Talk:New antisemitism

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Nearly universal Opposes in the !votes. Discussions on whether this should be merged or not are outside of the scope of RM. (closed by non-admin page mover) Bensci54 (talk) 17:02, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

New antisemitism → Anti-Zionism as antisemitism – 'New antisemitism' is a POV thesis. This topic should have a more descriptive, more NPOV-compliant title. WP:Commonname does not support the title 'new antisemitism' because this subject is discussed all the time and the use of the term 'new antisemitism' is not common at all. إيان (talk) 10:57, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

Oppose, current title is the common name with over 2,400 hits on Google Scholar. Per WP:POVTITLE, titles can be POV if they're the common name. Kowal2701 (talk) 18:03, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

Oppose. I get the argument, but the article is where people come who want to understand the meaning and history of the concept of “new antisemitism”, which means something both more and less than simply anti-Zionism being antisemitic. So long as it’s described neutrally, this is the best title. BobFromBrockley (talk) 02:23, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

I have left notice of this discussion on the talk pages of Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism during the Gaza war, Antisemitism, and Israeli–Palestinian conflict. إيان (talk) 04:39, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Oppose Anti-Zionism as antisemitism and instead move to Anti-Zionism as antisemitism accusations as more NPOV per WP:POVTITLE. The proposal to move to Anti-Zionism as antisemitism doesn't resolve POV concerns as it could come accross as implying that anti-zionism is antisemetic which is a POV not fact. TarnishedPath^talk 04:51, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

I oppose this proposal even more strongly than they oppose the original one. This is meant to be an Encyclopedia project: People read or hear about a concept, proper noun or technical term and want to know what it means and so come here for that. We therefore need an article about a widely used term like “new antisemitism” regardless of whether we think it is a robust concept.

and we already have an article, Weaponisation of antisemitism, about accusations (most of which happen to relate to anti-Zionism); we don’t need to duplicate that. BobFromBrockley (talk) 22:03, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Oppose per commonname. Also oppose TarnishedPath’s idea, which, apart from not being a common name, goes against convention on Wikipedia and is also very awkwardly constructed. ꧁Zanahary꧂ 12:23, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

• Oppose the title "New Antisemitism" isn't a POV--it shows up in plenty of scholarly sources and in mainstream media news sources. Agnieszka653 (talk) 16:50, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Oppose, as User:Kowal2701 said... "New antisemitism" is the most common name, and as User:Bobfrombrockley stated, this is the page directly about the theory of "New antisemitism", it'd be odd to name it something less direct. I also don't exactly see how renaming it "Anti-Zionism as antisemitism" is somehow more neutral? Both titles associate anti-Zionism with antisemitism, none exactly more damning than the other. Mangokeylime (talk) 18:21, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Comment: It is 100% a WP:POVFORK for the main article on the phenomenon of categorizing opposition to Zionism as antisemitism to exist under the title New antisemitism, effectively putting the POV in WikiVoice. Opposition to Zionism is opposition to Zionism; it is not antisemitism. Opposition to a political ideology is not prejudice and discrimination against a group of people. Palestinians do not oppose their expulsion, occupation, genocide, etc. because they are bigots.

The New Anti-Semitism is a 1974 thesis, a POV argument, put forward by Arnold Forster and Benjamin R. Epstein, leaders of the ADL, a pro-Israel organization.

Untangling opposition to Zionism from antisemitism is one of the most discussed topics at the moment, and unbiased scholarly sources only use the POV term 'new antisemitism' in reference to the 1974 ADL book. See for example, Zimmerman 2025:

In order to maintain ironclad support for Israel, many American Jewish organizations deny not just the reality of the Nakba, but also the fact that this unjust, unequal, and oppressive reality endangers all who live between the river and the sea—Jewish and Palestinian.

They work overtime to preserve an image of a moral and beleaguered Israel, to insist that calls for accountability are an existential threat, and to silence voices of dissent.

There is perhaps no organization more identified with this strategy than the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL says they’re a neutral arbiter of antisemitism, no matter where it shows up, but that’s not true. They have conflated the safety of Jews with support for the state of Israel. In so doing, they undermine their own stated mission of fighting antisemitism.

How did this happen? Since the 1970s, the ADL has sought to popularize the concept of the “new antisemitism,” the idea that Israel as “the Jew on the world stage,” was being unfairly singled out for criticism in ways that echoed old school antisemitism (see Forster and Benjamin 1974).

They have long worked to smear and discredit the movement for Palestinian freedom. And in 2022, the organization escalated its campaign, when their CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt (2022), declared Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Council on American Islamic Relations the “photo inverse” of white nationalists.

There should be an article about Forster and Epstein's 1974 book, but it is a hollering POVFORK for the main article on this very discussed topic to remain as it is, with the ADL thesis as its title. إيان (talk) 20:17, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

I’m very confused by this comment. Which article do you think this one has forked off? BobFromBrockley (talk) 21:56, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

I understand the confusion—sorry for being unclear. What I meant is the current article is a POV narrative of a more NPOV article describing the phenomenon of categorizing opposition to Zionism as antisemitism, which should exist at something like Anti-Zionism as antisemitism or similar. إيان (talk) 22:04, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Maybe I should just start that article and close this RM. إيان (talk) 22:06, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

If I may ask... It seems you are generally worried about the assumption that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, as being too prominent and unchallenged. If that is the case, why not simply add a "Criticism" section to this page, rather than create a whole new page, or rename this page? Mangokeylime (talk) 17:54, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

You mean it’s a fork from an article that hasn’t yet been written? Isn’t the one you want to exist already in existence at weaponisation of antisemitism? BobFromBrockley (talk) 22:07, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

You know what I mean. I also think Weaponization of antisemitism, which treats such categorizations/claims as de facto malicious, gives more weight to a particular POV on a topic that would be more encyclopedically addressed as something like Anti-Zionism as antisemitism or Equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism. إيان (talk) 14:30, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

That’s a good point actually. So maybe do the move request there instead of here? BobFromBrockley (talk) 23:29, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

I disagree with the notion that there are unbiased scholars working on this topic. All scholarship is somewhat partisan and on this topic it’s a question of how partisan. Zimmerman is clearly not unbiased: his memoir precisely describes his journey from Zionist to active anti-Zionist, from one bias to another. He’s also an independent researcher writing in a very minor religion journal, so unlikely to represent Gold standard scholarship on this topic. I strongly disagree that scholarship largely discusses new antisemitism only in relation to the ADL or the 1974 publication. There are at least four major books in English with “new antisemitism” in the title, including Lappin’s and Iganski & Kosmin’s, as well as cognate titles in French such as Taguieff’s La Nouvelle judéophobie BobFromBrockley (talk) 22:27, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

I agree that there is no real view from nowhere, and Zimmmerman definitely represents a POV—she's an activist who co-founded IfNotNow and was featured in the film Israelism—and I agree that she doesn't necessarily represent Gold standard scholarship on this topic, but I do think she eloquently and succinctly captures the point I have tried to convey here.

There are at least four major books... Do any of these sources predate 1974?

Also, I'm no longer arguing that this page be moved—the opposition has been resounding and I am convinced of the coherence and merits of its arguments, but concluding these discussions could help parse out the consensus to shape this article and a potential Anti-Zionism as antisemitism or Equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism moving forward. إيان (talk) 14:44, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

Apologies if I misgendered Zimmerman!! No the 4 books don’t pre-date 1974 but that doesn’t mean they all just repeat the 1974 claim. The term simply wasn’t widely used in the wake of 1974 but only rose to common usage much later, due to Taguieff and others, as this article says. Hence the claim you make that “ unbiased scholarly sources only use the POV term 'new antisemitism' in reference to the 1974 ADL book” is just plain wrong. BobFromBrockley (talk) 23:33, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

It's ok; I've made that mistake in an RM discussion before too.

Ok, I sand corrected. Apologies for wasting everybody's time with this RM and thank you for your patience with me. إيان (talk) 03:33, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

Oppose - This article specifically covers "New antisemitism" as a distinct theory/concept with enough of its own history & intellectual debate around it to deserve its own article. The proposed title though implies a broader scope then the current article's contents (With this article already being rather sizeable). I also think the subject of the proposed title is already covered in anti-Zionism & Weaponization of antisemitism. A term can represent a POV as long as the article's content neutrally represents that. - Butterscotch Beluga (talk) 00:20, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

• Support - not an WP:NPOV name.

Shocksingularity (talk) 18:02, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

• Merge this article into Weaponization of antisemitism and move that article to Conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism or some synonym to "conflate". We currently have two POVFORKS about the same topic, both of which are titled in a way that isn't really NPOV. Giving the article a descriptive title that allows for both sides to be present in the article is more neutral. 🐔 Chicdat  ^{Bawk to me!} 11:55, 17 October 2025 (UTC)
• Merge and move per Chicdat above. This seems like the most appropriate course of action to close off these POV forks. Simonm223 (talk) 14:23, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

Oppose move or merging. The article can be rewritten to be more neutral, but "new antisemitism" as a term is a notable aspect and this is the most common name of it. The problem with it neutrality wise is that it phrases it as an undisputed Thing rather than a concept some people think exists and a lot of other people dispute as being antisemitism. But this is indisputably itself the common name of a notable concept, and the neutrality issue is resolvable. The article is Twenty one years old; this is not a recent concept. PARAKANYAA (talk) 08:05, 18 October 2025 (UTC)