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The Independent ‘fixes’ Slavoj Zizek’s anti-Semitism vs. anti-Zionism op-ed, refuses to print his clarification Slavoj Zizek's ‘trouble with Jews’ may be a poor choice of words – but are you allowed to criticize Israel in UK media anymore?
(about 5 hours later)
Outcry over a bad faith reading of Zizek’s op-ed on the conflation of criticizing Israeli policies with anti-Semitism led the Independent to change a controversial part of the text. It wouldn’t publish his explanation, though. World-renowned philosopher Slavoj Zizek has emerged as the latest high-profile target in the fight against perceived anti-Semitism in the UK, for a moment there moving aside the usual suspect, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Writing about Israeli-Palestinian politics is like navigating a publicity minefield. Take a wrong step, and you may get attacked as either a rabid anti-Semite secretly wishing for a new Holocaust, or an apologist for a fascist Zionist apartheid regime, depending on who you’ve rubbed the wrong way. A piece by philosopher Slavoj Zizek, which goes into this conundrum, tripped the former wire. In a recent article for the Independent, Zizek criticized Israel for its aggressive settlement policies in the occupied West Bank, and argued that such criticism of Israeli policies does not make someone an anti-Semite.
Published last week by British newspaper the Independent, the op-ed challenged both forms of bad faith criticism to argue that there is no conflict between fighting anti-Semitism and fighting against Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the building of settlements. “The two struggles are part of one and the same struggle for emancipation,” he wrote. Within the text, the philosopher used a very inconsiderate turn of phrase – “the trouble with Jews.” Immediately, a crowd of outraged commenters rose up, and fully proving Zizek's point, the paper removed the offending phrase and replaced it with “the trouble with the settlement project.”
Zizek also lashed out at Zionists who hijack anti-Semitic tropes – like the historical perception of Jews as inherently suspicious for not having a land of their own – to subvert them for the Zionist cause. Zizek himself admits it was a poor choice of words, but when he asked the Independent to run a follow-up explanation, the paper refused – and RT is the only outlet that gave Zizek the floor.
“Antisemitism reproaches the Jews for being rootless; Zionism tries to correct this failure by belatedly providing Jews with roots,” he wrote. “However, the trouble with Jews today is that they are now trying to get roots in a place which was for thousands of years inhabited by other people.” Such a reading “runs against the basic premise of my text which is that the proponents of full annexation of the West Bank are betraying the emancipatory core of the Jewish tradition itself,” the philosopher says in the explanation piece.
That “trouble with Jews” part, taken out of context, caused quite an outcry. Two days later, the Independent changed it into “the trouble with the settlement project,” saying the original didn’t meet their editorial standards. The words were taken out of context, he says. In the original, they followed a reference to French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who said modern Jews had chosen “the path of rooting” – and “the Jews” Zizek refers to are those trying to “root” on occupied land.
Zizek says he wanted to set the record straight and have a follow-up printed in the Independent to make it absolutely clear that the “Jews” he was referring to were those choosing the “path of rooting” at the expense of Palestinians. The newspaper refused, citing the election coverage crunch and how it would be a “tricky space” to enter, he told RT. It wouldn’t even have his response posted in the readers’ comments section (which is mostly filled with “brutal attacks” on him, he says). “The trouble with Jews today is that they are now trying to get roots in a place which was for thousands of years inhabited by other people,” he wrote in the original piece.
RT has published Zizek’s response to the controversy. You can read it here. Zizek believes it's part of a wider campaign against left-wing politicians and intellectuals to equate any criticism of Israel, as a state, to anti-Semitism: “The anti-Leftist campaign goes on and on – an Israeli-based group uses Facebook to spread disinformation to more than a million followers around the world, singling out Muslim US congresswomen, Jeremy Corbyn was just rated Top Anti-Semite of 2019 by [the] Simon Wiesenthal Center (ahead of actual terrorists), and even Bernie Sanders is now added to the list of anti-Semites.”
Refusing to give Zizek the right to respond to his critics, the Independent cited election coverage crunch and how the debate would be a “tricky space” to wade into. Far from letting Zizek run a follow-up piece, the philosopher was even barred from posting a retort to the many “brutal attacks” he says were launched against him in the paper's comment section.
You can read the full text of Zizek's response published by RT.COM here.
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