Anti-Semitism and opposition to Israeli government policies: the roles of prejudice and information

ABSTRACT

Past research on the link between anti-Semitism and criticism of the Israeli government has revealed a partial correlation between the two. However, among the political arguments that have inspired such research, one has gone unaddressed: that criticism of the Israeli government along with silence about more egregious human rights abuses committed elsewhere can only arise from anti-Semitism. This article investigates the link between knowledge of conflicts around the world, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and criticism of the Israeli and Saudi governments, among US participants. Using a deeper index of anti-Israel opinions than prior research, the results indicate that some criticisms of the Israeli government are more reliable indicators of anti-Semitic sentiment than others. The findings are discussed with regard to how legitimate political criticism can be distinguished from prejudice in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-Semitism
• Islamophobia
• out-group antipathy
• knowledge
• prejudice
• international relations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Other possible explanations exist; for instance, some critics argue that foreign nations receiving significant economic, diplomatic, or military support from one’s own nation warrant greater scrutiny, since in principle their policies would be relatively easier to influence than those of nations not receiving such support.

2 Saudi Arabia was chosen as the closest Muslim equivalent to Israel’s status as the Jewish state; while Saudi Arabia is merely a Muslim state, it is home to Islam’s holiest sites and is a pilgrimage destination for millions of Muslims.

3 For ease of comparison, Lee et al.’s (2009) Islamophobia scale was shortened to twelve items by removing the last two Affective-Behavioural and Cognitive items, and by changing “professor” to “boss or supervisor”. The ADL anti-Semitism index was increased to twelve items by adding “Jews exert too much influence over the global media”.

4 Participants were asked to place blame for each of the seven conflicts on either side using a 0–100 sliding scale; higher scores corresponded to the more powerful side in each conflict: the Israeli government, the Colombian Right, Hindus in Kashmir, Buddhists in Sri Lanka, Russians in Chechnya, the British in Ireland, Tutsis in the Congo.