Encyclopedia Britannica says Arab people and other “Semites” cannot be racist against Jews
The entry on antisemitism in the highly-respected Encyclopedia Britannica asserts that Arab people and other “Semites” cannot be racist against Jews.
The encyclopaedia explains that “anti-Semitism” is “hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious or racial group,” and explains the history of term.
It goes on to explain that “Although the term now has wide currency, it is a misnomer, since it implies a discrimination against all Semites. Arabs and other peoples are also Semites, and yet they are not the targets of anti-Semitism as it is usually understood.” This is true to a point, albeit that the appellation “Semite” is today generally only applied to languages rather than ethnic groups.
To avoid any misunderstanding that antisemitism applies to any community other than Jews, the term is increasingly spelled “antisemitism”.
But the problems – to which spelling the term as “anti-Semitism”, with a hyphen, opens the door – is that one might begin to think either that “anti-Semitism” applies to all “Semitic” peoples, as explained above, or that “Semites” cannot be antisemitic. These problems arise from an etymological fallacy, by which the roots or etymology of a term is used to make an argument about its current accepted meaning or usage. Thus the entry erroneously proceeds to say: “The term [“anti-Semitism”] is especially inappropriate as a label for the anti-Jewish prejudices, statements, or actions of Arabs or other Semites,” which is dangerous nonsense. Of course Arab people can be antisemitic, as indeed can any other Middle Eastern people or group that speaks a Semitic language, including Jewish people themselves.
We shall be writing to Encyclopedia Britannica to correct the entry.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “By insisting on spelling antisemitism as ‘anti-Semitism’, Encyclopedia Britannica ends up committing an etymological fallacy. The result is the antisemitic trope that ‘Semites’ cannot hate Jews. This is ignorant and dangerous, and we shall be writing to Encyclopedia Britannica to correct this error urgently.”