Antisemitism is a Mediatic Pogrom
- Julio Levit Koldorf
- Dec 22, 2021
- 1 min read
— The Jerusalem Post
Julio Levit Koldorf argues that contemporary antisemitism is no longer driven solely by ideology or politics, but by the media economy itself. He describes how news outlets and digital platforms transform antisemitism into a profitable commodity by exploiting controversy and prejudice to generate clicks and viral engagement. This “mediatic pogrom,” he contends, fuels a continuous cycle of defamation and hostility toward Jews and Israel, distorting historical truth and legitimizing hatred in public discourse. Through examples such as Al Jazeera’s antisemitic narratives or debates on British media questioning Jewish credibility, he illustrates how digital culture has replaced physical persecution with symbolic and discursive violence. The result is a widespread moral inversion in which Jews and the Jewish state are portrayed as aggressors rather than victims, while historical context and Arab responsibility are erased. Although the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism is a positive development, Levit Koldorf insists it comes too late to repair the conceptual damage already entrenched in Western consciousness. He concludes by calling for a proactive communicational strategy—a “discursive Iron Dome”—to defend Jewish legitimacy and counteract the self-destructive passivity that has allowed antisemitic narratives to dominate global media.