I don’t see the Left generally (but the #Labour Party more specifically)’s problem with #antisemitism and our complex and strained relationship with the Jewish community improving any time soon.

And that’s for three reasons:

The first reason is the changing terminology relating to Zionism.

Whilst the idea of the Jewish diaspora being one nation dates back as far as the exile itself, Zionism originated in the late 19th century as a specifically political, openly settler-colonialist movement.

It relied, from its outset, on the forced expulsion of the people living in Palestine at the time, and the movement’s leaders weren’t coy or apologetic about that. Colonialism was acceptable, even popular, back then.

However, since the creation of the State of Israel, and especially in recent decades, Zionism has come to mean something different for most Jewish people. For them, it simply means the notion that Jewish people are an ethnicity with the right to a national homeland.

And that’s fine! Words change meaning over the years, it happens all the time. And it’s not for anyone other than Jewish people to determine how they identify or the terms they use to discuss their historical oppression.

But it does cause confusion.

The Left is avowedly anti-colonialist, by definition. All imperialism is wrong and the enemy of equality, democracy and independence. So leftists oppose the British Empire, Belgian and French Colonialism, American imperialism … and Zionism (in its original sense).

And opposition to Zionism has been around for as long as Zionism has, and the Left draws a lot of inspiration from historical progressive and anti-imperialist movements.

When pro-Palestine activists say ‘Israel is a racist endeavour’ they mean the founding of the state and it’s reliance on ethnic cleansing.

That isn’t antisemitic.

But when the Left are proudly ‘antizionist’, and call Israel—not the country’s government, but the idea of a Jewish majority country itself—racist, to the majority of Jewish people that seems like singling them out as being uniquely acceptable targets for the Left.

After all, how could being anti–‘Jewish people having the right to a national homeland’ be anything other than racist hatred? Especially when the Left fights for the self-determination of seemingly every other group.

This confusion and change in meaning makes it very difficult for the Left to prioritise the Palestinian experience of Zionism, and its origins and historical context, without using terms or phrases which, in modern understanding and definitions, would be considered antisemitic.

It also makes the Left’s campaigning very difficult for many Jewish people to experience, because it comes across as the latest in generations of anti-Jewish abuse.

It is absolutely right that Palestinians’ experiences of Zionism, the movement’s origins and its effect on their people’s history are prioritised. But we can’t expect a minority group to feel safe within our movement when we’re using terms that they find extremely harmful.

Reason number two is the extremely uncommon—possibly unique—position that Israel is in.

The US and the UK, along with the West generally, are/were friendly with or supporters of plenty of racist regimes.

There are plenty of countries whose misdeeds we overlook because it suits us, or because we do the same thing. Britain, America, France, Canada, Australia, India, the EU. But Israel is the only one which was founded by an oppressed people in response to their oppression.

Additionally, Israel is the only openly authoritarian ethno-state—aside, perhaps, from Saudi Arabia (in certain contexts)—which western countries continue to see as a strong ally.

The close military links between Israel and the West remains, despite Israel’s continued violation of international law. Again, Saudi Arabia is the only other country I can think of that finds itself in a similar position.

I suspect that a big part of why Israel is in this position is racism, and specifically colourism. I guess Jewish people just seem closer to White people than Arab Muslims. A lot of Jewish people are White, or pass for White.

And, also uniquely, Israel is a country for all Jewish people—whatever their background or culture. Anybody who is ‘Jewish enough’ (because a lot of Brown Jews are still discriminated against) can move to Israel.

I have no doubt that Western governments see Israel as an oasis of civilisation in a savage land; a bulwark against the hordes of Black and Brown people swarming at the fringes of Fortress Europe.

All of this separates Israel from other problematic countries. The Left protests all injustices, but it pays special attention to those cases which go overlooked or are dismissed by the establishment.

It’s like the expression about preaching to the converted. Everyone knows the North Korean regime is awful; it was the same for Stalin’s USSR, Franco’s Spain and Mussolini’s Italy. There was no need to protest against them so intensely, because the establishment was on-side.

But when it came to the US during the Vietnam War or South Africa during Apartheid, there were big protests. There were boycott movements and marches and dedicated campaigns—because the establishment supported them.

We were close American allies, helping them in their arms race. Thatcher’s government condemned Nelson Mandela as a terrorist. People protesting both of these issues were arrested, put on anti-terrorism watchlists, spied on.

When your own country chooses the wrong side, you have to shout all the louder.

Which makes Israel a legitimately special case in 21st century leftist protest movements.

But the fact that it’s also the only Jewish country means it can quite easily be mistaken for antisemitism.

It’s part of the Left’s problem with the IHRA’s definition of AS—it classes ‘having double standards’, or treating Israel differently from other countries, as antisemitic.

But it isn’t double standards. There are several legitimate distinctions between Israel and other authoritarian regimes, and legitimate reasons to focus on Israel more than on other states.

None of those are to do with Jews or Jewishness, but the fact that Israel is the only Jewish state in the world means it’s very easy for Jewish people to think we’re singling them out as well. And we need to be explicitly clear that we are not doing so in order to reassure them.

Finally, we have the concept of conspiracy theories.

There are different kinds of conspiracy theory, and the differences are especially stark when it comes to political ideology.

Right-wing conspiracy theories are usually racist in nature, such as the idea that White people are being replaced as the ethnic majority in their native countries, or that there’s a coordinated global effort to overthrow democracy and replace it with Islamic Law.

They also manage to simultaneously target the Left as well as liberals, by calling anybody who isn’t a small-state free-market Christian-Right lunatic a ‘socialist’, and spreading the idea that the Left is full of wealthy child abusers who want to take away your toothbrush.

The common thread linking right-wing conspiracies is the fact that they’re all rooted in protecting Straight White Male pride. White cishet men are apparently constantly under threat, and the enemy is always a group who, in fact, have far less political power.

Right-wing conspiracies are about strong vs weak, ‘every man for himself’ anti-collectivist individualism.

Leftist conspiracy theories, though, are the complete opposite. We try to warn people about corrupt states, mass surveillance and global financial hegemony.

And, most importantly, leftist conspiracy theories usually turn out to be true.

Governments and tech companies *are* constantly collecting a ton of information about us, watching our every move. Law enforcement *do* routinely spy on environmental activists and trade unions.

Our political machinery *is* controlled by a small, powerful elite who are out of touch with the common person. Wealthy individuals, banks and corporations *are* controlling global financial markets to privilege themselves.

The whole point of the Left is to awaken people to the truth that the world is controlled by capitalists who buy elections and governments which in turn spy on the people they’re oppressing and those who would seek to oust them.

The trouble is a key component of antisemitism, unlike with racism against other ethnic groups, is the role conspiracy theories have played in sustaining centuries of abuse.

The idea that Jews control the world; the belief that all Jewish people are wealthy and powerful; claiming that the Holocaust didn’t happen or was somehow less of a big deal; or that they killed Christian babies, or poisoned village wells, or killed Jesus—

conspiracy theories are a massive component of anti-Jewish hatred.

So, when a genuine conspiracy someone on the Left is fighting happens to involve Jewish people, things can get sticky.

Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg’s company) controlling people’s data and influencing elections; famous Jewish bankers and industrialists; Israel’s international military influence and international assassinations; the Labour right’s campaign to discredit Corbyn and the left.

Even something as minor as a group of liberal Jewish celebrities who have a shared interest in attacking the Left/socialism—because they’re liberals, not because they’re Jewish—gets conflated with the ‘wealthy Jews and their secret agenda’ canard.

Clearly, no ethnic or racial hatred is meant by those trying to combat these societal phenomena—we aren’t fighting ‘Jewish conspiracies’, we’re fighting conspiracies (groups of people working together to further a pernicious common goal) that happen to involve Jewish people.

But because Jewish trauma is so interconnected with accusations of conspiracy and treachery, I think the Left need to do all they can to avoid any overtly conspiracy-related terminology when our opponents happen to be Jewish.

Once again, it’s about being considerate and precise in our use of language. We on the left need to appreciate that our words have different connotations when used in relation to different groups.

It’s like that racist anti-monarchy joke that Danny Baker made a while back.

When used as a satirical comparison to the fuss made about *any other* royal baby, an oldey-timey photograph of a chimp in an overcoat, spats, bowler hat and cane might be vaguely amusing. But when you use a photo of an ape to represent a Black or mixed-race child, that’s racist.

It’s not a double standard, it’s because of the centuries of racist caricatures and slurs comparing Black people to monkeys and apes—it’s a long-established form of racist abuse that we should all recognise.

Leftists rightly condemned Baker’s tweet, so why not antisemitism?

Ultimately, the Left’s choice of language is vital in avoiding all types of unconscious racism, but especially when it comes to antisemitism.

Anti-Jewish hatred has unique and peculiar characteristics which make the Left’s fight against oppression and privilege more difficult.

Jewish people’s redefining of Zionism to reflect their resistance to centuries of antisemitism means we need to choose our words more carefully.

Israel’s unique, unrelated-to-Jewishness characteristics make it a valid target for Leftist campaigning—but its unique, related-to-Jewishness characteristics mean we have to be particularly careful *how* we campaign.

And whenever our daily struggle against the ruling class’s concerted efforts to keep us oppressed overlap with Jewish people, we need to change our approach accordingly.

Basically, there are certain specific reasons why it’s easier for those on the Left to be unconsciously racist towards Jewish people, so I think it will take a long time for the issue to be resolved.

But there is absolutely NO EXCUSE for not trying, or for blaming Jewish people for our need to change.

People are not responsible for their own oppression, and those who claim otherwise are not Leftists.