Structural Antisemitism: Between Invisibility and Denial of Guilt
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/pen.v81.i315.y2025.011Keywords:
structural anti-Semitism, discrimination, racism, guilt, negation, left-anti-SemitsmAbstract
The existence of antisemitism has long been reported in progressive circles as well. These are social groups that are more sensitive to the structural nature of discrimination and have a high sympathy for vulnerable populations and follow the post-structuralist logic of critique of power. However, instead of including the understanding of the structural character of antisemitic discrimination within progressive activities, there seems to be a specific resistance to self-criticism on the issue of antisemitism that differs fundamentally from the treatment of other forms of discrimination.
The present article aims to explore the reasons why the understanding of antisemitism as structural discrimination has not been able to penetrate academic and social debates —just as the understanding of the structural character of sexism or racism has penetrated these debates— beyond the circles of antisemitism scholars.
To this end, I will present in the first part some elements of the discursive structural logic of antisemitism. I will explore in the second part social structural conditions that favor the perception of reality according to an antisemitic worldview. In the third part I will discuss the material and practical structural effects of antisemitism and finally present specific denial of guilt mechanisms of antisemitism.
It shows how the antisemitic logic itself provides specific forms of neutralization and denial, different from and additional to the other known forms of guilt rejection.
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