Anti-Zionism as a Multipurpose Policy Instrument: The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland, 1967–1968

Abstract

This article outlines the anti-Zionist campaign in Poland between 1967 and 1968, in particular its evolution from a Cold War anti-Israel policy in reaction to the Six Day War into a domestic anti-Jewish campaign. It focuses on the factors that influenced the top decision makers in launching the campaign, and its images of the enemy. The campaign was a peculiar combination of two patterns of symbolic aggression that belong to historically hostile camps: communist hate campaigns and anti-Semitism of the nationalist right. Notwithstanding its irrational components (i.e. anti-Jewish resentments and prejudices which fed much of its dynamics), the campaign appears to have been an effective policy instrument that achieved desirable results for the decision makers and instigators.