Anatomy of a deception.. Judeo-Christian civilisation

For forty years, the concept of ‘Judeo-Christian civilisation’ has dominated political and media discourse in the West, presented as the cultural foundation of Europe and North America. But what lies behind this expression, which has become a hegemonic reference point? Co-opted by various actors – states, political movements and nationalist groups – this concept is used by all sides to rewrite history, serving in Europe to obscure two millennia of anti-Semitic persecution, to deny the contribution of the East to its past and to exclude Islam from its cultural references. Zionism and then the State of Israel, from its creation onwards, needed to assert their exclusive roots in the West, proclaiming themselves today as the ‘forward bastion of Judeo-Christian civilisation’ in the face of the ‘Arab-Muslim enemy’, while Arab nationalists have seen this expression as a convenient tool for denying the Jewish dimension of their own countries’ history. Sophie Bessis reveals how this pairing, far from being neutral, is used everywhere to prevent cultural and political convergence that could lead to peace.