How to Criticize Israel — A Guide
For those who want to talk about Israel without being antisemitic.
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This is a guest essay written by Nachum Kaplan of the newsletter, “Moral Clarity.”
The war between Israel and Hamas has revived humanity’s worst instincts.
Antisemitism is back. It is more than a Jewish issue. If racism towards Jews becomes acceptable, then so does bigotry against others (including Muslims). It is everyone’s enemy.
Those who support peace between Israel and the Palestinians (be it two states, one state, or some kind of confederation) should help fight antisemitism, not stoke it. It is an essential part of resolving the conflict. A territorial dispute can be resolved, but a dispute about refusing to live with Jews (or any group) — because of hatred — cannot. No political solution will work if this is not tackled. This fact is too often ignored.
We study history to learn from it, and history has taught us that when people say they want to kill Jews, they want to kill Jews. Shamefully, many are ignorant, or in denial, about this. There has been a failure of education. The young are particularly affected. Holocaust education is again lacking. Even many who know it happened do not know its true depths.
Everyone has a stake in this. As we are seeing, what happens in Israel soon enough comes to Paris, London, and New York. It never stops with the Jews. As contrite antisemite and Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller wrote about Nazism:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
Fair criticism is essential.
Israel is a modern nation-state. Criticism of its policies is absolutely necessary. Israel understands this, which is why it (alone in the Middle East) has a free press.
Take a look at Israel’s left-wing Haaretz newspaper. It is critical to the point of being self-loathing, but it is not antisemitic. Criticism should be fair, factual, and based on accurate reporting. This is morally right, and it makes the criticism harder to dismiss.
The three D’s of antisemitism — delegitimization, demonization, and double standards — provide a framework for distinguishing legitimate criticism of Israel from antisemitism. All three are signs of antisemitism. Keep an eye out for them because the diseases of antisemitism and hate have infected much of the media, and the corridors of power.
Jew hatred is millennia old. It did not start with Israel’s creation.
Now, here are the 18 guidelines.
1) Recognize that Israelis and Palestinians are real people.
The conflict is not just lines on a map, slogans to shout, or a ping pong ball for the Culture Wars. Israelis and Palestinians are human beings. Neither group is going anywhere. This is an important starting point for meaningful conversation. Speak with sincerity and sensitivity, and without demonizing anyone.
2) Do not conflate Israel and Jews.
They are not interchangeable terms. Jews are an ethnic and religious group. Israel may be a Jewish state, but it is multicultural, multiracial, and multi-religious. About 21 percent of Israeli citizens are Arab Muslims. There are also Druze, Circassian, and Christian citizens. Half of the world’s Jews are not Israeli (many of whom have been targeted despite never having stepped foot in Israel).
3) Do not hold individual Jews accountable for Israel’s actions.
Individual Jews are not responsible for Israel’s actions, any more than any Chinese person is responsible for China’s actions, or any Muslim for Hamas’ actions.
4) Do make specific criticisms.
Criticizing Israel’s settler policy in disputed Judea and Samara (the West Bank), or its security barrier in Jerusalem, or the scale of its response in Gaza to the October 7th atrocities, is fine. Criticizing specific policies is fair, and it does not require delegitimizing Israel, dehumanizing Jews, or peddling deranged conspiracy theories.
5) Do provide context.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complex. Nothing happens in isolation. For example, criticizing the security measures in Jerusalem is fine, but doing so without mentioning they are a response to terrorism is willfully misleading.
6) Do not claim that Jews are white.
Portraying Jews as “white” is done to make them fit more easily fit into the narrative that Zionism is a “white colonialist” project. There are Jews of every skin color. Only 30 percent of Israelis are Ashkenazi (European) Jews. Almost 45 percent are indigenous Mizrahi Jews.
There are many others, such as Maghrebi Jews and Ethiopian Jews. Almost half of Israeli Jews are ethnically mixed. Jews outside of Israel are diverse, too.
7) Do not spread or give credence to Jewish conspiracy lies.
The most common of these old lies are that “the Jews control” the media, government, or business. Nazis, Communists, Islamists, and conspiracy quacks spread these lies.
So, which Jews are controlling it all? Is it the right-wing ones or the left-wing ones? The capitalist ones or the communist ones? The smart ones or the dumb ones? The religious ones or the secular ones? The fat ones or the thin ones? The educated ones or the uneducated ones? The hardworking ones or the lazy ones? The married ones or the single ones? The introverts or the extroverts?
It should be obvious from this that there is no such entity as “the Jews” controlling anything.
The chart below1 is an excellent resource for identifying and understanding the structure of Jewish conspiracy theories and how they manifest in political discourse (from the Left, the Right, Christianity, Islam, and more). You will see that recent accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing are just the latest forms of blood libel, an old and powerful antisemitic device.
8) Talk about the pro-Israel lobby (not the Jewish lobby) accurately.
There is a pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. Its biggest contributor is Christians United for Israel, which is obviously a Christian organization. There is also a Saudi Arabian lobby, a petrochemical lobby, a climate change lobby, and many others. The biggest of all are lobby groups for Chinese interests.
Claiming the pro-Israel lobby is unique, nefarious, and all-controlling is a conspiracy theory. (It would sit under Covert Dominance on the Jewish conspiracy theory chart above.)
9) Avoid using the terms Zionist or Zionism to describe the Israeli government or Jews.
These terms have become pejorative and are too broad to be useful. A Zionist is one who believes Jews have a right to a homeland in Israel. That includes Jews of all political persuasions, most Evangelical Christians, and anyone who supports a two-state solution (such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, or China).
Israel is a modern nation-state. Its people are simply Israelis, much as people in Australia are simply Australians. Rather than referring to “the Zionists,” refer to “the Israeli government” or “the Netanyahu government.”
10) Do not lie about Jews’ connection to Israel.
This is a delegitimization tactic. Jews are the indigenous people of Israel. There have always been Jews in Israel, although they have rarely had sovereignty or been the majority.
While some of Israel’s enemies accuse it of being colonialist, many Jews view Israel’s creation as decolonization. (It was Jewish insurgents who drove the colonialist British out of Palestine.) This historicity of Jews being from Israel does give them a claim to the land, but it does not mean Palestinians have no claim.
11) Do not call for Israel’s destruction.
Racists have weaponized the Palestinian independence struggle, making anti-Zionism the new antisemitism. Claiming to be anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish is like saying you are not anti-Japanese, but just want to destroy Japan. It is antisemitic to say that Jews are the only people in the world without the right to a homeland.
Calling for Israel’s destruction with rabid chants such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” or “by any means necessary” is to call for the death of millions. That is disgusting. Calling for serious solutions is welcome.
12) Speak from a position of knowledge, not ignorance.
History is not one-sided. The Israeli-Palestinian dispute is fiendishly complex, which is why it remains unresolved after 75 years. All sides have legitimate claims and grievances. Be mindful that a media war is happening concurrently with the real war.
Much of what is reported and passed off as history is well-funded propaganda that the media, politicians, and multilateral agencies parrot unquestioningly. Many common beliefs on the conflict and its origins are lies, often believed with a delusional fervor. Repeating lies over and over does not make them true.
Be aware that many people cannot see this conflict on its own terms, so they frame it in ways that resonate with their own histories. For example, Americans often view it through the prism of race, Europeans through the prism of colonization, and Malaysians through their profound insecurities about Chinese immigrants.
Read up on the region’s history from a wide variety of sources. Get your facts right. Develop a genuine understanding of differing narratives and their merits.
13) Do distinguish between Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.
Israeli Arabs are citizens of Israel with same rights as all other citizens. They are a different polity than the Arabs who are fighting for a Palestinian state. Refusing to acknowledge this is the basis of many lies, such as that Israel is an apartheid state (a delegitimization tactic).
14) Avoid Holocaust inversion.
This involves accusing Israel of doing to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to the Jews in the Holocaust. The latest example comes from Brazil’s Leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said recently that “what’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide” which “hasn’t happened at any other moment in history” except one time: “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Holocaust are so vastly different that such accusations can be made only from malice, ignorance, stupidity, or some combination of the three.
15) Do not play the Holocaust card.
The belief that Israel was given to the Jews as compensation for the Holocaust, and that Palestinians are paying for Europe’s sins, is widespread. It is factually wrong, and a delegitimization tactic.
The Jewish nationalist movement was one of many nationalist movements that took hold as European empires unraveled. There were Arab revolts against the Ottoman Empire in this period, too. These nationalist movements created many new countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Jordan, to name but a few.
The Holocaust only added urgency to the movement.
16) Do not apply double standards to Israel.
This is a big one and the most prevalent of the three D’s. It includes:
The obsession with attacking Israel, subjecting it to heightened and more vocal criticism than any other country, is an antisemitic fetish so strong that it borders on the sexual.
Criticizing Israel, while being muted on worse abuses in Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, Myanmar, and China, is a strong sign of antisemitism. Why become animated only when Jews are involved?
Denying Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens, which is a right (and obligation) that all states have.
Denying Israel’s right to exist, which is an innate right of all states.
Boycotting Israeli products or products made in the disputed territories, while not doing the same to other disputed regions, such as Kashmir.
Not caring about what others do to Israel, while caring greatly about what Israel does to others.
Demanding Israel be the only country in history required to give aid to its enemies during a war.
Mentioning only the 750,000 Palestinian refugees that the 1948 War of Independence created, while not mentioning that there were also 800,000 Jewish refugees.
17) Do not say Arabs cannot be antisemitic because they are semites too.
Antisemites use this one when their antisemitism has been called out. Despite its etymology, the word antisemitic means “anti-Jewish.”
The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “characterized by prejudice, hostility, or discrimination towards Jewish people on religious, cultural, or ethnic grounds; anti-Jewish.”
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes it as “hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group,” while the Collins Dictionary describes is as “hostility to and prejudice against Jewish people.”
18) Do not blame Jews for everything that is wrong with the world.
The idea that Jews, who are 0.2 percent of the world’s population, are responsible for all its problems is absurd. Humans love a scapegoat to avoid taking responsibility for their own failings. As French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre wrote:
“If the Jew did not exist, the antisemite would invent him.”
It is easy to criticize Israel fairly. Focus on policy. Be specific. Be accurate. Be factual. Do not repeat conspiracy theories, lies, and slogans. Provide context. Educate yourself. This is pretty good way to approach criticizing any country fairly.
If you find this difficult, you may well be the problem.
This is a great list, but it assumes that those who criticize Israel the loudest actually want to be critical yet not antisemitic. Frankly I assume the opposite.
Why criticize? Doesn't every country have its problems, every country has groups that operate outside of its officially announced policy against its own policy, why should Israel be criticized separately, and what should be criticized? Hasn't Russia taught enough yet? Is there really nothing to praise? Israel is at war against terrorism, every dater understands that there are casualties in war, when nowadays wars are not fought far from cities, they are aimed at cities. If Israel had waged war like Russia, the entire population of Gaza would have died in greater numbers than now. Russia doesn't say where it will strike, let alone warn of the consequences. Two different wars, and Israel gets my pacifist sympathies, and I don't criticize. We in Finland have our own problems, led by an incompetent parliament. But that belongs to democracy.
I'm not criticizing the parliament, it got a mandate through an election, and that's fine, it doesn't change my perception of competence. Blessings to all who work for Israel, in the "fight" against lies.