9 Fall 2026 Again, I am not talking about critiques — even serious critiques — of Israeli policy or Zionist ideology; these of course are fair, not uncommon, and part of legitimate speech, however distasteful or offensive some of these critiques might sometimes be. Rather, I am referring to any one of the following manifestations of ideological antisemitism — usually though not necessarily found in combination — which constitute the ideological underpinnings of this sophisticated, yet scurrilous, form of antisemitism. The first racist manifestation of this ideological antisemitism was its institutional and juridical anchorage in the “Zionism is racism” Resolution at the United Nations. But we have gone much beyond that. The second and more scurrilous manifestation is the indictment of Israel as an apartheid state. This indictment is not limited to talk about divestment — it is about the actual dismantling of Israel based upon the notion of apartheid as a crime against humanity. The third and most pernicious manifestation of ideological antisemitism is that the characterization of Israel as an apartheid state is now joined by the “Nazification” of Israel – of Israel as an evil, genocidal state. Israel is thus delegitimized — if not also demonized — by the ascription to it of the three most scurrilous indictments of the 20th century — racism, apartheid and genocide — the embodiment of all evil. Indeed, these very labels of Zionism and Israel as “racist, apartheid, and genocidal” supply the criminal indictment. No further debate is required. The conviction has been secured. And if any further debate is required, it is only to pronounce the sentence: that the convergence of these three labels — the “triple racism” — now warrants the dismantling of Israel as a moral obligation for us all. Such a state, as the discourse puts it, does not really have any right to exist – and who would deny that a “racist, apartheid, genocidal” state should not have any right to exist today? What is more, this characterization allows for terrorist “resistance” to this racist, apartheid, genocidal state to be deemed justifiable — after all, such a situation is portrayed as nothing other than occupation et résistance, where “resistance” against a racist, apartheid, genocidal, occupying state is legitimate, if not mandatory. What is so disturbing about this ideological antisemitism — and indeed what makes it effectively antisemitic — is not simply the defamatory and delegitimating labels that impugn Zionism as the raison d’être for a Jewish State — or delegitimate the Jewish State itself; but the use of these defamatory and delegitimating indictments to call for the dismantling of the Jewish State itself. And more: to disingenuously mask this ideological antisemitism as if it were part of the struggle against racism, if not also the struggle against apartheid and genocide, and thereby transform what is, in effect, an antisemitic indictment, i.e. to dismember the only Jewish State, into a moral imperative; and to seek to give it the imprimatur of the United Nations and international law. All this serves as the backdrop for, and underpins, the principal findings and recommendations of my tenure as Canada's first Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism. These were presented on the third tipping point — the May 2021 war between Israel and Hamas, when over 4,000 rockets were launched indiscriminately at Israeli civilians, a double war crime under international law, while referencing also the post-October 7 explosion of antisemitism: The first principal finding, already in 2021, was that we were witnessing an alarming, exponential rise in antisemitic incidents globally, including the highest level of antisemitism since auditing began in 1975, along with a disturbing rise in antisemitic beliefs. For example, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported in 2023 that 20% of Americans believed six or more antisemitic tropes — double the number who believed such tropes in 2019 — representing more than 60 million Americans. More disturbingly, the ADL’s 2025 Global 100 survey found that 46% of adults worldwide — an estimated 2.2 billion people — harbor significant antisemitic beliefs. The second principal finding was the globalization of antisemitism, facilitated in no small part by social media. This has incessantly stoked the incendiary increase in antisemitic hate speech on the internet — a significant cause of antisemitism’s global rise. Young people exposed to social media daily are immensely vulnerable to its effect. The lack of action taken by platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, when antisemitic social media posts are reported, is striking. Social media has become a breeding ground for toxic hatred and radicalization. The third finding is that while the conventional paradigm of combatting antisemitism from the far right, far left and radical Islam still holds, the major concern now is the increasing mainstreaming, normalizing, and legitimation of antisemitism. This has taken place — even before October 7 — in the cultural fields of politics, entertainment,
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