Antisemitic Discourse in Britain in 2009
Crossposted at Harry’s Place from the CST (Community Security Trust) Blog
CST’s latest report, “Antisemitic Discourse in Britain in 2009”, is published today.
This is CST’s third annual report on antisemitic discourse. It is being published now to coincide with the conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism, being held in Ottawa, Canada. (This is the second such international conference, and follows last year’s inaugural London event, which was hosted by the Foreign Office, with CST helping to co-organise the parallel Experts Forum.)
The Discourse Report may be read in pdf format here at the publications section of CST’s website. (Note, the report is 58 pages in length, including graphics.)
As in previous years, the report examines public discussion of antisemitism, Jews and Jewish issues in mainstream media and politics. Explicit antisemitism remains uncommon in mainstream British discourse and it is not the report’s intention to brand those who feature in it as being antismites.
Nevertheless, old antisemitic motifs remain remarkably persistent, especially in relation to Zionism and Israel; and it is hoped that this report will help explain why CST, the Jewish community and many other observers note and fear the ongoing development of this trend.
In particular, this year’s report examines the increased mainstreaming of a relatively new charge, whereby Israel is compared to Nazi Germany and Israel’s supporters are compared to Nazis. This causes significant upset to Jews and is an antisemitic abuse of the memory of the Holocaust.
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