They Are Lying to You About 'Antisemitism'. Here Is the Truth.

A word is being broken. A word that once held a sacred, terrible meaning—the hatred of Jews—is being systematically hollowed out and refashioned into a political weapon. It is being wielded not to protect the vulnerable, but to shield the powerful. It is being used to silence dissent, to criminalize protest, and to shut down any and all criticism of the state of Israel. And the institutions we are supposed to trust—our cultural festivals, our political parties, even our national security agencies—are eagerly taking part in this monstrous deception.

This is a lie. A deliberate, cynical, and dangerous lie. And by accepting it, we are not only failing the Palestinian people, we are failing the very concept of justice and desecrating the memory of every victim of real antisemitism.

The Lie: That Opposing State Violence is Bigotry

Let’s start with the Glastonbury festival. For decades, a place of supposed counter-culture and progressive ideals. This year, a chant of 'Death to the IDF' was heard. Let’s be clear: the IDF is the Israeli Defence Forces. It is a state military, one of the most powerful on earth, currently engaged in a brutal campaign in Gaza that has horrified the world. To protest this military, to condemn its actions in the strongest possible terms, is a political act. It is not a slur against a religion or a people.

Yet, witness the pathetic, cowardly scramble that followed. The festival organizers, terrified of the political backlash, fell over themselves to condemn the chant as “appalling,” “antisemitism,” and “incitement to violence.” The police are now assessing whether a criminal offense was committed. A crime for chanting against an army? This is the lie in its purest form. They have successfully established a precedent where criticizing a military's actions is reframed as a hate crime. It is a brilliant, vicious strategy to immunize a state from all criticism. They have taken the moral horror of antisemitism and turned it into a bulletproof vest for a military occupation.

This lie spreads like a virus. Look at the smear campaign against Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in New York. A politician of principle, he is being publicly pressured by his own party leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to condemn slogans like 'globalize the intifada.' Why? Because the establishment has successfully poisoned the word 'intifada,' which simply means 'uprising' or 'shaking off' in Arabic. It is the language of a people resisting occupation. But in the mouths of power, it is twisted into a synonym for terrorism. Mamdani is being subjected to a loyalty test: either abandon the language of Palestinian liberation, or be branded an extremist liability. This is not a debate; it is a political shakedown.

The Truth: A Shield for Power, Not a Shelter for People

For years, we have tried to explain this with a patience that has now run out. Real antisemitism is a vile and persistent poison. It is the hatred of Jewish people for being Jewish. It is the slur 'Dirty Jew' hissed by thugs as they drag a child into a cellar in France. That is real, it is terrifying, and it must be fought without reservation. Anyone who uses the Palestinian cause as a cover for this ancient hatred is a traitor to our movement and to humanity itself.

But the establishment's narrative deliberately and maliciously conflates that real horror with political opposition to the nation-state of Israel. They take the raw emotion from that horrific attack on a child and dishonestly attach it to a protest chant at a rock festival. They want you to feel the same revulsion for both. This is a grotesque moral manipulation.

The truth is that the charge of 'antisemitism' has become the single most effective tool for silencing Palestine solidarity. It is a political shield, not a moral one. It creates a powerful guilt-by-association narrative. Consider the reports breathlessly linking Glastonbury performer Bob Vylan to the group Kneecap, because a member was once charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act for pro-Palestinian chants. The logic is clear and chilling: support for Palestine is a gateway to supporting terrorism. This is McCarthyism for a new generation, a witch hunt where the 'un-patriotic activity' is daring to show solidarity with the oppressed.

The Moral Inversion: They Protect a State, We Defend a People

The contrast could not be more stark. On one side, you have the powerful: state actors, political party leaders, and a compliant media establishment. They have taken a term meant to protect a historically persecuted minority and twisted it into a tool to defend a nuclear-armed state as it carries out what the world's highest courts are investigating as a plausible genocide. It is a sickening moral inversion. They weep crocodile tears about dangerous words while defending devastating actions.

On our side, the side of justice, we stand for universal human rights. We differentiate between a people and their government. We oppose the brutal policies of the Israeli state, not the Jewish faith or Jewish people. We believe artists should be free to express political dissent without being smeared as terrorist sympathizers. We believe politicians should be free to stand with the occupied without being purged by their own parties.

They have now escalated this lie to the level of national security. A new report, endorsed by a former UK Home Secretary, accuses counter-terrorism officials of a 'widespread failure' to recognize the threat of antisemitism fueled by 'Islamic extremists.' Read between the lines. This is not about stopping neo-Nazis. This is a political directive to re-task the entire state security apparatus to monitor and suppress pro-Palestinian activism, reframing it as a critical threat to the nation. Your protest is now their national security crisis. This is how free societies crumble.

The Imperative: Reclaim the Word, Reclaim Our Freedom

If we let them win this war over language, we lose everything. If the word 'antisemitism' can mean anything they want it to mean—from criticizing a military to chanting for an uprising—then it ultimately means nothing. They are not just destroying a tool to fight for Palestinian freedom; they are destroying a tool to fight real antisemitism itself. By crying wolf to defend war crimes, they render the alarm useless when the real wolves of hatred appear.

If we do not act, the space for dissent will vanish completely. Every protest will be a potential 'hate crime.' Every artist a potential 'terrorist sympathizer.' Every politician a potential 'extremist.' The goal is to make the price of speaking up for Palestine so high that we are cowed into silence. We cannot, we must not, let that happen.

This is a battle for the very soul of our democracy. It is a fight for the right to call out injustice wherever we see it, without fear. It is a fight for a world where words have meaning, and where the powerful cannot hide their crimes behind the stolen language of the oppressed.

The choice is clear. So what must you do?

• Speak the Truth. When you hear 'antisemitism' used to describe criticism of Israel, call it out for the lie that it is. Distinguish between real hatred and political dissent. Do not let them control the language.
• Defend the Smeared. Stand with the artists, activists, and politicians like Zohran Mamdani who are being targeted. Share their words. Defend their right to speak. Show the establishment that these intimidation tactics will backfire.
• Reject the Conflation. Mourn every victim of real antisemitic violence, but refuse to let that grief be weaponized to justify or silence criticism of state violence. One does not excuse the other.
• Do Not Be Silent. Your voice is a weapon against this lie. Use it online, in your communities, and in the streets. The silence they demand is the oxygen their injustice needs to breathe. We will not give it to them.