Is Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitic?
— Alain Epp Weaver Should anti-Zionism, as distinct from critiques of particular policies and practices of the State of Israel, be viewed as a form of anti-Semitism? Two recent statements arising from Christian-Jewish dialogue groups suggest as much: One comes from a Catholic-Jewish conference held in Buenos Aires in July 2004; the other is a May 2005 report emerging from a series of Jewish-Protestant conversations at the University of Chicago. According to the line of reasoning in these statements, to question Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with its attendant human rights abuses, might be legitimate. What falls beyond the pale of acceptable criticism, however, are questions about the justice of the State of Israel’s founding or about the Zionist project of establishing and maintaining a Jewish state. The statement from the Buenos Aires meeting of academic and clerical figures declares a “rejection of anti-Semitism in all its forms, including anti-Zi
