Should Jews Go Back to Europe?
- Ofek Kehila
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
One of anti-Zionism’s popular chants calls for “Jews to go back to Europe.” This slogan reflects the colonizer libel, which portrays Jews as alien interlopers in the land of Israel. Here are some important historical truths about this anti-Zionist and antisemitic slogan.
‘Jews go back to Europe’
The chant “Jews go back to Europe” is frequently heard at anti-Israel gatherings across the US. Demonstrators at an anti-Israel protest in New York City’s Times Square chanted at counter-protesters, “Go back to Europe,” and “You’re all white people.” At Columbia University, protestors shouted, “Go back to Europe. You have no culture. All you do is colonize.”
This is not a new trend. Similar slogans, such as “go back to Poland,” have been directed at Jews since the 19th century and throughout the 20th century by British politicians, the Palestinian Authority, and others. In fact, the slogan “go back to Palestine” in the 1930s became a popular antisemitic call in Europe, according to historian Robin Douglas.
The colonizer libel
The chant “Jews go back to Europe” reflects the colonizer libel. This anti-Zionist libel portrays Israel as the world’s final colonial power, and Israelis as alien interlopers in the land of Israel.
According to Adam Louis-Klein, founder of Movement Against Antizionism, “the colonizer libel not only erases Jewish belonging, but enlists Jews as scapegoats for everything modern Western culture now seeks to disavow: racism, imperial violence, settler domination.” Yet by depicting all Jews as white settlers, antizionists themselves are steeped in ignorance and racism.
Wrap up
The State of Israel was not founded in a void, or as part of a colonialist endeavor; it was conceived as a haven against the backdrop of the most violent attacks and mass murder of Jews the world has known.
Should Jews go back to Europe? The intent behind this question is to undermine Jewish self-determination and belonging.
Ofek Kehila (Israel, 1987) is a scholar of Spanish Golden Age literature and Latin American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. His research bridges the gap between those traditions, highlighting their aesthetic, cultural, and historical dialogue. He holds a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2022) and was a postdoctoral fellow at Freie Universität Berlin (2023-2025).