Corby crimmy

The newspapers are putting all kinds of stuff onto the Corbyn charge sheet, including anti-Semitism.

Leaving aside the merits, or not, of the charge, I am struck this morning by the meaning of the phrase, given the roots of its second word, with Semite to my mind including the Arabs, amongst others. The Arabs who are on the spot and who are most closely interested in and engaged with Israel.

Consulting my rather out of date Chambers Encylopaedia, I find that Semitic is most commonly used to name a family of languages, rooted in the shores of the eastern Mediterranean and which includes both Hebrew and Arabic, not to mention Aramaic, the mother tongue of Christ. But also to name a family of peoples, or races, covering much the same ground.

It seems that back in the mid twenties of the last century there were two main ways of classifying races. One was based on type of hair followed by skin colour with Semites getting a mention and the other on type of head followed by skin colour with Semites hidden away among the dolichocephals. Perhaps the interest in head shape was a relic of the fashion for phrenology. But I dare say things have moved on since the article on race in Chambers, and for head shape you should now read genome.

PS: I forbear from adding Hemites to the discussion.