Postcolonialism, Antisemitism, and Israel: The ‘Progressive’ Attack on the Jewish State and Holocaust Memory

Ingo Elbe critically discusses the field of postcolonial studies and points out inconsistencies as well as similar patterns of argumentation discerned within the discourse. Elbe specifically identifies a systematic connection of five moments, which he discusses under the following classifications: the despecification of antisemitism, the relativization of the Shoa, the demonization of Israel, the postmodern disposal of Judaism and the postcolonial view of the hatred of the ‘Other.’ For his analysis, Elbe undertakes a close reading of key postcolonial arguments and interprets them in the context of contemporary identity politics.