Review of PBS's "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: the Resurgence"
by Lee Green
In Brief:
On January 8th, 2007, PBS premiered a documentary entitled "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence," written, produced and directed by Andrew Goldberg in association with Oregon Public Broadcasting. It was hosted by Judy Woodruff. Overall, the film was extremely informative, thoughtful and carefully balanced. Commendable efforts were made to include significant historical context, and while some lack of clarity on Israel's legitimacy in the face of opposing arguments was a shortcoming in the film, it was not a fatal flaw considering the abundance of otherwise useful and insightful information conveyed.
The documentary was a compelling look at trends in anti-Semitism, both past and present. The segments showing recent anti-Semitic TV shows, cartoons and speeches appearing in the Muslim world were likely an important eye-opener for many Americans unfamiliar with the vicious depictions and dehumanization of Jews there. The program excelled in showing how noxious and widespread anti-Semitism is in the Muslim world, as well as how satellite TV and the Internet have escalated the problem enormously.
The film presented a number of interesting pundits and experts who explored what role, if any, the creation of the State of Israel, and current Israeli actions, play in creating or exacerbating anti-Semitism. Whether resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict would significantly reduce anti-Semitism was also discussed and it was done in a balanced way. While a great deal of time was spent discussing these Israel-related issues, only relatively brief mention, unfortunately, was given to the important question of how reform in the Muslim and Arab world might help reduce the scapegoating of Israel and the Jews.
In Detail:
The film explained how Muslim treatment of Jews changed from the historic discrimination meted out to all monotheistic non-Muslims (dhimmis) to outright anti-Semitism, where Jews are, according to Bernard Lewis, "judged by a different standard from that used to judge anyone else in the world, and...attributing to Jews and Judaism a quality of cosmic, satanic evil."
Bernard Lewis, Rashid Khalidi, and narrator Woodruff shared the view that anti-Semitism was an import brought by the Christian Europeans and later the Nazis. Bernard Lewis and Washington Post journalist David Ignatius comment that anti-Semitic ideas found fertile ground among the Muslims after they were defeated by the Jews in 1948-49 and even more so after the Israelis/Jews defeated them in 1967, which brought many Muslims under the rule of the Jews. This victory of "inferior" non-Muslims over "superior" Muslims conflicted with the Muslims' worldview, and fostered the anti-Semitic notion that the Jews won only because of some kind of satanic cosmic power. Such beliefs allowed the Muslims to hold onto their notion of themselves as the superior people favored by Allah.
The documentary was ambitious in attempting to include context regarding Jews' historical connection to the land of Israel. Narrator Judy Woodruff noted:
"...Jews began migrating back to the land they had been driven from in ancient times: Palestine. Although the region had had an Arab majority for centuries, there had always been Jews living there. From the late 1800s onward, Jews comprised the majority of Jerusalem's population. But the influx of so many newcomers to Palestine...provoked intense opposition from the local Arabs, many of whom did not accept the historical Jewish connection to the land. This led to some violent attacks on the burgeoning Jewish communities." An additional line about how Jews lived in their own sovereign kingdoms (Israel and Judah) in the land of Israel beginning around 1000 BCE would have been extremely helpful.
Also, this segment did not fully examine why Palestinian Arabs strongly objected to the increased number of Jews living in Palestine. Perspectives were given by historian Bernard Lewis and Hebrew University professor emeritus Zeev Sternhell. Lewis comments, "The Arabs felt themselves to be under attack. They felt themselves threatened, and they responded...with violence. and one has to distinguish between normal conflict, normal hostility, I would even say normal prejudice and persecution, and something that we would call anti-Semitism."
The film would have benefited from a fuller explanation of what Lewis meant by "normal prejudice and persecution." More could have been said about the culture clash between traditional, patriarchal Muslims and secular, egalitarian minded Zionists. Or that at this juncture Muslims went from living under Ottoman rule, with an accepted position of enforced superiority over non-Muslims (Jews in this case), to living in a comparable status with the Jews under the British Mandate.
Sternhell follows Lewis and says, "The Arabs knew exactly what was happening here. They saw it happening. They saw the foundation of Tel Aviv. They saw the Jewish Quarters in Jerusalem and in Haifa. And Jews arriving, from their point of view, it was a struggle for their country. The Arab reactions was a refusal of Jewish presence. It was not anti-Semitism." Sternhell's remark about it being a "struggle for their country" was misleading. The land at that time was not the Arabs' sovereign "country."
Since it is common to hear pundits (e.g. Tony Judt and Rashid Khalidi) partially or wholly blame Israeli actions or Israel's existence for Muslim anger and the subsequent anti-Semitism, it was important for the film to explore this issue rigorously and provide a balanced discussion. The problem is that while this segment appeared to be "balanced," the two sides weren't actually debating the same issue. The "Israel is the problem" pundits (Rashid Khalidi and Hisham Ahmed) explained with great emotion why they believe Israel's existence is horribly unfair and an injustice to Palestinians, how the Palestinians have been "dispossessed," or how Israeli actions are wrong and brutal, etc, and that anti-Semitism is an unfortunate, terrible but understandable result.
The other side (Natan Sharansky and AJC's David Harris) basically argued that whether Israel is right or wrong, whether there are political disagreements between the Jews and Arabs, it's no excuse for anti-Semitism. While this is certainly true, their arguments didn't directly address the inflammatory claims of Rashid Khalidi and Hisham Ahmed against Israel.
Professor Dina Porat of Tel Aviv University and Natan Sharansky do include a few sentences about the need to respond to terror, but Porat then becomes very unclear (or is poorly edited) and meanders into "the chain of mutual killing."
The filmmaker commendably inserts some clarity here about the delegitimization of Israel with a voiceover by Judy Woodruff: "And while some say that hatred of Israel is caused by Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights and West Bank and the conflict in Lebanon, others note that overt calls by Arab leaders for the destruction of the entire Jewish State were commonplace even before the occupation, which began in 1967...In some places, calls by leaders to destroy the entire nation of Israel exist to this day [clip of Iran's Ahmadinejad is then played]. Hamas also has language in its charter to this effect."
AJC's David Harris, columnist Mona Eltahawy, historian Bernard Lewis, Yigal Carmon (Exec. Dir. of MEMRI.org), ADL's Michael Ebstein, author Reza Aslan and Salameh Nematt (DC Bureau Chief for Al Hayat newspaper), Professor Dina Porat, along with narrator Judy Woodruff, all do an excellent job of informing the audience of how commonplace and ubiquitous anti-Semitism is in the Muslim and Arab world. Various anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, incidents, trends and TV series are explained, including blood libels, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and hideously gruesome and inflammatory television series ("Al-Shatat, the Disaspora", and "Horseman Without a Horse" produced for Ramadan time slots)...
The film also includes numerous "man on the street" interviews with Muslims and Arabs who clearly believe all manner of anti-Semitic nonsense and are proud to spout the various conspiracy theories. And denials of anti-Semitism are also dutifully presented by Hassam Hamed, the Executive Director of Egyptian Television, Hala Sarhanthe, Senior Production Executive of "Horseman Without a Horse," as well Suheil Zakkar, the fact-checker for "Al-Shatat" and Dr. Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the U.S. .
Columnist Mona Eltahawy did a remarkable job of explaining how Arab/Muslim leaders have often used anti-Semitism. Eltahawy explains, "The regimes in the region for years have used Israel as this kind of coat hanger, upon which they hang everything rather than allow people to concentrate on all their shortcomings and how they've failed their people by being undemocratic, by torturing people, by violating human rights on a massive scale."
Author Reza Aslan brought further insight, when he noted, "You can go anywhere in the Arab and Muslim world, and you will see emblazoned everywhere, in the schools, in the mosques, in all of the public places, this Palestinian intifada propaganda. The Palestinian cause has become the sole cause of the Arab and Muslim world. And intertwined in that propaganda is a clear cut anti-Israel sentiment. And, which is also, becomes an anti-Jewish sentiment, of course. And this is something that is encouraged by the authorities because in uniting their people against a faraway enemy, it becomes very simple for someone to simply deflect all questions about his authority, to deflect all the internal investigations about why the country is in such a state of corruption and an economic collapse by simply building up this unity that is created by talking about the Palestinian cause, a cause that in reality, these despots and ty rants have done nothing to further."
Tony Judt shares an interesting perspective on why he feels European Muslims feel incited to attack Jews there. However, when the topic is "how significant a threat" anti-Semitism is today, viewers are given a taste of Judt's unreliability (Recall that Judt has in various Op-eds, harshly denigrated the state of Israel as an "anachronism" that is "bad for the Jews," has leveled incendiary, false statements about Israeli policies and supports a one-state solution that would effectively dissolve the Jewish state). Here in the PBS broadcast, he says things certainly aren't as bad as in the 1930's, that "...There is no state anti-Semitism." After seeing numerous examples of state-sponsored anti-Semitic programs (Egypt, Syria), conferences (Iran), and speeches by Muslim leaders (Iran, Malaysia), Judt's absurd comment will likely leave viewers scratching their heads.
In summary, while the segment exploring Israel's relationship, if any, to resurgent anti-Semitism could have been more clear, Andrew Goldberg and PBS are to be commended for a very informative, fair and valuable documentary on the resurgence of anti-Semitism.
Originally Published on 1/12/2007 for CAMERA