Are you familiar with the concept of reclaiming and reshaping terms?
Why should the term stay the way it was coined
by the mid to late 1800s, mostly by german and prussian nationalists describing their own hatred of jews as antisemitism.
Especially as it is clearly an euphemism to sound more sophisticated and give it some sort of “scientific” sound. Also nowadays fascists and other far-right arseholes have shifted their target on mostly Arab Muslims (or anyone looking “brown” really) even instrumentalizing the term and “support for Israel” as they cheer on the killing of Arabs. Of course that does not stop them from also hating Jews, but they are very happy with focusing that on “leftist” Jews for now, which Jewish pro Israeli lobbies are often also happy with.
It is long overdue to seize the control of the term from the fascists.
The term was coined by an academic and then claimed by fascists to describe their own hatred of jews. If anything, the current meaning as something to be reviled is the reclaimed version.
Antisemitism is a word that a historically oppressed group uses to defend itself. Others taking that away from jews is not the same thing as the reclaiming of queer or the n-word by their communities .
The word is being misused by israel and that’s truly appalling, but there is still a valid use case for it’s current meaning.
I don’t think including other semitic people is “taking it away” from Jews. Also i don’t think think that bigots are well differentiated in who they target. Mostly it boils down to “looks brown” or “looks asian”. So Arabs are targeted in Anti-Jewish attacks too, as well as Jews are targeted in Anti-Muslim attacks too.
Are you familiar with the concept of reclaiming and reshaping terms?
Why should the term stay the way it was coined
Especially as it is clearly an euphemism to sound more sophisticated and give it some sort of “scientific” sound. Also nowadays fascists and other far-right arseholes have shifted their target on mostly Arab Muslims (or anyone looking “brown” really) even instrumentalizing the term and “support for Israel” as they cheer on the killing of Arabs. Of course that does not stop them from also hating Jews, but they are very happy with focusing that on “leftist” Jews for now, which Jewish pro Israeli lobbies are often also happy with.
It is long overdue to seize the control of the term from the fascists.
The term was coined by an academic and then claimed by fascists to describe their own hatred of jews. If anything, the current meaning as something to be reviled is the reclaimed version.
Antisemitism is a word that a historically oppressed group uses to defend itself. Others taking that away from jews is not the same thing as the reclaiming of queer or the n-word by their communities .
The word is being misused by israel and that’s truly appalling, but there is still a valid use case for it’s current meaning.
I don’t think including other semitic people is “taking it away” from Jews. Also i don’t think think that bigots are well differentiated in who they target. Mostly it boils down to “looks brown” or “looks asian”. So Arabs are targeted in Anti-Jewish attacks too, as well as Jews are targeted in Anti-Muslim attacks too.