Antisemitism

The IHRA cites as a contemporary example of antisemitism “drawing comparisons between current Israeli policy and that of the Nazis.”

Comparing Israelis—or Jews in general—to the actions of the Nazis during the Holocaust is a deliberate manipulation that equates the victims with their executioners, considered the worst criminals in history. The systematic extermination of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators was one of the fundamental catalysts that led to the creation of a Jewish state in 1948 to ensure that such an atrocity would never be repeated. Equating Jews with Nazis is not only a particularly grave offense to the exterminated Jews and their descendants, but also seeks to undermine one of the moral and historical foundations that justify the existence of the State of Israel.

During the Holocaust, the German Nazi regime and its collaborators systematically exterminated approximately six million Jews through the industrialization of death: Jews from across Europe were deported to extermination camps and murdered in gas chambers. Another key instrument of annihilation was the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads), units that roamed Eastern Europe massacring Jewish populations they encountered through mass shootings.

The IHRA cites as a contemporary example of antisemitism the denial of Jews' right to self-determination, for instance, by claiming that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

The State of Israel is the only country whose legitimacy is repeatedly questioned, which implies applying a double standard to the Jewish state: it is the only country denied the right to self-determination.

This double standard manifests itself in multiple areas. The BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement promotes the economic, cultural, and academic isolation of Israel, a systematic campaign not directed against any other state. The same occurs in the streets of Europe, where Israel is the target of massive and recurring demonstrations, while regimes responsible for political repression, executions, persecution of minorities, or wars of aggression—such as Iran, China, Russia, or Cuba—generate little social mobilization. This pattern is also replicated at the institutional level: the United Nations General Assembly approves more resolutions condemning Israel each year than the rest of the world combined, a disproportion that does not correspond to the reality of the violations committed, but rather to the unique status of the Jewish state.

In demonstrations in the Islamic world, as well as in pro-Palestinian protests in European and North American cities, the cry “Khaybar Khaybar, ya yahud, jaysh Muhammad sa-ya’ud” (“Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return”) is commonly chanted. The cry invokes the assault led by the Prophet Muhammad in 628 against the Jewish oasis of Khaybar, in which the men were killed or expelled and the women and children enslaved.

The IHRA cites as a contemporary example of antisemitism “denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g., gas chambers), or intent of the genocide of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).”

Trivializing or denying the Holocaust is a profoundly hurtful way of belittling the suffering of the Jewish people during the most tragic episode in their history.

In the Holocaust, the German Nazi regime and its collaborators systematically exterminated approximately six million Jews through the industrialization of death: Jews from all over Europe were deported to extermination camps and murdered in gas chambers. Another key instrument of annihilation was the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads), units that roamed Eastern Europe massacring Jewish populations they encountered through mass shootings.

Claiming that these events did not occur, that they were exaggerated, or that they were smaller in scale than documented is not only a historical falsehood refuted by decades of research and abundant documentation from the Nazi regime itself; it is also an act of humiliation against the victims and their descendants. For this reason, Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in at least 13 European countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium.

The IHRA cites as a contemporary example of antisemitism "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis".

The term “genocide” was coined in 1944 by the jurist Raphael Lemkin and formally adopted by the United Nations in 1948 in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in order to legally define what the Holocaust had entailed. It is defined as the deliberate attempt to destroy, in whole or in part, an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group.

The accusation of genocide against Israel is a falsehood intended to delegitimize the Jewish state and turn it into an international pariah. It is not a term chosen at random: applying to Israel the most serious legal category in international law—the crime that entails the absolute loss of a state’s legitimacy—is a deliberate strategy, aimed not at describing a reality but at fundamentally questioning Israel’s right to exist. This manipulation has been constant since the founding of the State in 1948 and intensified after the attacks of October 7, 2023, to the point that the accusation was being widely made just days later, when no Israeli soldiers had yet entered Gaza.

Since then, it has been the main line of attack against Israel during the war, despite the complete lack of evidence of the deliberate destruction of the Arab population.

Within Israel, the Arab population has grown from 156,000 in 1948 to approximately 2.1 million today, and from 1.3 million to 5.6 million in Gaza and the West Bank during the same period. By contrast, the European Jewish population, which did suffer actual genocide, was reduced from 9.5 million in 1933 to 3.8 million in 1945.
La acusación de genocidio contra Israel es una falsedad que busca deslegitimar al Estado judío y convertirlo en un paria internacional. No es un término elegido al azar: aplicar a Israel la categoría jurídica más grave del derecho internacional —el crimen que conlleva la pérdida absoluta de legitimidad de un Estado— es una estrategia deliberada, orientada no a describir una realidad sino a cuestionar de raíz el derecho de Israel a existir. Esta instrumentalización ha sido constante desde la fundación del Estado en 1948 y se ha intensificado tras los ataques del 7 de octubre de 2023, hasta el punto de que la acusación se formulaba de forma extendida apenas unos días después, cuando ningún soldado israelí había entrado todavía en Gaza.

Desde entonces, ha sido la principal línea de ataque contra Israel durante la guerra, pese a que no existe prueba alguna de una destrucción deliberada de la población árabe.

Dentro de Israel, la población árabe ha crecido de 156.000 personas en 1948 a unos 2,1 millones hoy, y de 1,3 millones a 5,6 millones en Gaza y Cisjordania durante el mismo periodo. Por contraste, la población judía europea, que sí padeció un genocidio real, se redujo de 9,5 millones en 1933 a 3,8 millones en 1945.

The IHRA considers contemporary antisemitism to be “making false, dehumanizing, and stereotypical accusations about Jews” and “using symbols and imagery associated with classical antisemitism.” A classic antisemitic accusation is the image of the bloodthirsty Jew.

This antisemitic idea dates back to the Middle Ages when widespread hatred of Jews led to their portrayal as cruel and sadistic. In blood libels, Jews were not only accused of murdering Christian children, but also of doing so with extreme sadism, resorting to all kinds of bloody torture. In the 20th century, Nazi propaganda continued to promote the idea that Jews were inherently cruel and bloodthirsty, encouraging blood libels and accusing Jewish doctors of practicing vivisection. These accusations were part of the Nazi strategy to dehumanize and demonize Jews, which later facilitated their extermination during the Holocaust.

Blood libels were also imported to the Arab world in the 19th century, as exemplified by the Damascus case of 1840, in which several Jews in the city were accused of murdering a Capuchin friar to use his blood in rituals and were subjected to torture to extract confessions. This accusation was recycled in the 20th century in works such as *The Matzah of Zion*, published in 1983 by the then Syrian Minister of Defense.

Since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, this classic trope has been repurposed by anti-Semites to accuse Israelis of being inherently sadistic people who cruelly torture and murder their Arab neighbors, especially Palestinian children.

The IHRA considers contemporary antisemitism to be “making false, dehumanizing, and stereotypical accusations about Jews” and “using symbols and imagery associated with classical antisemitism.” One of the main antisemitic accusations is that of Jewish hatred toward Christians.

This antisemitic trope dates back to the earliest teachings of Christianity, which blamed Jews for murdering Jesus Christ because they refused to accept him as the true messiah. Since then, Jews have been accused for centuries of being a wicked people who hate Christians and secretly try to kill them. During the Middle Ages, this materialized in blood libels, such as the William of Norwich libel of 1114 or the Niño de la Guardia libel in Spain in 1491, which accused Jews of secretly murdering Christian children, culminating in massacres perpetrated against Jewish communities. The Spanish Inquisition institutionalized these calumnies by persecuting converts under the accusation of secretly Judaizing and deliberately acting against the Christian faith. Later, antisemitic theories such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion accused Jews of conspiring to destroy Christian civilization and dominate the world.

The IHRA defines contemporary antisemitism as “making false, dehumanizing, perverse, or stereotypical accusations about Jews, as such, or about the power of Jews as a collective, for example, but not exclusively, the myth of a global Jewish conspiracy or Jewish control of the media, the economy, the government, or other institutions of society.” The United States is the primary country singled out as supposedly controlled by Jews.

The theory of Jewish control of the United States was popularized in the 1920s by Henry Ford, who sought to disseminate the ideas contained in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Ford accused Jews of controlling banking, the media, and the American government, as well as corrupting Christian morality through film, jazz, and organized crime. This antisemitism blamed an alleged “international network of Jewish bankers” for causing World War I and for attempting to drag the United States into World War II. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, with Ford's classic anti-Semitism becoming socially unacceptable, anti-Semites have transformed this theory to claim that it is Israel that secretly controls the United States.

The IHRA cites as a contemporary example of antisemitism “the use of symbols and imagery associated with classical antisemitism (e.g., slanders such as the murder of Jesus by Jews or bloody rituals) to characterize Israel or Israelis.” One of the main images of classical antisemitism is that of the avaricious Jew.

This trope dates back to the association between Jews and the apostle Judas, a symbol of disloyalty and greed, who, according to tradition, betrayed Jesus Christ for money. During the Middle Ages, Jews were excluded from most trades and land ownership, relegated to small-scale commerce and moneylending. This economic activity, coupled with widespread anti-Jewish hatred, created the myth of the swindling and opportunistic Jew, faithfully exemplified by the character of Shylock in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” With the development of banking and the modern capitalist system (18th and 19th centuries), the exceptional cases of successful Jews in banking — such as the Rothschild, Warburg, Mendhelson, or Lazard families — were used by the anti-Semitic theories of the time to accuse all Jews of being rich and controlling world finances, even though the vast majority lived in poverty.

The IHRA cites as a contemporary example of antisemitism “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the supposed priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own countries.”

This trope developed in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries with the rise of nationalism and the aspiration to create new nations composed of people who shared a common culture, language, history, or religion. In this context, the loyalty of Jews to these new nations was routinely questioned, labeling them as suspicious “foreigners” and demanding their exclusion from economic, social, and political life. The most notorious episode was the Dreyfus Affair of 1894, in which the Jewish captain of the French army, Alfred Dreyfus, was falsely accused of treason, expelled from the army, and imprisoned.

In the Islamic world, this exclusion took an earlier and more stable form: the status of dhimmi, which in classical Islamic law placed Jews in a permanently subordinate position, as tolerated subjects in exchange for the payment of a special tax (the jizya), but never as full citizens.

Since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, this antisemitic idea has taken a new form: the accusation that Jews living outside Israel profess greater loyalty to the Jewish state than to their own countries.

The IHRA defines contemporary antisemitism as “making false, dehumanizing, perverse, or stereotypical accusations about Jews, as such, or about the power of Jews as a collective,

for example, though not exclusively, the myth of a global Jewish conspiracy or Jewish control of the media, the economy, government, or other institutions of society.”

This antisemitic conspiracy theory originated in 19th-century Europe, when certain political theories accused Jews of dominating the world economy through banking and finance. The most influential conspiracy theory was the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, published in Russia in 1903, which attributed to a council of Jewish elders the control of national economies, financial markets, the media, education, and all kinds of institutions. With this global control, the Jews conspired to destroy Christianity, perpetrating social conflicts, financial crises, and wars between nations from which they themselves greatly profited. Nazi propaganda extensively exploited the ideas in the Protocols to accuse Jews of being a transnational enemy entity responsible for all the ills afflicting Germany, which constituted one of the main pretexts for justifying their extermination during the Holocaust.

The Protocols experienced a resurgence in the Arab and Iranian world during the second half of the 20th century, with widely circulated editions in countries such as Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, often with the support of political and religious figures. Hamas's 1988 founding charter explicitly cites them as a truthful account of Jewish plans for world domination.

The IHRA considers contemporary antisemitism to be “making false, dehumanizing, and stereotypical accusations about Jews” and “using symbols and imagery associated with classical antisemitism.” A classic antisemitic accusation is the idea of ​​the Jew as a demonic being.

This antisemitic trope originates from the Gospel of John (8:44), which attributes to Jesus the words addressed to his interlocutors in the Temple of Jerusalem: “Your father is the devil.” This passage was interpreted for centuries as applicable to Jews in general. In the medieval period, widespread hatred against Jews led to their frequent accusations of being agents of the devil and their portrayal as demonic beings with horns and tails. Centuries later, Nazi propaganda exploited this trope to present Jews as a metaphysical and existential threat.

The IHRA cites as contemporary examples of antisemitism “using symbols and imagery associated with classical antisemitism” and “accusing Jews of being responsible for a real or imagined harm,” such as the idea that Jews are unclean and disease-carrying.

This antisemitic trope originates from the medieval period, when the idea developed that Jews were unclean people who emitted a foul odor as divine punishment for rejecting Jesus Christ. During the Black Death in Europe (1347-1351), Jews were accused of poisoning communal wells and spreading the disease that killed between 25 and 50 million people.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, with the popularization of pseudoscientific theories about race and eugenics, religiously rooted anti-Jewish hatred transformed into racial antisemitism, which maintained that Jews were a biologically inferior race. Nazi propaganda effectively exploited this concept, accusing Jews of being a degenerate and parasitic race that threatened to corrupt and destroy the German Aryan race.

In Islamic tradition, certain Quranic verses describe a group of Jews transformed into monkeys and pigs as divine punishment. These passages are frequently invoked in contemporary Islamist sermons to portray Jews as beings degraded by divine will, thus reproducing a logic of dehumanization parallel to that which underpinned European antisemitism.