Q: A couple of years ago my 21-year-old daughter travelled to the West Bank in Palestine to volunteer with an environmental organization. Since she came back, she has been incredibly vocal about Palestinian rights – organizing protests and fundraisers, posting on social media. I was supportive, but over the past year I’ve started to wonder if I should be worried. She often complains that accusations of antisemitism are used to silence people speaking for Palestinian rights. After everything that has happened with the Labour Party here in the UK and what you hear in the media, should I be worried that she’s in fact antisemitic? There are Jewish people in her life and I’ve never been worried that she’s had that tendency before, but now I’m confused.
A: There are ways of thinking in certain corners of the Left that echo antisemitism. I’m talking about the world view that sees the economy as controlled by a handful of shadowy individuals. You’ve perhaps come across parts of the internet where the ‘Israel lobby’ is blamed for all the criminality of Western foreign policy. As if it were nefarious lobbying, and not geopolitical interests in the Middle East, that determines US support for Israel.
