic acts is nearly ten times
greater than the Muslim percentage of the general population. Muslims from Britain have been involved in a
series of high-profile cases. One leading terrorist was Omar Sheikh, the alleged mastermind of the beheading of
series of high-profile cases. One leading terrorist was Omar Sheikh, the alleged mastermind of the beheading of
the American Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi. The horrific video emphasized Pearl's Jewish origins.
Sheikh, an Anglo-Pakistani, was born and bred in Britain and educated at the London School of Economics.
"In 2003 Abdullah al-Faisal, a black Jamaican who had converted to Islam was tried on charges of racial hatred
and incitement to murder Jews in a London criminal court. His videotapes included statements about the need to
kill ‘filthy Jews.' He also called for the murder of Hindus, another target of Muslim extremists in Britain.
"Al-Faisal encouraged British Muslims to carry out bombings in Israel. One of his cassettes was prophetic. He
called upon British citizens to fly into Israel and carry out mass murder as a contribution to the global jihad and
to Allah. Not long afterward, two British Muslims executed a suicide bombing at Mike's Place, a bar on the Tel
Aviv waterfront. I was the historical adviser for a British TV documentary that dealt with this topic in 2003.
"At the other extreme, the far-Right British National Party sees a climate emerging where it might do better than
in the past. The fascists would frankly like to see a Britain without Muslims. On the other hand, they also see
eye to eye with many Muslim extremists on issues concerning Israel and the Jews. These British fascists
admire Osama bin Laden."
"There are exceptions to the anti-Israeli attitude. The most important was former prime minister Tony Blair, who
was as sympathetic to Israel as one can reasonably be under the circumstances. The paradox is that, while Blair
and his successor Gordon Brown have been pro-Israeli and pro-Jewish, Britain is still one of the leaders of
current European antisemitism. That is the sobering reality and it needs to be honestly addressed.
"There is much to be said for the claim that Blair's support for Israel during the Second Lebanon War was the
straw that broke the camel's back and brought him down as prime minister. He was undefeated in elections yet
had to resign under pressure from his own party. Blair and Brown fit into a line of statesmen who came out of the
British Christian tradition, which has a historic affinity with Zionism. These leaders include Arthur Balfour, David
Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, and Margaret Thatcher-individuals of vision and great political
talent. In my opinion they represent the best in the British political tradition.
"Britain can also pride itself on the publication of the Report of the All-Party Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, which did
"Britain can also pride itself on the publication of the Report of the All-Party Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, which did
a fair and thorough-though not perfect-job of investigating the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment in the UK. I gave
extensive evidence to that inquiry, though for some reason the recording equipment did not function properly and
hence there was only a brief summary in the final document. The Report does not contradict anything I have
been saying, though it was too soft on Muslim antisemitism and lacked any historical perspective."[5]
Ken Livingstone
"Among those who have contributed to the current hostile mood is Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London until
May 2008. In the 1970s, he knocked on my door to ask for my vote in a local North London election. It turned out
he was a passionate admirer of Leon Trotsky and was enthused to learn that I had just written a book on the
Bolshevik leader-the kind of Jew he could empathize with-a radical leftist, an international socialist, and an ‘anti-
Zionist.'
"A few years later he became a coeditor of the Labour Herald, the Labour Party's paper in London. In 1982,
during the First Lebanon War it published on its front page a caricature of then-Israeli prime minister Menachem
Begin in full SS uniform with the skull-and-bones insignia on his head. He was standing atop a mountain of
skulls. The caption was in big, black Gothic script: ‘The Final Solution.' Underneath it Begin was saying: ‘Who
needs shalom when you have Reagan behind you?' This cartoon could have come straight out of Pravda.
"Livingstone always presents himself as an antiracist. He claims to be against any form of discrimination that
affects minorities and outsiders. Supposedly he was the friend of gays, lesbians, new immigrants, Afro-
Caribbeans, and Muslims. Yet Livingstone has often related to Anglo-Jewry as a kind of Israeli fifth column in
Britain and as accomplices of its ‘racist' policy.
"Livingstone not long ago gratuitously insulted a Jewish reporter of the Evening Standard by likening him to a
concentration-camp guard. Even though then-prime minister Tony Blair asked him to apologize to the Jewish
community for his offensive remarks, he consistently refused to do so. On the contrary, he insisted on attacking
Ariel Sharon as a ‘war criminal' and it didn't hurt him with the general public in Britain.
"Another case concerned his remarks about the Reuben brothers, who are property developers in London. They
are of Iraqi Jewish origin and have lived in Britain for forty years. Livingstone was apparently exasperated by the
prices they charged. He accused them of parasitic behavior and told them to ‘go back to the Iran of the
ayatollahs.' At that time Iran's president was already threatening to wipe Israel off the map.
"On two occasions Livingstone gave red-carpet treatment to Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi whom he invited to
London. This Egyptian sheikh lives in Qatar and has supported suicide bombings as being consistent with Islam.
He was presented by Livingstone as a ‘progressive' and the kind of moderate who could positively influence
British Muslims. In reality, Qaradawi is a bigot and a homophobe as well as being a blatant antisemite.
"What is interesting is that in Britain, as in much of Europe, the proclaimed antiracism of the left-wing variety
often feeds the new antisemitism-which is primarily directed against Israel. Of course, if one suggests that such
leftists are antisemites in disguise, they are likely to become enraged and retort that one is ‘playing the
antisemitic card.' This has become a codeword for saying, as it were, ‘You are a dishonest, deceitful,
manipulative Jew' or a ‘lover of Jews.' Zionists supposedly use the ‘accusation of antisemitism' to distort and
silence the fully justified criticism of Israel and its human rights abuses. The word ‘criticism' in this context is
misplaced. It is a euphemism or license for the demonization of Israel. And that in turn is a major form of
antisemitism in our time."
Interview by Manfred Gerstenfeld
* * *
Notes
[1] Sidney Sugarman, The Unrelenting Conflict: Britain, Balfour, and Bevin (Sussex: Book Guild, 2000), 200.
[2] James G. McDonald, My Mission in Israel, 1948-1951 (London: Gollancz, 1951), 22-24.
[3] See Rory Miller, Divided against Zion (London: Frank Cass, 2000), 23-54.
[4] The Times, 7 February 2006.
[5] Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism (London: HM Stationery Office, Ltd.,
[5] Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism (London: HM Stationery Office, Ltd.,
September 2005).
* * *
Prof. Robert Solomon Wistrich has held the Neuberger Chair for Modern European and Jewish History at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem for almost twenty years. Since 2002 he has been director of the Vidal Sassoon
International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University and is editor of its journal
Antisemitism International. He is the author and editor of many prize-winning books and over three hundred
academic articles. His most recent published book, Laboratory for World Destruction: Germans and Jews in
Central Europe (University of Nebraska Press), appeared in May 2007. Prof. Wistrich has just completed a book
on global antisemitism to be published by Random House at the end of 2008.