Are anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism the same?

KUDOS to the UK for voting against an anti-Semitic Unesco executive board draft decision that denies the ancient Jewish historical attachment to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The UN agency’s decision failed to mention the Jewish people’s link to the holy site, referring to the Temple Mount exclusively as the Al-Aqsa Mosque/Haram esh-Sharif. It called it ‘a Muslim holy site of worship’ and belittled the Jewish connection to the Western Wall, a 2,000-year-old remnant of the Second Temple and the holiest site where Jews may pray today, calling it solely the Al-Buraq Plaza. Far from promoting the Palestinian cause, this decision sets back peace prospects by demonstrating that Palestinian intolerance for Jews extends to the denial of history itself. It also reminds us that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, pure and simple, and it further discredits UN. STEPHEN A. SILVER, San Francisco, California.

EARLIER this year, MP John Mann, self-appointed ‘Witchfinder-General’ of the Labour Party, ambushed Ken Livingstone, with pre-arranged media presence. Livingstone tried, calmly, to point out the historical evidence for what he had said about Hitler supporting Zionism. His words fell on deaf ears, particularly for those attempting to airbrush history in the name of anti-Semitism. I’m deeply concerned for the future of our freedom of speech. If the Nazis had won World War II, they’d have wanted to stamp out any reference to the Final Solution. Thankfully, they didn’t, thanks to the thousands who gave their lives to preserve our freedom. Mr Mann’s demand that all Labour members who supported former Momentum vice-chair Jackie Walker should be expelled from the party appalled me. The implied ‘guilt by association’ is akin to the ‘fellow traveller’ accusations made during the McCarthyite era in the U.S.. There seems to be confusion over what anti-Zionism is as opposed to anti-Semitism. To me, anti-Zionism represents political opposition to a style of social and political expression stemming from a particular religious interpretation of Judaism. Anti-Semitism, on the other hand, refers to a hatred of Jews, which is rooted in the same xenophobic soil as other forms of racism. Dr SAM GLATT, address supplied.

ANTI-ZIONISM, theoretical opposition to the Jewish home, doesn’t equate to anti-Semitism. Opposition to Israel isn’t the same as theoretical antiZionism — and, even then, anyone is free to criticise government policy. DAVID COLLIER, London N14.