COMMENT: The Telegraph - How it became fashionable for the Left to hate Israel – despite its model of ‘tolerance’
“David Rich is going back to 1967 but there’s also been a more recent generational shift,” says Jonathan Hunter of the Pinsker Centre think tank. “The bottom end of the Millennial generation and the first of the Gen Zs were students when Corbyn was in power.
“They were quite influential in his election as Labour leader. They said to the local [Labour] associations – we won’t campaign unless you support Corbyn. These students are no longer inconsequential. They’re putting headlines on BBC stories, providing briefing notes to MPs and so on. From Owen Jones to Zarah Sultana – these anti-Zionists came up through student politics.”
The murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement also created fertile ground for a resurgence of anti-Israel sentiment.
According to Hunter: “Amid all the talk of white supremacy and colonialism, we had people basically making out that Israel was an outpost of the British empire. It was a turning point and that resonated with students. If you look at the polls in terms of how people perceive Israel – those under 40 have the most critical opinions. That generation also faces a huge amount of problems that previous generations haven’t faced – with housing, wages, cost of living and if you look at the 20th century – anti-Semitism is a scapegoat and popular tool to distract people.
“People have come to regard Jews as white, privileged, and at the top of the hierarchy. A lot of it is unknowing. People don’t see it as bigotry.”
