The Oldest Hatred ……..

 I have never understood antisemites.

Never understood their illogical hatred of Jewish people, never understood the lengths they will go to in creating antisemitic falsehoods or propagating them endlessly and resorting to the most hideous acts of violence.

The recent events in Gaza have fuelled that antisemitism giving these purveyors of hatred opportunities to exploit the situation, while some others drawn into the protests about the war slip easily into the same antisemitic slogans.

But equally there are many who have challenged those hate packed ideas.  

And history is full of examples where the antisemites have been rebutted, from the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 to the successful campaigns against fascist groups just after the Second World War and again in the early 1960s.

All of which makes the book, Antisemitism by John Mann an important read.  It was published in 2015 and is “a Reader on the theme of antisemitism ranging from the writings of Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein and Jean-Paul Sartre to George Washington, Jesse Jackson and Emile Zola …and .... is published under the auspices of the 'All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism".

And is a powerful rebuttal to that "oldest hatred".