Bauer: Anti-Semitism unlikely to go away
A FINAL peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians would not eliminate the rising levels of western anti-Semitism, according to pre-eminent Holocaust scholar Professor Yehuda Bauer.
CHANTAL ABITBOL
A FINAL peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians would not eliminate the rising levels of western anti-Semitism, according to pre-eminent Holocaust scholar Professor Yehuda Bauer.
“Analyses show reasonably clearly that what is being attacked is Israel as a Jewish state, not just as another state, and that the current conflict serves as a trigger that releases people from a politically correct attitude of opposing anti-Semitism,” the academic said in Sydney last week.
The reason for this, he said, is because anti-Semitism is not only a prejudice, but also a “historically ingrained cultural phenomenon” in the Christian-Muslim world that exists latently and can be aroused by a conflict such as the current one in the Middle East.
Prof Bauer, a past winner of the prestigious Israel Prize and professor emeritus of Holocaust studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is currently touring Australia. He will be the keynote speaker at Monash University’s upcoming Holocaust Aftermath Conference on March 14 and 15.
Speaking at Sydney’s Mandelbaum House last Thursday, he told the audience, including University of Sydney chancellor and NSW Governor Marie Bashir, that a multi-pronged approach is required to battle anti-Semitism, including the use of mass communication channels to present the “facts on the ground”.
An elaborate mix of ideological campaigns is also called for, he said, to battle anti-Semitism in the Muslim world, where radical Islam is growing and outspokenly anti-Semitic messages are increasingly gaining acceptance with the mainstream.
“This is very clear in Pakistan, for instance, where there is not a single Jew,” he said.
There are competing, non-radical interpretations of Islam, he stressed, and it’s up to a “non-patronising western stance” to support those voices “willing to enter the fray”.
“Anti-Semitism is a global scourge, and it’s directed against all civilised societies. That is how it should be seen,” Prof Bauer said.
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