I have launched the Institute for the Critical Study of Antizionism. This is scholarly enterprise to produce, promote, and disseminate critical scholarship about antizionism as an ideology, a worldview, and a movement. In so doing it aims to take on and dismantle this ideology, “antizionism,” that has caused so much harm to Jews, Israel, the academy as a whole, and Western civilization most generally.
But to understand what we are about, we must address two important questions:
What is antizionism?
And why no hyphen?
To begin our answer, we must recall that the hatred and violence being directed against Jews in the Diaspora, in America and Europe in particular, didn’t start with “Zionism” and “Israel.” The esteemed antisemitism scholar Robert Wistrich titled one of his many books on the subject The Longest Hatred for good reason. The late Chief Rabbi of the UK, Jonathan Sacks, observed that this long hatred of Jews is a shapeshifter, a mutating virus, that over literally centuries has taken different forms in different times and places. Leading contemporary scholar David Nirenberg, of the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton University, documents meticulously in his book Anti-Judaism how in each era, hatred of Jews becomes couched in the highest moral vocabulary of the day. For example:
- For the many centuries of Christian dominance in the West Jew-hatred primarily took the form of “anti-Judaism,” i.e. hatred of the Jewish religion, and both as a consequence of the hatred and as a further driver of it the Jews were falsely accused of all sorts of crimes against the Christian religion: deicide (literally murdering God!), desecrating the communion wafer (which Christians saw as an attack on the body of God), murdering Christian children to use their blood for rituals (“the blood libel”), committing usury (a Christian sin at the time), being in cahoots with the Devil, and most of all seeking to destroy Christianity, etc.
- After the Enlightenment diminished religious influence in the 18th century, hatred of Jews rapidly morphed into a “racial” hatred, which in the 19th century became known by the newly coined term, “antisemitism.” Instead of hating Jews for their religion the majority society now hated Jews primarily for their “race,” depicting them as non-White race polluters, foreigners to European societies who by their genetic character were deceitful and greedy, a threat to their “host” nations just as “vermin” are a threat to humans. With nationalism then on the rise Jews were falsely accused of anti-nationalism, of internationalism, of seeking to destroy their host nations, of conspiring to dominate and conquer the entire world by an international cabal controlling money, the press, governments, etc. This is the period that generated the famous antisemitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which contained the classic antisemitism tropes and in spreading then launched them across the globe.
Though the alleged “reasons” and “justifications” evolved over time and place, both anti-Judaism and (racial) antisemitism produced tremendous harm and violence against Jews over the course, again, of centuries. Not only were Jews marginalized and literally ghettoized in place after place and time after time, prevented from participating in public life or forced out if they were, but on a regular basis Jews were also assaulted, tortured, raped, and murdered, their homes and businesses vandalized, looted, and burned, and often expelled en masse (“ethnically cleansed”) from places they had lived for many generations. The Holocaust did not come out of nowhere but was the culmination of the centuries-long process described above. The same story repeats over and over. Hatred of Jews produces libels against the Jews, which produces dehumanization of Jews, which not only fuels more libels and more hatred but then paves the way for exclusion, ethnic cleansing, and mass violence, and finally genocide.
In the long era where religion was the most important value, Jews were hated for their religion and assaulted and murdered in large numbers for it.
In the era where “race” and “nationality” were the most important values, Jews were hated for their race and nationality and assaulted and murdered in large numbers for it.
After World War II, which saw the climax of racial antisemitism in the form of 6 million Jews murdered and millions more displaced, a new international order was formed, where “internationalism” and “human rights” now became the most important values.
And now today, under the name of “antizionism,” Jews are hated for their nation state, the State of Israel, and falsely accused of endless violations of “human rights”: racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc. This is not the place to refute these charges, though I have done that myself and can also recommend several good resources to that end. (For example, Roy Altman’s new book, Israel on Trial.) What you must know is that each of these libelous allegations was deliberately crafted and weaponized by people who are demonstrably haters of Jews and was done so for precisely the same reasons as earlier generations of Jew-haters created and spread lies about Jews. Those hating the Jews always create false and dehumanizing accusations against them, which then motivates and justifies their subsequent exclusion, assaults, violence, and even murder of Jews.
In fact, I am currently writing a book on exactly this topic.
I can describe to you in detail how the Nazis, gripped by a literally delusional hatred of the Jews, created scientific institutes to produce “scholarship” in order to “prove” the Jews were racial degenerates who were seeking to take over the world and destroy the Germans, among others. The famous antisemitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was front and center for them. Though the book was conclusively and repeatedly proven to be a fraud—there are no “Elders of Zion,” there is no Jewish plot to conquer the world, and no, Jews do not in fact control the world’s money, press, governments, etc.—the Nazis spread the lies wholeheartedly, thus dehumanizing the Jews as monstrous vermin and justifying their mass slaughter of them.
I can describe to you in detail how the Soviet Union, gripped by a literally delusional hatred of the Jews, also created scientific institutes to produce “scholarship” in order to “prove” the Jews were racist supremacists who sought to take over the world and destroy the Soviet Union, among others. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was front and center for them, too. The Soviets too believed and spread it around the world, literally translating it into many languages to do so, flooding their orbit of influence—which was enormous, covering a significant portion of the globe—and then deliberately concocted all the classic lies specifically about the Jewish state—that it’s guilty of racism, apartheid, etc.—in order to justify their wholesale efforts to dehumanize the Jews as monstrous evil-doers, destroy their nation-state, and murder as many Jews as possible. If you want to understand the genealogy of today’s progressive hatred of the Jews and Israel, there’s a straight line from the Soviet sphere of influence to today’s campus radicals.
I can also describe to you in detail how Islamists not just in the Middle East but across the West, gripped by a literally delusional hatred of the Jews, have generated centuries worth of “scholarship” to “prove” that Jews are spiritual degenerates who are the eternal enemies of Islam and the source, ultimately, of everything evil in the world. When the Protocols entered their domain in the early 20th century it was adapted and adopted seamlessly and fused with their Islamic anti-Judaism and antisemitism to dehumanize the Jews and “prove” that they are the evil-doing enemies not merely of Islam (and therefore of Allah) but of all humanity, a threat to the world. This ideology, engrained today in hundreds of millions of Muslims, dehumanizes the Jews and motivates and justify not merely the destruction of the Jewish state but the destruction of Jews, everywhere.
Once we understand this context then something important immediately becomes clear. The pre-existing profound, centuries-long, delusional hatred of the Jews meant that modern political Zionism, when it arose with Herzl in 1896, never stood a conceptual chance. Through the lens of that Jew-hatred, particularly as fueled by the widespread adoption of the Protocols, one could only see Zionism as part of the evil-Jewish plan for world domination, aiming to destroy the Germans, the Soviets, and Islam. Through this lens the Jews are not a powerless minority seeking safety from persecution but a powerful people seeking to advance their power over, and subjugation of, all other peoples. Of course, people gripped by this ideology would be opposed to that! With that profound Jew-hatred built in, hated of the Jews’ national project immediately and compellingly follows.
But that lens completely corrupts their perception.
The thing they take Zionism to be (part of the plan to dominate the globe) is not what Zionism, properly construed, as it is conceived by most of the people who call themselves Zionists, actually is.
If you ask how most Zionists conceive of Zionism, starting with Herzl and straight through to today, you’ll get some variation of this: “Zionism is the national liberation movement of a long oppressed, persecuted, pogromed, and Holocausted minority people, aiming to establish a homeland or state on their ancestral land providing them with freedom, equality, safety and refuge, and perhaps even prosperity.” So framed, what decent person could oppose it? Don’t all decent people seek to support the marginalized and the oppressed?
Well, there obviously was opposition to Zionism even so conceived in those early decades, which we shall call, hyphenated, “anti-Zionism.” Included in this camp were a number of Jewish groups which, for different reasons (religious, assimilationist, communist, etc.), were opposed to Zionism. These groups (a) generally were motivated by what they conceived to be in the best interests either of Jewry or of the individual people who were Jews (which in the latter case might mean giving up their Jewish identity), and (b) generally not guided by the belief that Jews were engaged in a dastardly conspiracy to dominate the world or were otherwise profoundly evil. They simply believed that establishing a Jewish homeland or state in the Land of Israel was either not practical, not desirable, perhaps morally problematic, and generally not in the best interests of Jews, among other reasons.
Zionism achieved its goal in 1948, with the establishment of the State of Israel. In a sense the internal Jewish debate just described came to an end, once the Zionist side won. There was still much to debate, and still much debate occurred, but it was no longer over whether to establish the Jewish state.
In fact, anti-Zionism (hyphenated) remained present even throughout the decades after 1948, though post-1948 it must be understood as an endeavor specifically to undo the establishment of the Jewish state. Given that the contemporary State of Israel is surrounded by numerous enemies that openly declare their desire to destroy it, it is very hard to conceive of contemporary “anti-Zionism” as involving anything less than the mass ethnic cleansing or genocide of the millions of Jews who live there. (The small group of intellectuals who envision a democratic egalitarian binational state have the disadvantage of endorsing a position that neither of the competing parties endorse, not to mention of being disconnected with the reality of the annihilationist Jew-hatred present seemingly everywhere.) But in fact, a fair number of antizionists (no hyphen) would appear to have no problem with that consequence, which becomes a key part of what distinguishes that position from the hyphenated one.
“Antizionism” is (a) generally not motivated by what is in the best interests of Jews and (b) generally is guided by the belief that the profoundly evil Jews are engaged in dastardly activities, world (or at least regional) dominance among them.
Most antizionists in fact have a longstanding, deeply rooted antipathy to the Jews, as we sketched above. Given their pre-existing antipathy to the Jews, even apart from the Protocols, it is no surprise that they do not look kindly upon the Jewish national endeavor. For these players, the last thing one should want to do is elevate the prospects, advance the interests, or increase the power of the Jews that they already so profoundly dislike and fear. They are not motivated by what’s in the best interests of Jews, but, if anything, by what harms those interests.
And then add the Protocols to the preexisting antipathy and the Jewish national endeavor no longer looks so virtuous. The Jews (these antizionists think) are engaged in a conspiracy to subjugate the globe, and their national endeavor is an essential and powerful part of that conspiracy. So, in their minds, “Zionism” is not a national liberation movement for an oppressed people, but a movement by already powerful people to advance their power, all with very evil intentions.
It is that project, so described, they oppose.
On the assumptions that Jew-hatred is unacceptable and the Protocols is indeed delusional nonsense—there are no such Elders, there were no such meetings, there is no such Jewish plot, and Jews are generally no more evil than any other normal people—the thing that antizionists oppose is not the thing the Jews are actually advancing. That is why the hyphen is dropped. “Anti-Zionism” is opposition to “Zionism,” but the thing the antizionists are opposing, this dastardly Jewish plot to advance Jewish world domination, is something they have invented in their own minds. The disconnect from truth and reality will only get magnified over the decades, as the major antizionists, aiming to derail or undo the Jewish national endeavor, will (as we shall see) invent libel after libel about the Jews and that endeavor to delegitimize and/or weaken it.
So understood, antizionism is the latest iteration of Jew-hatred, its most modern form, expressed in the language of human rights. But ultimately there is nothing new here. The same playbook, in every era. Jews were hated for the religion, then Jews were hated for their race. Defamatory lies were spread worldwide about their religion, and then about their race, in order to justify excluding, expelling, and murdering them in large numbers. Now they are hated for their nation-state, and defamatory lies are spread worldwide about that nation-state, in order to justify excluding it from the world order (“boycott”), expelling it (from every organization, international and domestic, from the U.N. down to your local food co-op), and destroying it altogether (“intifada,” “free Palestine”). Destroying that nation-state means ethnically cleansing and/or mass murdering some 7 million Jews.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that today’s antizionism is somehow “criticism of Israel” or “a response to ‘Israel’s crimes.’” The disconnect from reality means it has nothing to do with anything Israel actually does, any of its governments, any of its policies, any of its behaviors. That doesn’t mean critique of Israel isn’t sometimes justified; like any other country, its governments, policies, and behaviors may be subject to reasonable and rational critique. But when put in its proper historical context, antizionism is just the latest iteration of Jew-hatred, expressed in the language of “internationalism” and “human rights,” spreading lies about Jews in order to motivate and justify harm, including violence, against them. The specific allegations, the “criticisms,” are in fact weapons to advance the program of delegitimization and ultimately destruction.
One sees this particularly clearly in the history of how antizionism has been used as a weapon against Jews, where “Israel” and “Zionism” serve as proxies for Jews. The Soviet Union orchestrated a decades-long “antizionist” campaign against the Jewish state, producing and disseminating propaganda lies about Israel to motivate and justify violence against it. That propaganda made Israel and Zionism toxic, synonymous with the great evils of the day (i.e. racism, nationalism, violations of human rights). Once Zionism is toxic, synonymous with evil, then the label “Zionist” can be weaponized against Jews. Call the Jews “Zionist” and you are justified in excluding, expelling, harming them. Those familiar with the history of the Soviet Union know that Jews were labeled as “Zionists” then hounded, persecuted, arrested, banished, and executed in significant numbers over the years. “Antizionism” was the so-called “virtuous” position that drove and justified the Jew-hatred, including the violence against Jews. When the Soviet Union was finally forced to allow emigration, Jews left immediately, by the millions. They were effectively ethnically cleansed, under the banner of antizionism.
Those familiar with the history of the twentieth century also know how antizionism was weaponized in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Jews had lived in those regions for two millennia, typically as persecuted minorities with the legal status of a “dhimmi”—an Islamic term for the monotheist non-Muslims who lived among them, that required them to be literally humiliated, to live under degrading conditions, and be subject to numerous legal disabilities. (Today we might call such situations “apartheid.”) In the years leading up to the 1948 establishment of the Jewish state in the Jews’ ancestral homeland, and in the years immediately following, many MENA countries not merely allowed but openly promoted the persecution, exclusion, violence and murder of Jews, along with their expulsion in massive numbers. Once again, this all occurred under the banner of “antizionism.” “Zionism” was made evil by all the familiar lies—though here lies about Jews being “enemies of Islam” were included—then labeling Jews as “Zionists” motivated and justified the violence against them. In the course of a decade or so some 800,000 Jews were ethnically cleansed from MENA communities they had inhabited for millennia, most ending up in the one country that would accept them, namely the Jewish state.
The same playbook. Make “Zionism” toxic by spreading lies about Israel and the Jewish collective, then label Jews as Zionists and persecute, exclude, expel, and/or murder them.
Antizionism produced a near-total destruction of Jewish communal life in the Soviet Union, in massive purges of Jews in 1968 Poland (look it up!), and across the MENA region. It has produced major incidents of anti-Jewish violence across the globe, over the past half-century, including the Munich Olympics massacre, the Entebbe hijacking, the AMIA bombing in Argentina, the murder of Jewish school children and the attack on the kosher market in France, the murder of Jews in England. All of these were perpetrated in the name of antizionism.
We are seeing this happen again, before our eyes, all over the West, in the United States, in our cities, at many campuses.
Endless, relentless lies about the Jews, expressed as antagonism to their nation-state, as antizionism. Then in the name of antizionism Jews are targeted, harassed, excluded, mistreated, forced out of participation in public life, and even murdered.
Yes, murdered, and attempts thereof.
Just in the past year or so, some particularly high-profile cases among the many dozens of similar incidents in the United States:
- In April 2025, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home was firebombed, with the entire family at home.
- In May 2025, in Washington DC, a gunman opened fire at a “Young Diplomats Reception” at the Capital Jewish Museum, murdering two young professionals, one Israeli and the other Jews.
- In June 2025, in Boulder, Colorado, a walk in support of the Israelis being held hostage by Islamic terrorist group Hamas was firebombed, murdering one and burning over a dozen others.
- In March 2026, a man rammed his truck into a synagogue daycare in Michigan, attempting to murder dozens of Jewish children.
Our neighbor to the north, Canada, in addition to the hundreds of instances of harassment and exclusion of Jews from the public square, has seen in the past couple of years dozens of violent attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions, synagogues, businesses, from graffiti and vandalization to firebombing, bullets fired at Jewish schools, etc., resulting in tremendous property damage and several deaths and injuries. The year 2026 has already been identified as the “most violent year against Jews in recent memory.” (Ditto for the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, incidentally—and Australia, to remember the Bondi Beach massacre in December 2025 that murdered some 15 Jews.)
All four of the American attacks identified above, all these dozens of instances of Canadian violence, and European, and Australian, and all the hundreds of instances of harassment, etc., were perpetrated in the name of “Free Palestine.” All those violent attacks, and the dozens and hundreds of related incidents, were motivated by the perpetrators believing the Jews (under the name of Israel or the label “Zionists”) were guilty of all sorts of heinous crimes, exactly as Christians, Nazis, Soviets, and Islamists perpetrated tremendous violence against Jews believing them guilty of all sorts of heinous crimes.
Antizionism produces harassment, exclusion, expulsion, violence, and murder of Jews on the basis of lies about Jews just as previous forms of Jew-hatred did exactly the same.
There is always room for reasonable critique of Israel, its policies, its behaviors, as there is for the same of any country in the world. But antizionism is not that. Antizionism is an obsessive hatred of the Jewish state, driven by and producing hatred of Jews, that generates and disseminates vicious lies about the Jewish state and the Jews, as motivation and justification for harming Jews.
Antizionism is the latest iteration of, the latest manifestation of, “The Longest Hatred.”
Antizionism is a hate movement against Jews.
It is time to name it as such.
Some prefer to identify it with antisemitism. But “antisemitism” primarily applies to that 19th-20th century version of Jew-hatred, based on race, associated with right-wing groups like the Nazis, neo-Nazis, and White supremacists. “Antizionism” as it manifests itself today just doesn’t look like that. And the debate over whether to identify it as “antisemitism” is pretty much a waste of time. As you start to dig, you’ll realize there are multiple competing definitions of “antisemitism” available, and nobody has yet provided anything like a clear, uniform definition of “antizionism,” so it’s next to impossible to decide whether one should be equated with the other. More importantly, we have had some two decades, on campuses, where pro-Israel people have been insisting that “antizionism is antisemitism” and the result is clear: they have persuaded only themselves.
And most importantly, we just don’t need to make this equation.
As I’ve demonstrated above, antizionism is a hate movement against Jews all unto itself. It motivates and justifies violence against Jews, serious violence, murder, mass murder. What difference does it make if it is somehow equitable with “antisemitism”? It’s a hate movement against Jews apart from whatever relationship it may have to antisemitism.
It is time to name it as such.
Those people endorsing, calling for, and perpetrating hate and violence against Jews call themselves “antizionists” these days.
We should do the same—and show that what they believe and what they do produces, promotes, and leads to hate and violence against Jews.
That is the basic mission of the Institute for the Critical Study of Antizionism. Please check us out, follow us, as we mobilize perhaps our greatest Jewish asset—our minds—to fight the contemporary manifestation of the longest hatred.
Follow us at icsa.substack.com.
This monthly series is presented by George Violin
Andrew Pessin is a philosophy professor and Founding Director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Antizionism. His recent books include Israel Breathes, World Condemns; Anti-Zionism on Campus, documenting and analyzing the campus antizionism-antisemitism; and Poisoning the Wells: Antisemitism in Contemporary America which, unfortunately, is compellingly timely. He has also published four novels, including Nevergreen, a satirical account of campus cancel culture and its deleterious impact on the Jews, which alas has proven prophetic post-October 7. His most recent novel is Bright College Years (about how college used to be before they all went crazy). He once portrayed “The Genius” on the David Letterman show.