Anti-Semites on Zionism: From Indifference to Obsession |
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Authors: | Derek J Penslar |
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Institution: | Jewish Studies Program, University of Toronto, University College 322, 15 King's College Circle, Toronto, Ontario, M58 3H7, Canada E-mail: derek.penslar@utoronto.ca |
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Abstract: | This article compares European and Middle Eastern anti-Semitism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From the 1870s through the 1930s, in parallel fashion anti-Semitism became a mobilizing, all-embracing ideology in Europe, while the Arab world witnessed an eruption of anticolonial and nationalist sentiment, often directed against the Zionist project. Arab anti-Semitism featured the irrational and fantastic qualities of its European counterpart, but it took form against the reality of the Zionist project. The article draws a distinction between the realms of systemic intolerance, aggravated by socio-economic crisis, and political strife, driven by discrete events and policies. Its main sources are fin-de-siècle European anti-Semites' writings on Zionism, which are shown to be fundamentally different from the anti-Zionist rhetoric emanating from the Middle East at that time. |
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