Antisemitism

Referring to tolerance and declaring people who think differently as having phobia does not only manifest itself spectacularly in the area of morale, as we have illustrated with homophobia, or on religious-cultural areas shown

23 The literature and human rights organisation PEN announced in March 2015 that on the May 5^th gala of its American Centre Charlie Hebdo will be awarded the Toni and James C. Goodale Price for the corageous representation of freedom of speech. The represen-tativers of the French satiric magaszine Charlie Hebdo who received the price – with the exception of some bravely objecting journalists – were greeted with standing ovation at the literary gala of the international writers assocoation held in the Museum of Natural Sciences in New York. http://www.napigazdasag.hu/cikk/42741/ (L.d.: 10.06.2015.)

24 Kövér László, Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament expressed his sympathy to the Pres-ident of the French National Assembly and to the PresPres-ident of the French Senate because of the terrosrist attack against the satiric magazine Charlie Hebdo on Friday. He pointed out that Hungary deeply condemns this unparalleled violent act, which claimed the life of innocent people and which is at the same time an attack against human dignity and fundamental European values like freedom of speech and democracy.

http://nol.hu/belfold/kover-ez-tamadas-az-alapveto-europai-ertekek-ellen-1508525 (L.d.: 14.10.2015.)

by islamophobia, but it is directly present in politics with the often heard accusation of xenophobia and antisemitism as the best examples.

4.1 The meaning of antisemitism

The expression of antisemitism got its name from the Semi or Semite²⁵ (mostly Arabs and Jews) peoples originating from Sem, the son of Noah.

The word is of Latin origin and it means ‚against Semites’.

Analysing the word in Hungarian we fi nd that in our language antipathy against something or somebody does not necessarily mean hatred. To raise objection against somebody or something („ellenesség” in Hungarian) is much more moderate, meaning ’against, in opposition, but not necessarily battery or assault.

Although other peoples and languages also belong to the Semites (like the Maltese for example) the word antisemitism is used against the Jewish people and religion, generally built on emotional, economic, racial and political antipathy.

4.2 The use of the expression antisemitism in our days

So etymologically antisemitism does not only refer to the Jews but also to the Arabs for example and does not mean hatred. But the present day usage is completely different from its original meaning, denoting a kind of anti-Jewish phobia and hatred at the same time, and in this sense it has become a very strong and effective (legally supported) political weapon in the New World Order which has been intensively built since World War II.

25 The notion of Semite was created in 1781 by August Ludwig Schlözer, a polyhistor, historian, founder of the sciences of statistics and sociology, who was teaching in Göt-tingen. Later Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, theologist and orientalist used it in linguistics in 1787. Joseph Arthur de Gobineau French writer in his work „Essai sur I’inegalite des races humaines” (An Essay on the Inequalities of the Human Races) connected it with the naturalistic race notion in 1853. Ernest Renan French historian and philologist expounded in his writings published in 1855 that “semitism” is the “spirit” of Semite people which he negatively valued in comparison with the “spirit” of the Indo Ger-man peoples. De Renan stated this view in his debate with Moritz Steinschneiderrel originally not against the Jews, but generally in connection with the religion of all desert dwelling Semite peoples including Islam. Among the Semite or Semi languages we can fi nd ones which have great historical, religious and political imprtance like Akkhad, Arabic or Hebrew.

Wide ranging social, theological statements, historical and political phenomena and events can be associated with the expression and about the background of its reasons there is a large literature available, nevertheless it is not necessary to analyse them in order to illustrate how the expression has been abused.

4.3 Anti-Semite questions

We can see that any criticism or grievance will be declared antisemitism if it is against a person of Jewish origin or identity, especially against the state of Israel. Chauvinist Jews the Zionists do not just stigmatise their critics but constantly referring to holocaust they demand punishment for them.

This breeds natural antipathy, which further enhances tension and keeps increasing the vicious circle of accusations and stigmatisation.

Without pretending to be exhaustive let me present some examples:

not agreeing with Zionism²⁶, criticism of the military aggression of Israel, persecution and displacing Palestinians, which has been going on for years, investigating the sins of the state of Israel, sustaining the ghetto in Gaza, disregarding international law, unlawful building of colonies on occupied land, which has been several times condemned by UN, the question of rejecting the International Criminal Court in The Hague; all are considered

“antisemitism”. Concerns about the cooperation with the USA, the 8-meter high concrete wall which was deemed breaching international law by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the criticism of the nationalistic jurisdiction and regulation, or just a question about the nuclear weapons of the country can easily get the accusation of antisemitism. It is very risky to examine the responsibility of the Jewish people in the tension that has been in existence over the centuries and has in fact often burst into fl ames.

The connection between the Jews and the free masons or the Jews and the communists is a dangerous taboo. Anybody asking questions about these

26 Zionizm is a Jewish national movement and ideology to assemble the Jews scattered all over the world in one homeland in Isral around the Sion, and also it is a protection of the interst of Jews living in other parts of the world. Zionizm in its present day form was created in 1897. Its fi rst congress was organised in Basel by Tivadar Herzl, a journalist and writer, who was born in Budapest. He published the zionist paper called Die Welt.

The aim of the congress was to create a legally acknowledged homeland for the Jews in Palestine. 14th May 1948 UNO announced founding the State of Israel.

topics will be deemed intolerant with the Jews and may be subject to public harassment, losing his or her job or even court trials.²⁷ Furthermore the his-toric research of or any serious question about holocaust, which serves as a fi rm moral basis of contemporary Zionism, is almost impossible without this accusation. Verbal stigmatisation is paired with Criminal Code²⁸ based custodial sentence, imprisonment, the possibility of prohibition from public affairs and further possible sanctions by the state. All these happening again in the name of tolerance.