The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #160727   Message #3815673
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
20-Oct-16 - 09:50 AM
Thread Name: BS: What does 'anti-semitism' mean?
Subject: RE: BS: What does 'anti-semitism' mean?
The fact that Naz Shah said that her remarks were antisemitic is not actually conclusive as to whether they were or not.

If she had been talking about her beliefs as being antisemitic that would be a different matter. But in fact she specifically has said that she is not herself antisemitic.

However her views as to whether what she wrote was actually antisemitic have no more evidential force than those of others.

It is clear that she was not making a proposal as to what should actually happen, any more than the Jewish critic of Israel, Norman Finkelstein, whose writing she was drawing on, and whose illustrative map she used.

Antisemitism is a real and terrible thing, and it needs to identified and opposed - but extending the meaning of the term in the way that has been done does not help in identifying and opposing, and in fact has the reverse effect.