Liberal
British comedian and actor David Schneider posted on Tuesday a tweet exploring
the issue of antisemitism.
Titled
“Are You Antisemitic?”, the tweet lists six signs that may be indicative of antisemitism.
“If you think “Israel,” “Zionists,” and
“Jews,” are interchangeable terms,” you may be antisemitic,” Schneider wrote.
Using
the term “Rothschild” as a stand-in for Jews is also a sign of antisemitism,
according to Schneider. Saying that “the Jews aren’t a race so I’m not racist,”
or “the Jews aren’t the only Semites so I’m not antisemite” are also tell-tale
signs, according to Schneider.
Responses to Schneider’s
message were heavily laced with antisemitism, with one user writing: “And I
thought the blacks were the race of eternal victimhood. #Getoveryourself.”
Another
wrote that “Judaism seems to be the only religion people cannot criticize.”
In an
opinion titled “Why the Vicki Kirby case made me tweet about antisemitism” on TheJC.com, Schneider elaborated on his tweet.
“I
think it’s important to separate condemnation of Israel from condemnation of
Jews, and we, as Jews, need to separate it out too,” Schneider wrote. “So,
maybe point six in my tweet [that supporting Palestinians does not make you
antisemitic] is more for us Jews than others. More and more I now realize there
should be many hundreds of sub points.”
Schneider
also said that the tweet was motivated by the suspension of activist Vicki
Kirby by the British Labour Party for tweeting that Hitler might be “A Zionist
god” and that Jews have big noses.
“I suppose
it was the Vicki Kirby case which made me feel I should write something about
it now,” Schneider wrote. “It’s important for me to tackle it.”
“I’m
someone who certainly welcomed the arrival of [Labour Party leader] Jeremy
Corbyn and was appalled that he was painted as an antisemite; I don’t think
there’s a prejudicial bone in his body. But although I’m on the left, I do find
that otherwise rational people will suddenly let slip an outrageous belief.
I’ll be in a debate and they’ll say that 97 per cent of the world’s media is
controlled by Jews. I just wonder: what, including China and Africa? That’s
extraordinary!”
