Tell me what a “Zionist” is, I’ll tell you what becomes of “anti-Zionism”… In the 2010s, the “lists” designating “Zionists” were teeming above all on a few conspiracy blogs with anti-Semitic tendencies. This was the case of Panamza, a blog obsessed with Israel and the Jews, or of Egalité & Réconciliation, the site of the far-right essayist Alain Soral, who published a “Diagram of the Left” in 2019. notably mapping alleged heavyweights of “Zionism”. A reader struck by catalepsy a few years ago and awakened at the start of the war in Gaza would probably be stunned: in 2024, there is nothing confidential or subversive about these lists. They are available in portrait galleries on trendy Instagram accounts (a publication, a name, a Studio Harcourt-style photo) and in TikTok videos with an educational approach. Everything is “argued”, “sourced”, with a view to “informing” and, ultimately, boycotting.
On Instagram, Zionists in music now has nearly 16,000 subscribers, just two months after its first publication. By its own admission, the account acknowledges in an introductory post that the evolving list is “mainly composed of Jewish individuals”. But here, we promise, we do not condone anti-Semitism. The idea being “to enlighten musicians about their position within this industry and for them to recognize the impact of their choices”, by targeting those who have “publicly supported Zionism”. By this, Zionists in music means, for example, the fact of being subscribed to “Zionist accounts” on social networks, such as Jewish lives matter, Jewish Life Now, or even certain personalities committed against anti-Semitism such as Shai Davidai, professor Israeli of Jewish faith at Columbia Business School.
This account is far from an isolated case. In second place, we find Zionists in films, more recent and on the verge of reaching 10,500 subscribers. Same concept, same visual identity. In the “tools” made available by the account there is also a call to “create more pages” of this kind, that is to say targeting “Zionists” in other sectors of activity such as government, mainstream media (MSM), academia, the army, banks, publishing, justice, medicine… Because according to Zionists in films, “to defeat Zionism, more Zionists need are unmasked and stigmatized. At the end of May, a new account dedicated to “Zionists in sport” appeared on Instagram.
“Accomplices” Jews
“Even if they are not overtly targeted because they are Jewish, highlighting the names of Jews who are not particularly politically engaged, but have, for example, simply shown empathy for Israelis after the jihadist massacre of October 7, called for peace, or have links with Jewish people committed to Israel betrays a reconstruction of the anti-Jewish imagination, analyzes Pierre-André Taguieff, philosopher, historian of ideas and honorary research director at CNRS. this process, we read the trial of bad Jews, of “accomplices” Jews, having not given proof of their friendliness by not denying Israel, or by not supporting strongly enough, to the taste of the small prosecutors who draw up these lists , the Palestinian cause lies in the fact that these lists also include ‘non-Jews’.
These accounts are only the emerging part of the phenomenon. On social networks, lists in the form of directories circulate using an URL link to a table that can be consulted by everyone. More discreet, but terribly effective. At the beginning of May, a document entitled “is your favorite author a zionist?” (“Is your favorite author a Zionist?”), listing nearly 200 names, for example went viral on Twitter. As we write these lines, several Internet users are still consulting it, according to real-time data from the shared document.
Everything is neatly stored there. In blue: authors considered “pro-Palestine/anti-Zionist”. In red, “pro-Israel/Zionist”. Significantly, most of those targeted are authors of young adult fiction. Here again, the reasons for the boycott are puzzling. The simple fact of having posted a message in support of the Israelis the day after the October 7 attack is enough, for example, to make Monica Murphy or Nicholas Sparks authors to be boycotted. Better: for being moved by the “horrible massacre of innocent civilians, first in Israel and now, in a catastrophically disproportionate manner, in Gaza”, Laini Taylor, a novelist specializing in fantasy, is also given the same treatment. In reality, not “understanding” Hamas is already suspect. This is what earned science fiction author Michael Grant an “unclear” badge (a sort of “awaiting judgment”). Too bad if the latter was very critical of the “racist and extremist” government of “the crook Netanyahu”.
Anti-Zionism recoded into humanism
But there is more surprising: among the authors to be boycotted is also Rebecca Yarros, queen of “romantasy”. Among the wrongs of the author of the phenomenon saga Fourth Wing: being “married to a soldier”. As for SF specialist Pierce Brown, he has certainly written about apartheid, but he reads “Henry Kissinger, which doesn’t help his case.” Having fled Nazi persecution with his family in the late 1930s, the former Secretary of State was a controversial figure in American diplomacy during the Cold War, notably known for his role as mediator between Israel and the Arab countries after the Yom Kippur War. For her part, fantasy novelist Sarah J. Maas is accused of bringing to life characters expressing “colonialist ideologies without specifying that it is morally reprehensible”. JK Rowling, author of the saga Harry Potter ? A “Terf” (acronym designating a radical feminist excluding trans people), “so the discussion stops here”.
“For the vast majority of Jews, ‘Zionism’ symbolizes emancipation and self-determination. But the notion has been the subject of an operation of demonization similar to that which anti-Judaism has exercised against Jews. “Zionism is thus on the way to becoming a synonym for everything that civilized people rightly abhor: racism, colonialism, warmongering, oppression,” explains Rudy Reichstadt, political scientist, director of Conspiracy. Watch and co-director of a Political history of anti-Semitism in France. If, historically, radical anti-Zionism was motivated by anti-Semitism, today, Rudy Reichstadt describes an anti-Zionism “recoded into humanism which guides a whole section of youth on the path of an anti-Semitism that is all the more dangerous as he comes forward, sure of his rights and free from any bad conscience.”
“Zionists are demons”
“I am on this list because I am Jewish, because I was born and raised in Israel,” novelist Talia Carner, labeled in red (“Zionist”), explains to L’Express. The author has had time to think about why she was singled out: her name has been circulating on various lists since December. “My latest book, The boy with the star tattoo, has been cited a lot by ‘anti-Zionists’ who are calling for a boycott of me, she explains. This book deals with Israeli issues, but all the events I describe take place in France, first in 1946 (this is a story about orphans after World War II), then in 1969. The The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is never mentioned…As a Jew born in Israel, my critics criticize me for not writing about Palestinians – or insist that I shouldn’t have written this book at all.”
On Goodreads, a platform listing reader opinions, the author suffered waves of denigration following her appearance on anti-Zionist lists. Among the comments regarding her latest book, we can read: “Zionist propaganda that practically ignores the nakba”, “we do not support Zionist propaganda”, “Zionists are demons”… Today, Talia Carner is forced to remain discreet where she travels, including during events open to the public.
Do not trust the Englishness of most of these lists: France is far from being spared by the phenomenon. On TikTok, some very influential French-speaking accounts invested in the concept very early on. Like Venomglazed, a young girl who loves literature. In a video published on October 19 for its nearly 50,000 subscribers, it offered in music a list of authors who “support [le] ethnic cleansing [de la communauté palestinienne]”, “evidence” in support. We find Sarah J. Maas, “who claims to have left Israel with great joy, nostalgia and pride”. Proof by a screenshot: an article clearly mentioning the Jewish origins of the writer and her relationship to Judaism Likewise, LJ Shen, author of New Adult romance whose “husband was engaged in the Israeli armies and who proudly posts her husband’s profession”, is pinned. if the screenshot put forward to prove these statements dates from nine years ago No matter, the issue is not here.
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