Can You Be Anti-Zionist Without Being Antisemitic?
Israel isn’t just another country. And the mantra “Free Palestine” isn’t just another slogan.
When a Facebook post by the Philadelphia Free Palestine Coalition urged its supporters to “flood the streets” of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza, demonstrators from Center City descended on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus.
As anti-Israel chants echoed throughout University City in December 2023, another crowd strategically converged outside Goldie, a popular, Jewish-owned eatery located a few blocks from City Hall.
Goldie is part of the culinary empire of Michael Solomonov, an Israeli chef and James Beard Award winner celebrated for bringing a vibrant taste of Israeli and Jewish cuisine to Philadelphia through his famous restaurants. Zahav, his flagship restaurant—named after the Hebrew word for “gold”—is so sought-after that securing a reservation is often an uphill battle.
Two months prior to the protests, Solomonov had announced that his restaurants collectively raised $100,000 to support Friends of United Hatzalah—a nonprofit, emergency medical service that assists the Israel Defense Forces to help those injured in the war with Hamas.
When protesters reached Goldie, hundreds chanted, “Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” while defacing the storefront with stickers bearing messages like “Free Palestine” and “This is genocide.”
Political leaders quickly called out the protesters’ blatant antisemitism. But this incident wasn’t a one-time event. Today, it serves as a microcosm of what has become global hatred for Israel and the Jewish people.
Hamas forced Israel into war in Gaza after it brutally murdered more than 1,200 innocent Israelis and took 251 hostages on October 7, 2023. This unprecedented violence not only reignited conflict in the region but also sparked a worldwide surge in antisemitism.
In the year following the attack, antisemitic incidents in the United States soared by 200%, with college campuses experiencing an alarming 500% increase. Pro-Palestinian protests, often cloaked in political activism, frequently cross the line into vicious Jew-hatred.
The Critical Question
These anti-Israel protests raise a critical question: Can someone be anti-Zionist without being antisemitic? Or, put differently, can a person advocate for dismantling Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, without harboring animosity toward the Jewish people?
Anti-Zionists often nuance their opposition to Israel by claiming it has nothing to do with antisemitism. For instance, The New York Times columnist Charles Blow interviewed anti-Zionist activists and scholars who insisted their position isn’t antisemitic. Blow asked them directly, “Do you believe that Israel has a right to exist?” To his surprise, none of them could give a straightforward yes.
This ambiguity characterizes public figures like U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Just weeks after the brutal October 7 attacks, she was recorded at a pro-Palestinian rally chanting
the well-known anti-Zionist slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a mantra widely recognized as a call to eliminate the State of Israel.
Tlaib defended the slogan on X (formerly Twitter), claiming it isn’t antisemitic, even after being censured by the U.S. House of Representatives. However, her actions show her true colors. In November 2024, she voted against House Resolution 1449, which “condemns the rise of antisemitism around the world and encourages greater international cooperation to counter antisemitism.”1
Anti-Zionists often condemn antisemitism—at least in principle—while simultaneously denying Israel’s right to exist. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, argues that such activism, scholarship, and political rhetoric are inherently antisemitic. Greenblatt points out that Zionism represents the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and connection to their ancestral homeland. To oppose Zionism, he says, is to advocate for the removal of Jews from their homeland, which is unmistakably antisemitic. In reality, anti-Zionism frequently devolves into overt and often violent Jew-hatred.
Pro-Palestinian protesters in Philadelphia could have marched peacefully. Instead, they went out of their way to target a Jewish-owned business. These actions are reminiscent of the Nazis targeting Jewish businesses not long after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933.
What happens in Israel does not stay confined to its borders or even its citizens. The negative vibrations ripple across Jewish communities worldwide, creating an atmosphere of fear and hostility. This recent surge in antisemitism demonstrates that attacks on Israel often have far-reaching consequences, underscoring the inseparable link between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
The Great Shapeshifter
The Jewish people and the land of Israel are inextricably linked, eternally bound by the covenant of our faithful God. This unbreakable connection is precisely why anti-Zionism has become the face of antisemitism in the 21st century.
Antisemitism, hatred of the Jewish people, is a shapeshifter. Its forms may change, but its heartbeat and destructive outcomes remain the same.
For much of history, antisemitism was rooted in religion. This ancient bigotry, documented throughout Scripture and Jewish history, often targeted Jewish people for their faith. The simplest way to escape such persecution was to abandon Jewish religious practices or convert to another religion.
Consider Antiochus IV, the Greek king who, in 167 BC, sought to obliterate Jewish identity by outlawing Torah reading, kosher dietary laws, Sabbath observance, and other Jewish traditions. Or the Spanish Inquisition, which culminated in the 1492 Alhambra Decree that forced Jewish people to either convert to Catholicism, flee the country, or face execution.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, a new strain of antisemitism emerged, fueled by the rise of social Darwinism. This racial scourge no longer targeted Jewish people for their faith but for their very existence. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis viewed humanity through the lens of racial struggle, believing that behavior and character were biologically predetermined.
The Nazis saw Jewish people as subhuman, disloyal, and untrustworthy. Unlike religious antisemitism, where conversion offered a path of escape, racial antisemitism provided no such option. You couldn’t convert out of your DNA. If you were Jewish, you were marked for destruction no matter what your beliefs or practices.
Today, antisemitism has shifted yet again. It is morphing into what can be called national antisemitism, where Jews are hated not because of their religion or ethnicity but because of the State of Israel.
Jewish entrepreneurs are being targeted because Israel exists. Jewish students are harassed on college campuses because Israel exists. Synagogues are attacked because there is an Israel. Even Jewish individuals walking down the street have been assaulted for no other reason than the existence of the State of Israel.
The prophet Joel provided a sobering vision of the end-times, when God will judge the nations based on their treatment of the Jewish people and the land of Israel:
I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land (Joel 3:2).
This prophetic warning underscores a profound truth: Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. God will hold nations accountable for how they regard the land of Israel and the Jewish people. Why? Because both are His inheritance—sacred, set apart, and covenanted to Him.
Israel is not merely a geographic location; it is central to God’s redemptive plan. Likewise, the Jewish people are not merely a nation; they are a people chosen by God and bound to Him through an everlasting covenant. To disregard or oppose Israel and the Jewish people is to disregard what God has declared holy.
Joel’s vision is a reminder that the way nations treat Israel and the Jewish people is not merely a political issue—it is a spiritual one. It reflects their alignment with or opposition to God’s eternal purposes. In the end, as Joel prophesied, God’s justice will prevail.
Anti-Zionism goes far beyond political critique. It is the belief that a Jewish Israel should not exist. It denies the Jewish people their right to self-determination, a right afforded to every other nation. By targeting the State of Israel’s legitimacy, anti-Zionism perpetuates the same age-old hatred that has sought to marginalize and erase the Jewish people throughout history.
What Can You Do?
About a block north of Goldie stands Philadelphia’s historic Witherspoon Building. Its grand façade is adorned with ornate medallions engraved with Scripture and the names of the four Gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—above the entrance. It is a building steeped in biblical symbolism and Christian history.
In December 1938, as the horrors of rising antisemitism swept across Eastern Europe, a group of businessmen and local pastors gathered in this building. Refusing to remain silent in the face of mounting Jewish persecution, they were stirred by their passion for God’s Word and their compassion for His Chosen People.
These devout believers in Jesus established The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry in the Witherspoon Building as a bulwark against the tide of Jewish hatred. They recognized what many overlook even today: The land of Israel and the Jewish people are inextricably linked and eternally bound by God’s covenant.
From its inception, The Friends of Israel worked tirelessly to save Jewish lives from the grip of Hitler’s regime. They named themselves “The Friends of Israel” a full decade before the nation of Israel was officially reestablished. Their foresight and faith exemplified a deep understanding of God’s redemptive plan and Israel’s unique role in history.
Now, 87 years later, Israel and the Jewish people again need Christians like you and me to stand with them and push back against antisemitic hatred.
Make no mistake: Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. We must pray for the peace of Jerusalem, speak truth about Israel, and share the love of God found only in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ENDNOTE
-
-
- H. Res. 1449 (congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/1449).
-
Photo: Adobe Stock
