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Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany

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22 October 2023: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Columbus, Ohio, displaying a poster that reads "Isreal [sic] are the new Nazis" amidst Gaza war protests in the United States.

Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany occur frequently in the political discourse of anti-Zionism.[1][2] Given the legacy of the Holocaust, the nature of these comparisons, and particularly whether they constitute antisemitism, is a matter of ongoing debate.

Comparisons between Israel and Nazism have been made by academics,[3] politicians[4] and public figures, both Jewish and not,[5] since before the formation of Israel.[6][7][8] Some scholars suggest these comparisons can be rhetorical tools without specific antisemitic intent, or that they can be an informed and necessary response to Israeli policy or actions.[9][10] Others state such comparisons lack historical and moral equivalence, risk inciting Jew hatred, and may serve as a form of Holocaust inversion,[1] Holocaust denial or minimization.[11][12][a]

During the 20th century, a wide variety of political figures and governments, especially those on the left, have invoked comparisons between Israel or Zionism and Nazism.[17] In the 21st century, politicians who have made such comparisons include Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,[18] Brazilian president Lula da Silva,[19] Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez,[20] Colombian President Gustavo Petro,[21] and others.[22]

In the 20th century

In the 1940s

Comparisons between Zionism and Nazism predate the foundation of Israel in 1948. In 1945, British Army officer and politician Edward Spears compared political Zionism to the Nazi idea of Lebensraum.[4][6]

German-Jewish linguist and anti-fascist Victor Klemperer, who survived the Holocaust and chose not to move to Israel but stay in Germany after 1945, wrote in his LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii (The Language of the Third Reich) that both Zionism and Nazism are essentially neo-Romantic nationalist ideologies. [7][8]

In 1948, Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein and a number of other Jewish public figures signed an open letter which compared Tnuat Haherut, an early Jewish nationalist political party founded by Menachem Begin, to Nazism.[5][23] Arendt's views on Zionism and Israel varied widely over time,[24] while Einstein supported the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, but not that of a Jewish state.[25]

English historian Arnold J. Toynbee reconsidered his view that Zionism was like Nazism following his earlier critiques.[26][3][27] Critical responses by Jacob Talmon and Eliezer Berkovits contributed to Toynbee's reflection that his condemnation of Zionism's guilt in this regard was disproportionate.[28]

In the 1960s

In the context of the Six-Day War, the administration of the Soviet Union compared Israeli tactics to those of Nazi Germany during the Second World War in official commentary.[17] After the victory of Likud in the 1977 Israeli legislative election, Holocaust metaphors began to be used by the Israeli right-wing to describe their left-wing opponents.[29]

In the 1980s

The Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz introduced the term "Judeo-Nazis". He argued that continued military occupation of the Palestinian territories would lead to the moral degradation of Israeli Defense Force (IDF), with individuals committing atrocities for state security interests.[30][31] In 1988, Holocaust survivor Yehuda Elkana warned that the tendency in Israel to see all potential threats as existential and all opponents as Nazis would lead to Nazi-like behavior by Jews.[32] During the First Intifada, Israeli-American historian Omer Bartov was enraged by Yitzhak Rabin's call to "break the bones" of Palestinians and wrote him a letter arguing that, based on Bartov's research, the IDF could be similarly brutalized as the German Army was during World War II.[33] One Israeli nationalist in a moshav told Amos Oz that he did not care if Israel was called a Judeo-Nazi state, it was "better [to be] a living Judeo-Nazi than a dead saint."[dubious – discuss][34] In 2018, Noam Chomsky cited Leibowitz, arguing that he was right in his prediction that the occupation was producing Judeo-Nazis.[dubious – discuss][35]

According to political scientist Ian Lustick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, such comparisons are "a natural if unintended consequence of the immersion of Israeli Jews in Holocaust imagery", and the term "Holocaust inversion" for Nazi comparisons is used by those who see the Holocaust as a template for Jewish life.[9][vague]

In 1983, University of Bridgeport international law professor Richard Arens, the brother of Israeli Minister of Defence Moshe Arens, compared Israeli settlement to the Nazi lebensraum.[36]

In the 21st century

"Israeli soldiers are just following orders" by Carlos Latuff

Statements by Israelis

During the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, settlers donned yellow stars to compare themselves to Holocaust victims as part of their protests against the disengagement.[31]

In 2016, Yair Golan, the Israeli general and deputy chief of staff of the IDF, sparked a controversy during a speech at Yom HaShoah. Golan alluded to manifestations of processes that occurred in Holocaust-era Europe.[37] After criticism by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Golan said that he did not intend to compare Israel to Nazi Germany: "It is an absurd and baseless comparison and I had no intention whatsoever to draw any sort of parallel or to criticize the national leadership. The IDF is a moral army that respects the rules of engagement and protects human dignity."[38] He later again compared right wing Israeli politicians to Nazis, drawing criticism from the right in Israel.[39]

Statements by Palestinians

In August 2022, the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of having committed "50 Holocausts" during a visit to Berlin, Germany. Abbas had responded to a reporter's question about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich massacre committed by the internationally active Palestinian militant group Black September, who were at that time affiliated with Abbas' Fatah Party. When asked if he intended to apologize for the attack, Abbas responded by listing allegations of atrocities committed by Israel. Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of Germany, grimaced at the use of the word "Holocausts" but said nothing. Scholz condemned the remarks later. He asserted, "Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the Holocaust is unbearable and unacceptable". The German publication Bild labeled the incident as antisemitic.[40][41] In response, Abbas said that his answer was not intended to deny the singularity of the Holocaust, which he stated that he condemned in the strongest terms, but that he had intended to discuss the "crimes and massacres committed against the Palestinian people since the Nakba at the hands of the Israeli forces" in his view.[42]

Statements by international politicians

In July 2018, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while addressing Grand National Assembly MPs in Ankara, said that the "spirit of Hitler" lives on in Israel, commenting specifically that he believes "no difference [exists] between Hitler's obsession with a pure race and the understanding that these ancient lands are just for the Jews." He also called Israel "the world's most Zionist, fascist, racist state." The statements were condemned by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described Erdoğan's rule as "a dark dictatorship" and stated that Erdoğan "is massacring Syrians and Kurds and has jailed tens of thousands of his own citizens."[18][43] The spat between the two leaders took place following the Israeli government's adoption of Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People.

In 2023, Tunisian President Kais Saed said, "While Tunisians protected Jews during the Holocaust, today elderly women and children are being bombed in Gaza."[44][45] Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said such remarks incited hate against Tunisian Jews.[46]

On 18 February 2024, the President of Brazil Lula da Silva stirred up controversy due to his statement comparing the actions of Israel in the Israel–Hamas war to the Holocaust.[19]

In the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, erstwhile Member of Parliament for Bradford East, the Liberal Democrat politician David Ward, created controversy after signing the ceremonial Book of Remembrance in the Houses of Parliament on Holocaust Memorial Day, with him writing: "I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new state of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza." He later said that "a huge operation out there" had distorted what he meant.[22] As a result of the scrutiny over the January 2013 controversy, the Liberal Democrats' leadership threatened Ward with formal disciplinary action over his arguments.[47]

Roger Waters of the British rock band Pink Floyd has repeatedly compared Israel to Nazi Germany. In a 2013 interview with Counter Punch, he accused "the Jewish lobby" of being very powerful in the United States and said, "There were many people that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on. From 1933 until 1946. So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it’s the Palestinian People being murdered."[48][49] American rabbi and writer Shmuley Boteach regarded this comparison as antisemitic, writing in The Observer, "Mr. Waters, the Nazis were a genocidal regime that murdered 6 million Jews. That you would have the audacity to compare Jews to monsters who murdered them shows you have no decency, you have no heart, you have no soul."[50] In a 2017 hour-long video live chat on Facebook, Waters again compared Israel to Nazi Germany.[51]

Responses

Academics worldwide have debated whether comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany are antisemitic or not.[52] Lesley Klaff and Bernard-Henri Lévy argue that these comparisons lack historical and moral equivalence, and risk inciting anti-Jewish sentiment.[53][22] Author Yossi Klein Halevi deemed the comparison a form of an archaic dehumanizing trope: "the Jew as embodiment of evil" and the "satanic Jew", now turned into "the satanic Jewish state".[b]

Comparisons between Israel and Nazism have been described as a form of Holocaust trivialization called "Holocaust inversion".[53] Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism, describes this type of Holocaust inversion as "soft-core" Holocaust denial, as contrasted with the "hard-core" denial practiced by David Irving. She says that it "dilutes what the Holocaust was" by using a false comparison.[11]

Kenneth L. Marcus says that Holocaust inversion aims to "shock, silence, threaten, insulate, and legitimize", which has "a chilling effect on Jewish supporters of Israel". He says that it implies the subject deserves some form of punishment, which then justifies any antisemitism that may occur, while disguising it as political criticism of Israel. This also serves to insulate those who use such comparisons from accusations of racism. Bernard-Henri Lévy says this erodes societal safeguards by providing "an entirely new way of justifying" antisemitism that is subtler than yelling "Money Jews" or "They Killed Christ".[56] David Hirsh described "The Livingstone Formulation" as the defense used by those accused of antisemitism that their accusers are trying to prevent Israel from being criticized.[57]

The Working Definition of Antisemitism – adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the U.S. Department of State, and other organizations – offers several examples to help determine when criticism of Israel may be antisemitic, including "drawing comparison of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis".[58] Critics of the definition say that it could define legitimate criticisms of Israel as antisemitic and that it has been used to censor pro-Palestinian activism, in particular. Alternative definitions such as the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism have been proposed instead on this basis.[16]

Eyal Levin suggests that Holocaust inversion is becoming part of the iconography of a new antisemitism which has spread globally – particularly in the Arab and Muslim world and in Western Europe and America – often appearing in demonstrations and media portrayals.[59] Historian Bernard Lewis suggests that the belief that the Nazis were no worse than Israel also provides "welcome relief to many who had long borne a burden of guilt for the role which they, their families, their nations, or their churches had played in Hitler's crimes against the Jews, whether by participation or complicity, acquiescence or indifference".[53]

In Austria, while overt antisemitism has been limited following the Holocaust, the Freedom Party of Austria has used comparisons between Nazi Germany and Israel to delegitimize its political opponents.[60] In Israel, Lustick reports that many Israelis are "already repelled by actions against Palestinians they cannot help but associate with Nazi persecution of Jews".[37] Israeli-American historian Omer Bartov has drawn an analogy between the German army's dehumanization of its enemies under Nazism and the attitudes displayed by young Israeli troops in the 2024 Israel-Hamas war.[61][49]

British scholar David Feldman suggests that comparisons in relation to the 2014 Gaza War have not been motivated by a broader anti-Jewish subjectivity but by targeted criticism of Israeli policy in military actions.[62]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ The IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism specifically includes such comparisons in a set of 11 illustrative examples of antisemitism. There is ongoing debate about whether the examples constitute part of the definition or were solely used "[t]o guide IHRA in its work".[13][14][15] Critics of the definition say that it may define legitimate criticisms of Israel as antisemitic, and has been used to censor pro-Palestinian activism.[16]
  2. ^ Halevi continues: "The end of the post-Holocaust era is expressed most starkly in the inversion of the Holocaust [...] The Jew-as-Nazi is the endpoint of political supersessionism:[54] Not only have we forfeited our identity as "Israel," but we've assumed the identity of our worst enemy. [55]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Klaff, Lesley. "Holocaust Inversion and contemporary antisemitism". Fathom. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  2. ^ Gerstenfeld, Manfred (2008-01-28). "Holocaust Inversion". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
  3. ^ a b Yair Rosenberg, When an Israeli Ambassador Debated a British Historian on Israel’s Legitimacy—and Won. The Montreal face-off between Yaacov Herzog and Arnold Toynbee offers ways of discussing the Jewish state that still feel fresh Tablet 31 January 2014
  4. ^ a b Rory Miller, Divided Against Zion: Anti-Zionist Opposition to the Creation of a Jewish State in Palestine, 1945-1948, Routledge 2013 ISBN 978-1-315-03843-8 p.147. See also pp.16-18,23ff.
  5. ^ a b Masha Gessen, 'In the Shadow of the Holocaust:How the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today.' New Yorker 9 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b Martin Kramer, The War on Error: Israel, Islam and the Middle East, Routledge 2017 ISBN 978-1-351-29532-1
  7. ^ a b "Reactionary German Romanticism". Anasintaxi Newspaper, issue 385. 2013.
  8. ^ a b "(Bloomsbury Revelations) Victor Klemperer-Language of the Third Reich_ LTI_ Lingua Tertii Imperii-Bloomsbury Academic (2013)".
  9. ^ a b Lustick 2019, p. 52.
  10. ^ Omer Bartov, As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel The Guardian 23 August 2024
  11. ^ a b Klein, Amy (2009-04-19). "Denying the deniers: Q & A with Deborah Lipstadt". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
  12. ^ Klein, Amy (2009-04-19). "Denying the deniers: Q & A with Deborah Lipstadt". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
  13. ^ Kleinfeld, James. "IHRA 'misrepresents' own definition of anti-Semitism, says report". Al Jazeera.
  14. ^ "Working Definition of Antisemitism". IHRA.
  15. ^ Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism: The Dynamics of Delegitimization, chapter by Alan Johnson, page 177
  16. ^ a b Neve Gordon and Mark LeVine (March 26, 2021). "The problems with an increasingly dominant definition of anti-Semitism (opinion)". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  17. ^ a b Druks, Herbert (2001). The Uncertain Alliance: The U.S. and Israel from Kennedy to the Peace Process. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 50–51. ISBN 9780313314247.
  18. ^ a b "Turkish president calls Israel fascist and racist over nation state law". ITV.com. 24 July 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  19. ^ a b "Israel livid as Brazil's Lula says Israel like 'Hitler,' committing genocide in Gaza". The Times of Israel. 18 February 2024. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  20. ^ Dow Jones Newswires reported that, on August 10, while giving a speech in eastern Venezuela, Chávez said Venezuelans are "making a call to world leaders, for the love of God, let's halt this crazy fascist aggression against innocent people. Are we human or what are we?... I feel indignation for Israel's assault on the Palestinian people and the Lebanese people. They dropped bombs on shelters. ... It's a Holocaust that is occurring there." - Venezuela President Asks International Leaders To Halt Israeli Offensive.[permanent dead link‍] Dow Jones Newswire, Morning Star, August 10, 2006.
  21. ^ "How have Latin American countries responded to the Israel-Hamas war?". Al Jazeera. 20 October 2023. Archived from the original on 3 July 2024. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  22. ^ a b c Klaff, Lesley. "Holocaust Inversion and contemporary antisemitism". Fathom. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  23. ^ "Einstein and the ghost of Herut 70 years on". Arab News. 2018-04-23. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  24. ^ "Hannah Arendt on Zionism". Yale University Press. 2020-07-13. Retrieved 2025-03-12.
  25. ^ "Einstein on Zionism, Politics and Israel". Shapell. 2023-04-21. Retrieved 2025-03-12.
  26. ^ Hedva Ben-Israel, Debates with Toynbee: Herzog, Talmon, Friedman Israel Studies, Spring, 2006, Vol. 11, No. 1 pp. 79-90 pp.81-82.
  27. ^ A. J. Toynbee, A Study of History, OUP 1964 vol.12 p.627.
  28. ^ Toynbee ibid.p.627
  29. ^ Steir-Livny 2019, p. 284.
  30. ^ Feldhay, Rivka (2013). "The Fragile Boundary between the Political and the Academic". Israel Studies Review. 28 (1): 1–7. doi:10.3167/isr.2013.280102.
  31. ^ a b Elkad-Lehman, Ilana (2020). "'Judeo-Nazis? Don't talk like this in my house' voicing traumas in a graphic novel – an intertextual analysis". Israel Affairs. 26 (1): 59–79. doi:10.1080/13537121.2020.1697072. S2CID 212958444.
  32. ^ Bartov 2018, p. 192.
  33. ^ Bartov 2018, p. 191.
  34. ^ Oz, Amos (1983). ""Better a Living Judeo-Nazi Than a Dead Saint"". Journal of Palestine Studies. 12 (3): 202–209. doi:10.2307/2536162. JSTOR 2536162. '"As far as I am concerned, you can give the State of Israel any name you wish. You can call it a Judeo-Nazi state, as did Leibowitz. Why not? As the saying goes - better a living Judeo-Nazi than a dead saint. I don't care if I am a Qadhafi. I am not after admiration from the Gentiles. I don't need their love. I don't need love from Jews like you, either. I have to live. And I intend that my children shall live as well- with or without the blessing of the Pope and the other religious leaders from the New York Times. I shall destroy anyone who raises a hand against my children - I shall destroy him and his children, with or without the famous purity of arms, and I don't care if he is Christian, Muslim, Jewish or pagan. History shows us that he who won't kill is killed by others. This is an iron law.'
  35. ^ Confino, Jotam (14 November 218). "Chomsky to i24NEWS: 'Judeo-Nazi tendencies in Israel a product of occupation'". i24NEWS. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  36. ^ "Arens' Brother Delivers a Scathing Attack on Israel". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 21 September 1983. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  37. ^ a b Lustick 2019, p. 143.
  38. ^ Beaumont, Peter (5 May 2016). "Israeli military chief backtracks from 1930s Germany comparison". The Guardian.
  39. ^ Ben-David, Ricky; Schneider, Tal; Magid, Jacob; Bachner, Michael; Sharon, Jeremy (October 3, 2019). "Incoming MK Yair Golan again compares right-wing to Nazis, drawing ire". The Times of Israel. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
  40. ^ "Palestinian President Abbas skirts apology for Munich attack". The Independent. 16 August 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  41. ^ "In Berlin, Abbas says Israel committed 'holocausts' against the Palestinians; Scholz grimaces silently, later condemns remarks". The Times of Israel. 16 August 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  42. ^ "Statement by the President of Palestine regarding what was stated in the response in joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin". WAFA. 17 August 2022. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  43. ^ "Erdogan calls Israel world's 'most fascist, racist' state". France 24. Agence France-Presse. 24 July 2018.
  44. ^ Friedman, Gabe (2023-05-16). "Days after synagogue attack, Tunisian president criticizes Israel and says his country saved Jews in WWII". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
  45. ^ Ben Bouazza, Bouazza (2023-05-11). "Deadly Tunisian synagogue attack was premeditated and targeted temple, interior minister says". AP NEWS. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
  46. ^ "Days After Two Jews Shot Dead, Tunisian President Compares Israel to Nazis". jewishlink.news. 18 May 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
  47. ^ "Lib-Dem David Ward MP censured over Israel criticism". BBC News. 28 January 2013. Archived from the original on 7 May 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  48. ^ Barat, Frank (2013-12-06). "An Interview with Roger Waters". CounterPunch.org. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
  49. ^ a b Thorpe, Vanessa; Helmore, Edward (14 December 2013). "Former Pink Floyd frontman sparks fury by comparing Israelis to Nazis". the Guardian. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  50. ^ Boteach, Shmuley (2013-12-12). "The Anti-Semitic Stench of Pink Floyd". Observer. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
  51. ^ Spiro, Amy (16 July 2017). "Roger Waters compares Israel to Nazi Germany in Facebook Q&A". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  52. ^ Rosenfeld 2019, p. 175–178, 186.
  53. ^ a b c Marcus, Kenneth L. (2010). Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America. Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-139-49119-8.
  54. ^ "The Cruelty of Supersessionism: The Case of Dietrich Bonhoeffer". Religions. 13 (1). 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  55. ^ Yossi Klein Halevi (October 10, 2024). "The End of the Post-Holocaust Era". Jewish Journal. Retrieved October 14, 2024. Oct. 7 shattered Israelis' faith that the state would protect them and shook American Jewry's sense of full social acceptance – but there is a way forward.
  56. ^ Marcus, Kenneth L. (2010). Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America. Cambridge University Press. pp. 63–64. ISBN 978-1-139-49119-8.
  57. ^ Hirsh, David (2010). "Accusations of malicious intent in debates about the Palestine-Israel conflict and about antisemitism: The Livingstone Formulation, 'playing the antisemitism card' and contesting the boundaries of antiracist discourse". Transversal. p. 47. ISSN 1607-629X. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  58. ^ Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism: The Dynamics of Delegitimization, chapter by Alan Johnson, page 177
  59. ^ Lewin, Eyal (2017). Blaming the Jews for Acting like Nazis: The Rhetoric of Holocaust Inversion.
  60. ^ Stoegner, Karin (2016). "'We are the new Jews!' and 'The Jewish Lobby'–antisemitism and the construction of a national identity by the Austrian Freedom Party". Nations and Nationalism 22 (3): 484–504.
  61. ^ Omer Bartov, As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel The Guardian 23 August 2024
  62. ^ Rosenfeld 2019, p. 175-178, 186.

Bibliography

Further reading

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