Comparing Israel to the Nazis is antisemitic. It’s as simple as that. However, we know the world we live in cannot take a simple truth an all agree to it. In fact, the reason we have to write this article is because we are seeing the proliferation of hatred towards Israel on social media platforms that there are millions of people in the world who fail to understand this.
To call Israelis Nazis has to be one of the lowest insults in existence. The Nazis, under the command of Adolf Hitler, carried out the worst genocide in world history. More than six million Jews were murdered throughout Occupied Europe between 1940 and 1945. This included more than 1.5 million children who were shot, gassed and starved to death by their brutal oppressors. The Jewish people were the primary target of the Nazis and there are fewer Jews alive today, some 78 years later, than there were before the Holocaust, such was the devastation caused by this genocide.
Referring to Jews or Israel as being like the Nazis is hugely insulting and it has been recognised as a clear antisemitic action by the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism is the most widely accepted definition of antisemitism and it clearly states it is antisemitic when a person is “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
The IHRA definition has been adopted by the UK, the European Union, the USA, Israel and many other countries. So there is general consensus that when you call the Jews, the victims of the Nazis, as being Nazis themselves, it is antisemitic.
Unfortunately, most people calling Jews Nazis don’t actually care if they are being antisemitic. They simply want to hurt those they are against, and they will use every insult to accomplish it.
This then leads us to question why we have seen self-professing Christians online who are sharing images that compare Netanyahu to Hitler, or Israel to the Nazis. They are not only deceived, they are allowing themselves to be used as vehicles for spreading hatred. They are acting in a way which only spreads more hatred and stirs up more violence against the Jewish people. They need to turn away from this hatred.
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.” 1 John 2:9
You cannot claim to love God if you hate the Jewish people. You cannot claim to love God and yet fail to have a heart for the things of God. Israel and the Jewish people were chosen by God for His plans and purposes.
Finally, we should point out that what Israel is doing in Gaza is nothing like what the Nazis did during the Holocaust. Indeed, Israel is doing more to preserve human life than any other military has done in previous wars. Despite this, there are countless accusations against Israel. Misreporting in the news, fake videos on social media, AI generated images and more. Numerous attempts to spread anti-Israel propaganda that leads too many astray. It has gone so far that the USA and Germany, two countries with the intelligence reports to corroborate Israel’s claims, have both come to Israel’s defence and said that Israel is acting within the bounds of international law.
“Israel is a democracy. This has to be said very clearly. The accusations being made against Israel are absurd. Israel is acting in accordance with international law in defending itself against Hamas,” German Chancellor Olaf Sholz said this week.
Germany is today coming to the aid of the Jews to dispel the lies and blood libels of the new antisemites who are spreading hatred against Israel. And if anyone knows a thing or two about Nazis, it’s Germany.
If you see antisemitic posts on social media or comparisons between Israel and the Nazis, please do report them. We should not allow this hatred to spread. Antisemitism always starts with words and those words can lead to actions that result in violence against Jews. This is why we must counter this hatred and call it what it is. Comparing Israel to the Nazis is antisemitic.
