Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany

Holocaust inversion is a phrase which is used to describe the portrayal of Israel or Jews, especially Israeli Jews, as Nazis, crypto-Nazis, Nazi sympathizers, Holocaust perpetrators, or Holocaust "copycats." Whether this discourse is antisemitic when it is related to anti-Zionism is disputed.

According to Kenneth L. Marcus, the aim of those who employ Holocaust inversion is to "shock, silence, threaten, insulate, and legitimize". Even when it is frequently used, the use of Holocaust inversion is still shocking, which facilitates its repeated use. He asserts that the tying together of Nazi motifs with Jewish conspiracy stereotypes has a chilling effect on Jewish supporters of Israel. Furthermore, he says, by implying guilt, this discourse is threatening, because it implies a required punishment. As this discourse is performed in the context of political criticism of Israel, it insulates those who use it from the resistance which most forms of racism face in post-WWII society. Finally, he states, inversion not only legitimizes anti-Israel activities, it also legitimizes anti-Jewish activities that would otherwise be hard to conduct. According to Bernard-Henri Lévy, this erodes societal safeguards allowing "people to feel once again the desire and, above all, the right to burn all the synagogues they want, to attack boys wearing yarmulkes, to harass large number of rabbis ... in order for anti-Semitism to be reborn on a large scale".

Professor David Feldman, director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism argues that Holocaust inversion is often not antisemitic, because it is a commonly used rhetorical device “used in many arguments about many subjects, often light-mindedly, lacking any specifically antisemitic content” such as Israeli politicians who refer to each other as Nazis, and because the inversion (in relation to the 2014 Gaza war) is not motivated by an anti-Jewish subjectivity but by criticism of Israeli policy.

Extrapolating from a 2011 study which found that a substantial minority of respondents agreed with the statement that "Israel is carrying out a war of extermination against the Palestinians", Manfred Gerstenfeld concluded that some 150 million, out of 400 million, EU citizens espouse a view that demonized Israel. According to Gerstenfeld, Holocaust inversion is a mainstream phenomenon in the European Union.

In response to the phenomenon of Holocaust inversion, the Working Definition of Antisemitism (adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the US state department, and others) includes several ways in which criticism of Israel may be antisemitic. In particular, the working definition includes the act of "drawing comparison of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis".

Holocaust inversion may also be seen as a form of Holocaust revisionism, because it minimizes Nazi crimes. According to Bernard Lewis, the belief that the Nazis were no worse than Israel is has: "brought welcome relief to many who had long borne a burden of guilt for the role which they, their families, their nations, or their churches had played in Hitler's crimes against the Jews, whether by participation or complicity, acquiescence or indifference".

In Austria, while overt antisemitism has been limited following the Holocaust, functionally equivalent discourse was able to rise under a new guise. In particular, the Freedom Party of Austria has used Holocaust inversion to delegitimize political opponents.

See also

• Criticism of the Israeli government#Comparisons with Nazi Germany
• Israel and the apartheid analogy
• Holocaust trivialization
• Secondary antisemitism
• Jewish guilt

Bibliography

• Rosenfeld, Alvin H. (9 January 2019). Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism: The Dynamics of Delegitimization. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-03872-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Marcus, Kenneth L. (30 August 2010). Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-49119-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)