In this recently published book, Encounters: Dialogue, Antisemitism, and the Israeli-Palestinian Divide, Benjamin Sax argues that in interreligious dialogue most people can disagree on deep theological matters and still remain in community, but when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, conversations often collapse. At the heart of Sax’s argument is the recognition that accusations of antisemitism—while sometimes accurate—are often frequently weaponized to shut down discussion. If antisemitism is used to shut down conversations about whether Israel is an apartheid state, or Israel is a colonial project, or anti-Zionism is a legitimate political or theological position, then, he argues, we simply can’t have any reasonable conversations because those positions aren’t a priori antisemitic. The book explores when assertions are antisemitic and when they’re not. To do this, Sax traces the evolving definitions of antisemitism.
| Benjamin Sax | bsax@icjs.org | View |