Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Old fears, new threats?

Jewish scholar Robert S Wistrich on whether all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, and the root causes of Islamophobia



Anti-Zionism is a new form of anti-Semitism, that is according to Professor Robert S. Wistrich who contends that, "in many quarters what anti-Zionism has become over three, four decades and especially more recently ... is a kind of mask for an increasingly open form of demonisation, even slander of the essence of the whole Zionist project."


In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Robert S. Wistrich, one of the world's leading scholars of anti-Semitism, on why he thinks criticism of Israeli policies is a modern manifestation of historical anti-Jewish hatred.

Is anti-Zionism a new form of anti-Semitism? Are boycotts driven by prejudice or principle? And is criticism of the Palestinians and the Muslim world Islamophobic?