Isn't anti-Zionism or criticism of Israeli policies anti-semitic?

Al Jazeera mentions in this article:

• To Palestinian and Israeli observers alike, different interpretations over the meaning of the slogan hang on the term “free”. Nimer Sultany, a lecturer in law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, said the adjective expresses “the need for equality for all inhabitants of historic Palestine”.
• Freedom here refers to the fact that Palestinians have been denied the realisation of their right to self-determination since Britain granted the Jews the right to establish a national homeland in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
• Sultany, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, said "It’s important to remember this chant is in English and it doesn’t rhyme in Arabic, it is used in demonstrations in Western countries. The controversy has been fabricated to prevent solidarity in the West with the Palestinians."
• According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the party’s original party manifesto in 1977 stated that “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty”. It also argued that the establishment of a Palestinian state “jeopardises the security of the Jewish population” and “endangers the existence of the state of Israel”.
• Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, has been among the promoters of international recognition of the Jewish historic claim to lands from the river to the sea.

Israel was constructed on the ruins of another society and by the mass dispossession of another people who remain unacknowledged as just sort of obscure natives in the background, back to the desert, let them let them go to one of the other Arab countries; that's been the position. The Oslo Accord say specifically that Israel bears no responsibility for the costs of the occupation. This after years of military occupation? As an Israeli journalist said: We took over the country in 1948 from the British. The British left us the port of Haifa, a road system, an electrical system, a large number of municipal buildings, and lots of prisons. If we had taken Palestine in 1948 the way we left Gaza for the Palestinians, there would be no Israel. We destroyed the economy, we deported most of the capable people, we forced the people to live in refugee camps and they bear no responsibility for it; that's simply unacceptable; even for the Jewish people who have suffered so much, it's unacceptable you cannot continue to victimize somebody else just because you yourself were a victim once, there has to be a limit.

Mehdi Hasan said in this video which was discussing whether Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism:

Let's be clear about what this motion is. The motion says "Anti-zionism is anti-semitism". It doesn't say some anti-zionists are anti-semites which is true, it doesn't say anti-zionism can sometimes turn into anti-semitism which is true, it doesn't say that anti-semites often use anti-zionism as cover as an excuse for their bigotry and racism which is true. I wouldn't oppose any of that but that's not what the motion says. The motion says, ridiculously sweepingly offensively ahistorically, that anti-zionism is anti-semitism that merely being opposed to zionism as a political ideology is inherently by definition: ant-semitic which is absurd think about the implications of voting for that tonight you'd be saying every anti-zionist every anti-zionist is a bigot a racist and an anti-semite.

By definition, even the many Jewish and Israeli anti-zionists so Ilan Pappé, a Jewish historian born and raised in Israel, served in the Israeli military, he's an anti-semite that's what they want you to believe. So is the former speaker of Israel's own parliament the Knesset Avraham Burg melody, they would say he's a self-hating jew so is my The Intercept colleague Naomi Klein the acclaimed author and climate change activist so is Noam Chomsky he's an anti-semite as well. They want you to vote for them and say that the thousands of Haredi ultra-orthodox anti-zionist Jews who oppose Zionism for religious theological reasons they're anti-semites too that's what they want. Don't take my word for it listen to the 35 top Israeli Jewish scholars and academics historians of the holocaust who came together and published an open letter in which they wrote: "many victims of the holocaust opposed Zionism, on the other hand, many anti-semites supported Zionism it is nonsensical and inappropriate to identify anti-zionism with anti-semitism". are they anti-semites too really all 35 of them by the way in terms of the history they refer to in their letter it is an undeniable indisputable fact that many many European anti-semites did support Zionism at the outset they did embrace the founder of Zionism Theodor Herzl because, for their own selfish racist reasons, they shared his goal of treating Jews as a foreign separate nation and getting them out of Europe take British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour author of the 1917 Balfour declaration. In favour of Zionism, Balfour dismissed jews as "an alien and hostile people". He sponsored legislation to keep Jewish refugees out of the UK. The only Jewish member of the cabinet at that time Edwin Samuel Montagu opposed the Balfour declaration and called Zionism a mischievous political creed yet apparently according to the proposition tonight Montague's the anti-semite and Balfour isn't.

We've heard tonight that it's anti-semitic to suggest Israel is born in sin. Every black American I know says to me and says to everyone else that the United States were born in sin slavery was a sin at the start of the United States no one accuses them of being anti-white racist or anti-american racist it's just a statement of historical fact they say the proposition that when you oppose Zionism you're denying Jews and no one else a right to self-determination which is just flat false not every nation or ethnic group wants a state gets a state.

Can you be Jewish and anti-Zionist? (Is it antisemitic to be against Israel?)

Short: Yes! Many pro-Palestinian advocates are Jewish, such as those found in organisations like Jewish Voice for Peace which emphasise the importance of Jews condemning Israel. Antisemitism is discrimination against Jews and differs from anti-Zionism which is the rejection of a historical movement founded in 1897 which stated that Jews had exclusive rights to Indigenous Palestine, and called for their expulsion and extermination. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitic, and equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism contributes to a simplified understanding of what the word really means. This approach also reinforces harmful antisemitic cliches and dismisses nuanced discussions by treating any resemblance to these cliches as antisemitism. It’s especially harmful because it’s most often used to deflect criticism of Israel by shifting the focus to a hatred of Jews. The entire premise that it’s antisemitic to be against Israel is a massive part of Israeli government propaganda, and also insulting to a large majority of Jews who are in direct opposition to the actions of Israel and its existence full stop.

Long: Yes! In fact, many of the most vocal pro-Palestinian advocates are Jewish, including many Rabbis and Orthodox Jews. As long as Zionism existed, there were Jews standing in opposition to it. From the Jewish Labor Bund to Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and Judith Butler. Also, organisations like Jewish Voice for Peace demonstrate on a daily basis not only the ability of Jews to stand behind Palestine and condemn Israel but the importance of Jews doing so. Antisemitism is a form of prejudice or discrimination directed toward Jews as individuals or as a group. Zionism actually emerged as a historical movement and a political ideology in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, not a religious one. It stated that Indigenous Palestine belongs solely to the Jewish people, and called for their eradication and displacement. Anti-Zionism is the rejection of a racist and colonial movement. Anti-Zionism is NOT the rejection of Jews, nor is it antisemitic.

In fact, relating the idea that it could be considered un-Jewish or antisemitic to condemn Israel plays into the “tropeification” of antisemitism. Rather than thoughtfully considering whether something really invokes hatred of Jews or upholds systems that harm Jews, a ‘tropeified’ understanding of antisemitism compares questionable statements to a multitude of established cliches: blood libel, divided loyalty, world domination, etc. And so according to this logic, if a statement is similar to one of these cliches it’s antisemitic – regardless of the context or the truth. It essentially assumes that antisemitism is built-in to cliches, rather than expressed by them.

This mechanical understanding of antisemitism is most often used to neutralise criticism of Israel. In debates, it spurs Zionists to scan anti-Zionist arguments for cliches and then, by calling out ‘antisemitism’, shift the conversation from the other party's arguments to their ‘hatred of Jews.’ The entire premise that it’s antisemitic to be against Israel is a massive part of Israeli government propaganda, and also insulting to a large majority of Jews who are in direct opposition to the actions of Israel and its existence full stop.

Sources:

@Em Cohen

@claremontsjp

@jewishvoiceforpeace

This answer is taken from the document Palestine: in Conversation Document.