Antisemitism in Plain Sight: Introduction to the Special Issue, Part II

Abstract

This introduction to the second of two special issues of the Journal of Deradicalization examines contemporary antisemitism through six contributions. We first discuss the question of the scale and selectivity of anti-Israel mobilization since October 7, 2023: whether the phenomenon sometimes called “Palestinianism” acts, in part, as antisemitism in a more socially acceptable guise. Against that cultural and historic backdrop, we introduce six articles spanning visual, survey, experimental, and clinical case-study methods. This includes the first systematic analysis of offline, visual antisemitism: graffiti, defaced memorials, and marked Jewish space—as opposed to the online and rhetorical antisemitism that has dominated the literature. Complementing this visual analysis, contributions using population surveys, moral-psychology experiments, and clinical case material converge on a common finding: hostility toward Israel and hostility toward Jews are empirically separable yet functionally entangled, each capable of licensing the other under the right ideological and situational conditions. Turning to intervention, the issue offers evidence, some encouraging and some cautionary, on trauma-informed victim support, multidisciplinary disengagement work with radicalized youth, and biographical intergroup contact as a scalable prevention tool. For P/CVE practice, the collection suggests that countering contemporary antisemitism should include attending to where hate becomes visible in public space, disentangling anti-Israel sentiment from anti-Jewish animus in risk assessment, and investing in early, relationship-based prevention rather than relying solely on reactive security responses.

Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the Minerva Research Initiative, Department of Defense Grant No N000 14-21-275485. Any opinions, findings, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors alone and do not reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research, the Department of the Navy, or the Department of Defense.