Upcoming symposium aimed at tackling anti-Zionism shows movement gaining steam

Gathering in Toronto aimed at ‘confronting third era of Jew-hatred,’ the first of its kind, signals expansion of push to label anti-Zionism as contemporary hatred

Activists opposing anti-Zionism will hold a symposium in Toronto, Canada, on Sunday, illustrating how the movement to reframe anti-Zionism as discrimination against Jews is gaining ground.

The World Symposium Against Antizionism, the first gathering of its kind, will bring together around 20 speakers to discuss the Jewish community’s “failure to clearly name and address antizionism as a contemporary form of Jew-hatred,” organizers said.

The symposium was organized by Stop Antizionism, a US activist group founded last year, and Tafsik, an advocacy organization in Canada.

“Naming it the World Symposium Against Antizionism, we are saying to the Jewish community and to our bullies and to those who want to destroy Israel, we see you. We’re putting a spotlight on you. You are anti-Zionist,” organizer Naya Lekht of Stop Antizionism told The Times of Israel.

Those involved in the movement opposing anti-Zionism write the ideology as “antizionism,” without a hyphen, similar to the accepted spelling of antisemitism.

Lekht said on Monday that at least 600 attendees had signed up to join the conference, which will take place in Toronto, partly because the city is seen as a hotbed of anti-Zionist activism. Organizers plan on making the symposium an annual event, with next year’s taking place in the US.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro will deliver the keynote address, and six panels throughout the day will discuss issues such as the Soviet roots of anti-Zionism, the United Nations, anti-Zionism among Palestinians, and media disinformation. Panelists from Arab states will discuss Islamic anti-Zionism and how the ideology has harmed their countries.

Speakers include Mark Goldfeder of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, a legal group combating anti-Jewish discrimination; Andrew Pessin, a professor who is establishing an academic institute to study anti-Zionism; Jesse Brown, a Canadian journalist who has documented antisemitism in the country. Israeli politician and commentator Einat Wilf will address the conference virtually.

Anti-Zionism in the US has typically been seen as a political ideology that sometimes overlaps with, causes, or crosses over into antisemitism, but the movement opposing anti-Zionism seeks to brand the ideology as a hate movement in itself.

They view anti-Zionism as the third major iteration of anti-Jewish discrimination. Anti-Judaism was a hatred of Jews based on religion, antisemitism was focused on race, and anti-Zionism is fueled by hatred of Israel and Jewish peoplehood, they argue.

Anti-Zionists say the movement is purely political, not discriminatory against Jews or Judaism.

Lekht compares combating contemporary anti-Jewish discrimination using the lens of antisemitism to treating a disease using the wrong diagnosis.

Anti-Jewish discrimination “mutates to take whatever is moral and casts Jews as violating the morality of its time. And so what’s morality today? It’s human rights,” she said. “How do you violate human rights? Genocide, apartheid, colonialism, racism, white supremacy, so that is the way that the Jews vis-à-vis Israel and Zionism are maligned.”

“There are all these conferences on antisemitism, and it’s not that they’re not good. I’m sure that many of them are great,” Lekht said. “But again, every single time that we do not name the exact variant of this virus, the exact disease, we’re letting them go free.”

The activists have been steadily pushing their message out on social media, in academic forums, in live events, and in media appearances.

They are often critical of mainstream Jewish organizations, which they believe have not adapted to the current climate, where anti-Jewish hostility is often linked to Israel, and are instead tied to the outdated antisemitism model.

In addition to the symposium, those affiliated with the movement are starting to study anti-Zionism as a discipline, organizing educational material, forming new advocacy groups, and holding speaking events. Along with Stop Antizionism, the Movement Against Antizionism, headed by anthropologist Adam Louis-Klein, is a newly-formed, prominent voice in the field.

The message is taking hold in US Jewish spaces, with Jewish protesters in the US in recent months carrying signs calling out anti-Zionism instead of antisemitism.

Reframing anti-Zionism as discrimination would have implications for politics, the legal system, education, and Jewish community affairs.