The new issue of Analysis of Current Trends in Antisemitism (ACTA) was published!
"Anti-Semitism in the Propaganda and Public Discourse in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus during the Russia-Ukraine War (February – August 2022)" by Dr. Leonid (Leon) Gershovich
The paper explores and analises aspects of Antisimetism and the Jewish theme in the Russian, Belarusian and Ukraninan propaganda during the first seven months of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The purpose of this study is to examine the place occupied by anti-Semitism and the Jewish question in the propaganda activities of the parties involved in the conflict both at the official state level (as reflected in the state and private media both conventional and new) and at the level of the broader public discourse as expressed in social media that can be monitored (mainly social networks).
The thesis of the research is that the Jewish question is a component of the propaganda effort of both the Russian and Ukrainian states involved in the conflict. Both assume an anti-Semitic stance when they invoke negative stereotypes about the Jewish collective whether constructed generically as “Jews” or the state of Israel, and when they contest the reliability and facticity of Jewish historical memory, especially with respect to its claims concerning the uniqueness of the Holocaust as a historical event, claims which play a central role in Israel’s foundation myth. However, there is no symmetry between the parties on this issue. Whereas on the Russian and Belarusian side this denigration of the Jewish experience in Nazi-occupied Europe echoes, or is encapsulated, in the propaganda efforts in the mainstream media (either in state-owned channels or those close to the state), and echoes its views, on the Ukrainian side anti-Semitic tropes are associated with radical-nationalist figures on the margins of the conflict. This research hypothesis and the analysis it informs obviously requires a sound empirical and methodological foundation.
Read Vol. 42, Issue 1 of ACTA now!
