Historic Malcolm X Video on Israel and Anti-Semitism Resurfaces Online
June 29, 2026
“IF YOU CAN’T CRITICISE ISRAEL, THEN YOU’VE GIVEN IT A FREE PASS.”
Decades before today’s fierce debates over anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel, Malcolm X was already drawing a clear distinction between hatred of Jewish people and political criticism of the State of Israel.
In this historic clip, Malcolm X argues that objective analysis of Israel or Jewish political influence should never automatically be dismissed as anti-Semitism.
Malcolm X’s words remind us that democracy depends on the ability to question power without fear.
Because if one government is treated as untouchable…
If one political project cannot be examined…
Then accountability disappears.
Governments are not religions.
States are not above criticism.
And questioning political power is not the same as hating a people.
Nearly 60 years later, Malcolm X’s message is still challenging the conversations many are afraid to have.
Source fron x: @AfricanArchives
#MalcolmX #Palestine #FreePalestine #Israel #History
English Script:
Interviewer: Are you anti-Semitic?
Malcolm X: Anti-Semitic?
Interviewer: Many of the things that I’ve read about you and you’ve made it mentioned a couple of times about the Jews and everything and I’m wondering if you are personally anti-Semitic.
Malcolm X: No. How can I be anti-Semitic when the Arabs are semi, half the Muslim world are is seem anti-Semitic. I’d be anti-Arab and anti everything else. No. I think that in this country there is one mistake that the Jews make. They put themselves in a position where whenever anybody gives an objective analysis of the role that they play, they defend themselves by accusing you of being anti-Semitic. And a negro is not anti-Semitic when he says that the man who’s exploiting him in his community is white because it is a white man who owns all the stores. Now, is it an accident that these whites who own these stores are Jewish? If it’s an accident, then the fact that he says the Jew on the corner is exploiting me isn’t an anti-semitic statement. It’s just more descriptive of the man who’s exploiting him.
