By Marwan Emile Toubassi (*)
Despite the debates surrounding the anthropological and historical theories that discuss the concept of “Semitism” and “Semitic peoples,” one fact remains unchanged: this classification has been, for decades, subject to political interpretations and ideological manipulation—particularly by the Zionist movement, which reduced this concept to serve its settler-colonial project, using it as a scarecrow to suppress and exploit any criticism of Israeli occupation policies.
Numerous historical and anthropological studies indicate that the Canaanites, who settled in the land of Palestine thousands of years ago, are among the earliest Semitic peoples, and that modern-day Palestinians are their natural descendants. Even part of the early Jewish component itself consisted of inhabitants of this land—Palestinians—before waves of Zionist settler migration from Eastern and Central Europe, particularly of Khazarian and Ashkenazi origin, arrived to form the nucleus of the Zionist project, which has no civilizational or organic ancestral link to this land.
Once again, the propaganda machine of the Zionist movement and the Israeli occupation state revives the old scarecrow of “anti-Semitism” to justify its ongoing crimes—most recently, when Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump described a shooting at Israeli embassy staff in Washington as an “anti-Semitic act,” despite it being an individual act by an American citizen, whose case remains under investigation. This repeated and distorted use of the term aims only to obscure facts and suppress the growing global solidarity with the Palestinian cause, particularly as international recognition of the State of Palestine expands, and Netanyahu’s government faces increasing isolation worldwide—even within Israel itself.
Now, U.S. security agencies and certain official entities are likely to exploit the “International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)” law—formulated in part during Trump’s first term—to criminalize any criticism of Israeli policies under the pretext of “anti-Semitism.” This law deliberately conflates criticism of a colonial-settler political project with hatred of a people or religion, even though the concept of a “people” cannot be uniquely applied to Jews any more than it can to Christians or Muslims.
Israel continues to claim that Jews are the “victims of history,” constantly referring to the Nazi Holocaust. Yet it ignores that this genocide—despite its horror—was not solely targeted at Jews. It also affected other European peoples, including poor European Jews themselves, who were victims of collusion between Zionist elites and the Nazi regime, as revealed in documents related to the “Haavara Agreement” signed between Zionists and Nazis in the 1930s. That agreement aimed to encourage Jewish migration to Palestine to establish a settler entity serving Western colonial interests.
Today, these narratives are unraveling before the global public, exposing the true nature of an expansionist colonial state that seeks to blur the lines once again—whether through religious narratives and misleading terminology, or through intelligence operations that provoke public outrage, only to be exploited to suppress movements opposing Israeli occupation crimes. Meanwhile, Israel continues to perpetrate the Holocaust of the 21st century—carrying out systematic genocide against a defenseless people subjected to occupation, settlement expansion, annexation, starvation, displacement, and unprecedented bombardment not seen in modern history, even for over 77 years.
But who is truly Semitic? And who is the real enemy of Semitism? If we return to historical and linguistic roots, we find that “Semites” include both Arabs and the indigenous Jews of this land. In fact, Arabs—including Palestinians—are among the original Semitic peoples of this region. In contrast, most of those who led the Zionist project came from outside the region and have no cultural or historical ties to it.
The displacement of Palestinians, denial of their right of return, forced expulsions, and daily killings are not only crimes against humanity and war crimes—they are, at their core, crimes against true Semitism. We, the indigenous people of this land—the true Semites according to several of the aforementioned theories—are being killed and dispossessed in the name of “defending Semitism.”
Many thinkers have recognized this exploitative manipulation. Among them was the internationalist philosopher and leader of the socialist revolution, Vladimir Lenin, who in his writings on the Jewish question described Zionism as “the main enemy of Semitism because it diverts the consciousness of Jewish workers from class struggle, uses religion and distorted nationalism to serve imperialist interests, and directs them to colonize the lands of others instead of seeking liberation within their original societies.”
This precise description of Zionism—which I fully agree with—proves that it is not a liberation movement, as it claims, but rather a reactionary colonial movement seeking to justify occupation and exonerate its crimes under the guise of “Jewish victimhood.” At the same time, it weaponizes the accusation of “anti-Semitism” to silence any criticism of its policies, even when such criticism comes from Jews themselves, as is currently happening in the United States.
The true Holocaust happening today—the modern-day Holocaust—is occurring on the land of Palestine. For more than a year and a half, Gaza has witnessed a genocidal war with horrific massacres, hundreds of thousands killed or wounded, entire neighborhoods and refugee camps destroyed—as in the West Bank as well—children, schools, and hospitals bombed, and water, food, and medicine blocked. A supremacist Jewish legal system discriminates against the remaining Palestinian population in historic Palestine, all while the international community watches in silence—or, worse, participates in complicity, as some colonial powers do.
Resisting these crimes, exposing this hypocrisy, and defending the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people—recognized by all international laws and institutions—are not acts of “anti-Semitism.” They are, in essence, a defense of true Semitism, of human dignity, of the right to self-determination, of liberation, justice, and equality.
So, the question today for Trump and the war criminal Netanyahu—who is wanted by international courts—is this:
Who is truly anti-Semitic?
Is it the one demanding freedom for his people in his homeland, or the one who kills in the name of history and the Torah, and justifies the 21st-century Holocaust and genocide with fabricated myths and cheap narratives?
(*) Former Ambassador of Palestine to Greece
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