Anti-Zionists support an ideology that is inherently anti-Semitic. This is not a statement of opinion, but of undeniable fact.
The Jewish State was created to mitigate the persecution of Jews, so anti-Zionists oppose the only ideology that saves the Jewish people from pogroms, genocide, inquisitions, and oppression. If anti-Zionists achieved their goal and destroyed the Jewish State, then the Jewish people could move backwards to the days of ghettos, camps, and gas chambers.
This does not mean that all of these people support a second holocaust. Some anti-Zionists certainly support the death of all Jews worldwide (see the Hamas Charter for more details), yet others may counter argue that they have no hatred of the Jewish people and only hate the Jewish State. These people usually say that they support replacing Israel with a Palestinian-lead State that would grant equal rights to its Jewish minority.
Why are these individuals also anti-Semitic? Because anti-Zionism revolves around the horrifying notion that the Jewish people are not an ethnic group, but are merely members of a religion.
According to international law, national sovereignty is a right that is granted to ethnicities and not to religions, so they use this logic to conclude that the Jews do not have the right to a sovereign state.
However, it is mainstream knowledge amongst historians, sociologists, geneticists, and anthropologists that the Jewish people form a separate ethnic entity that has existed for thousands of years. This is not an opinion that is still debatable, rather it is unshakable scientific fact that is deliberately ignored by anti-Zionist ideologues.
If an individual asserted that the Arab people are not an ethnic group, then it would be clear that he is an ignorant anti-Arabist. The same standard applies for the Jewish people as well.
It is almost certain that at least one person will read this article and state, “I oppose many policies of the state of Israel, so this means that I am an anti-Zionist, but I am clearly not anti-Semitic!” In contrast to what some people incorrectly think, Israel’s vibrant political culture allows for a diversity of opinion on Israeli policy. One is only anti-Zionist when he opposes the existence of Israel, and not when he opposes a specific policy of the state.
What about any Jews who oppose Zionism? Yes, unfortunately for the anti-Zionist organizations that love to enlist Jewish support in their quest to destroy Israel, Jews can also be anti-Semitic. Jews, like the other peoples of the world, are not immune to self-hate.
This has enormous implications for anti-Zionist organizations that are often given legitimacy across the world. Organizations like the Students for Justice in Palestine, a highly anti-Semitic club that has chapters across universities in North America, can no longer escape the fact that they are an anti-Jewish group. It is disgraceful that Universities across North America, many of which have bylaws that criminalize the existence of hate groups on campus, have refused to take legal action against groups like the Students for Justice in Palestine.
A wise man once said, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.” This statement was said by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is time that more people think like he did.