anti-semitic slogans & dog whistles

note: At its best, these phrases are ignorant; at its worst, this calls for the expulsion or oppression of Israeli jews from the region, which they had indigenous ties to for millennia before re-establishing sovereignty. This kind of rhetoric is maximalist and uncompromising, which fundamentally rejects the internationally-backed two-state solution which aims for peaceful coexistence between Israel and a Palestinian state in the territories. While Palestinian statehood aspirations are legitimate, the slogan comes across as an outright denial of rights to others or a denial of Israel’s fundamental right to exist as a nation for the jewish people. It taps into fears of violent dispossession or oppression of one group by the other. You can support israel's right to exist and demand the return of hostages while simultaneously advocating for a ceasefire and more equitable conditions for Palestinians. Both groups deserve sovereignty & safety.

★ "globalize the intifada" : "Intifada" refers to the Palestinian uprisings against Israel, which have involved acts of violence like suicide bombings, shootings, & stabbings targeting Israeli civilians. Calling to "globalize" the intifada implies exporting and encouraging these violent tactics worldwide against Jewish communities outside of Israel/Palestine. it demonizes Jewish people broadly as the enemy, rather than being a specific dispute over territory between Israelis and Palestinians. the red triangle associated with the intifada was also a symbol used by hamas on october 7th to mark the victims of their attack.★ "resistance by any means necessary" : this comes across as trying justify & condone violence against Jews under the guise of resistance to Israeli policies. The ambiguity of "any means necessary" is exploited to legitimize attacks on Jewish individuals or communities, regardless of their involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. saying that Hamas has the right to resist by any means necessary is effectively a justification of the barbaric actions of Oct. 7, including the murder and kidnapping of babies, the elderly, men, women and children – as well as other forms of terrorism used against Israel – including suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings and rocket fire directed at civilian population centers. Whatever one’s view of Israeli policies and the Palestinian condition, support for violence -- especially the type of attacks we witnessed on Oct. 7 -- is immoral and abhorrent, & can never be justified.★ "from the river to the sea palestine will be free" : From the river to the sea" refers to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which encompasses not only the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza, but also the entire state of Israel. advocating for the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state & denying Jewish people their right to self-determination and sovereignty is anti-semitic. By framing the liberation of Palestine in terms of erasing Israel altogether, it perpetuates the notion that Jewish Israelis are unwelcome or illegitimate in the region, contributing to a climate of exclusion & discrimination against Jews. the maximalist territorial coding of this phrase has been seized on by anti-Semitic groups who interpret it as a call to dismantle Israel entirely and dispossess its Jewish population.★ "strike, strike tel aviv/burn tel aviv" : Tel Aviv is a major population center in Israel, home to over 400,000 Jewish Israeli citizens. Calling for strikes against civilian populations based on ethnicity or identity is considered incitement to violence. Singling out the Israeli city with the largest Jewish population for "strikes" rather than military/government targets perpetuates the notion that Israeli Jews are themselves the enemy. The phrase promotes the idea that Israeli Jews are fair targets for violent reprisal regardless of individual circumstance, which is a classic anti-Semitic concept.★ "iran you make us proud" : Iran's government has a long history of making anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements, including calling for the destruction of Israel. Iran's leaders have denied the Holocaust and made statements denying Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. voicing unqualified support for Iran by saying "you make us proud" is seen as endorsing Iran's well-documented anti-Semitic ideology & threats.★ artists for ceasefire pin : the pin worn by a number of celebrities to the oscars depicts a red hand with a heart on the palm. the red hand may seem like an innocent image to many, but for jews, specifically in the context of the israeli-palestine conflict, the imagery has violent connotations. this is a dogwhistle, a coded or suggestive message that appears normal but is in reality communicating something different to its intended audience. for example, within our lifetime held a pro-palestine protest in front of the israeli embassy with red armbands to call to the nazi soldier imagery. because the messages of dogwhistles are not exactly explicit, people deny its sinister intent often. but this specific message calls to the farhud in iraq in 1941, where jewish homes were marked with red hands so that mobs would know who to target & kill, destroying synogogues, businesses, and jewish homes. the ramallah lynching in 2000 is also involved with the imagery of red hands. rioters broke through an israeli funeral procession and murdered two soldiers, mutiliating their bodies and ripping out their internal organs -- the heart specifically. the rioters grabbed the corpses and dragged them to the city center for a victory celebration. the blood from the soldiers on their hands became a symbol of violence towards jews, and it was reported that palestinian school children dip their hands in red paint to commemorate this lynching.

★ "i'm not anti-semitic, im anti-zionism" : Zionism, the belief the Jewish people maintain a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, has been a central tenet of Judaism for thousands of years. The roots of Zionism stem from the Jewish people’s 3,000-year connection to the Land of Israel, including roughly 1,000 years of independent Jewish-led civilization. Jewish-led civilization in ancient Israel persisted for approximately 400 years until Jews were exiled again by the Romans. This exile would last approximately 2,000 years, although some small Jewish communities lived in the land during this period. While most Jews were forcibly removed from the Land of Israel after the Second Exile, some Jews remained. For most of antiquity and modern history descendants of those exiled longed to return to their ancestral homeland, although they rarely had an opportunity to do so. Connection to the land always remained at the center of Jewish practice, with biblical festivals tied to the agricultural seasons in the Land of Israel. The Mishnah - the edited record of the Jewish oral tradition- was also compiled in Israel. The term anti-Zionism refers to modern-day opposition to Zionism — or, simply put, the denial of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. Expressions of anti-Zionism can manifest in threats to destroy the State of Israel or rid it of its Jewish character, unfounded and malicious claims about the nature or intentions of the Jewish State and its Jewish inhabitants, and the insistence on holding Israel to unreasonable standards when viewing its response to threats in comparison to the actions of other members of the international community. Whether motivated by politics, religion, or ignorance, those who espouse anti-Zionist views help to perpetuate a subtle form of antisemitism & often invoke historic antisemitic tropes to disenfranchise the national aspirations of Jewish people. the terms zionist and Zionism are used as euphemisms for Jewish people and their national belief systems. Anti-Zionists argue that actions taken by the Israeli government in defense of its citizens are disproportionate to the threats they face, while simultaneously justifying Palestinian violence as a means of resistance. Just like any other people, the Jewish people have a right to self-determination. This fact is all the more important in light of the Jewish people's history of persecution; Israel ensures that Jews have control over their future and have a safe haven, despite the tremendous uncertainties in the world. Anti-Zionists often weave age-old antisemitic tropes into their online posts and public discussions about Israel and Jews. These individuals, who knowingly spread hate, accuse Jews residing around the world of collaborating or conspiring with one another and using their perceived power to manipulate politicians, the media, and the international community to obtain support for Israel. Such accusations, which are often uncontested, lead to a perpetual cycle of distrust and skepticism. Antisemites frequently claim that their hateful and insensitive remarks are legitimate critiques of Israeli government policies and those who support them. These individuals claim that they don’t have any issue with Jews; rather, their problem is with Zionists—using the term as a catch-all for anyone who supports the existence of a Jewish state. Such a generalization, in essence, characterizes the vast majority of the global Jewish community, which holds Zionist beliefs, as antagonists.★ "go back to europe" : Many Jews living outside of Europe today are descendants of those who fled or survived the Holocaust. think of treblinka, think of the warsaw ghetto, think of chelmno, think of belzec, think of sobibor, think of majdanek, think of auschwitz. Jews have faced persecution and discrimination in Europe for centuries, leading to waves of migration to other parts of the world. it's a different kind of curelty to tell a jew to go back to a place where 90% of its jews were exterminated less than a century ago. the suggestion for Jews to "go back to Europe" plays into anti-Semitic stereotypes that portray Jews as perpetual outsiders or as not belonging in the countries where they reside.★ "jews enjoy killing & eating (palestinian) children" : the idea that jews and israelis enjoy murdering and eating children dates all the way back to medieval times and is one of the most common anti-semitic conspiracies out there. these blood libels have lead to violence, destruction, persecution, and massacres of jewish people and communities -- before, during, and beyond the nazi propaganda that used it to demonize jews. it is completely anti-semitic & plays into the trope that jews are heartless monsters & satanic-like.★ "jews are now committing a holocaust/zionazis" : it's just straight up bad to use holocaust comparisons. Holocaust comparisons are inherently misleading as there was nothing quite like the Holocaust – they industrialized genocide with mass production and factory-like methods to kill as many Jews as possible. They were constantly looking for ways to make mass murder more efficient. the world largely treated the Holocaust as a lesson to be learned rather than a senseless tragedy, and saying jews should have "learned their lesson" implies a horrible notion that there was some good meaning or value to the holocaust. People who accuse Jews and Israel of committing another Holocaust or being the new Nazis, a state founded after the largest genocide against Jews, intentionally provokes their intergenerational trauma and weaponizes it against Jews. It is meant to hurt Jews rather than spread awareness about legitimate issues in the world.★ "death to jews" : no explanation necessary.

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apartheid

★ Apartheid, as historically experienced in South Africa, refers to a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination. Apartheid in South Africa was a state-enforced system of racial segregation and discrimination that lasted from 1948 to the early 1990s. The National Party, which came to power in 1948, implemented laws that institutionalized racial discrimination, separating different racial groups and privileging the white minority. Laws such as the Population Registration Act, Group Areas Act, and the Pass Laws restricted the movement, residence, education, and employment opportunities of non-white South Africans. The apartheid regime established separate public facilities, services, and even residential areas for different racial groups, with significant disparities in access to resources and opportunities. The apartheid system was characterized by systemic oppression, violence, and the denial of basic human rights to the majority of the population based on race.★ Israel is a diverse democracy where all citizens have equal rights under the law regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. To claim it is an "apartheid state" is a false and harmful accusation that contradicts reality. Apartheid in South Africa was primarily based on racial supremacy and the desire to maintain white minority rule, while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deeply rooted in historical, religious, and territorial disputes. The apartheid system in South Africa from 1948-1994 was based on institutionalized racial segregation, with a minority white population oppressing and subjugating the black majority through racist laws and policies. In stark contrast, Israeli Arabs have the same constitutional rights as Jewish citizens — they vote in elections, serve in the military and government if they wish, and study and work in all fields. An Arab political party is part of the current governing coalition. Over 20% of Israel's population is non-Jewish, mostly Arab; Arab citizens have representation at all levels of Israeli society, including the Supreme Court. Arabic is an official language alongside Hebrew. While there are inequalities that need to be addressed, the situation is vastly different than the systematic oppression and forced separation of apartheid South Africa. The claim that Israel is an apartheid state promotes the erroneous view that Israeli Jews and Palestinians are akin to whites and blacks in South Africa; Jews being an indigenous people to the region, not colonial settlers, completely contradicts that narrative. The conflict is a territorial and nationalist dispute over competing claims to the land, not an issue of racist segregation.★ In the West Bank areas where Palestinians have limited autonomy, temporary security policies are due to the ongoing conflict and threat of terrorism, not racism. If peace is achieved, a two-state solution would see those end. Israel has offered Palestinians an independent state before, but it was rejected. Most Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank live under the governments of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, not Israeli rule. The apartheid accusation is part of a broader campaign to demonize and delegitimize Israel as a racist oppressor, rather than address the complex realities on the ground. It denies the State of Israel's right to self-determination and deflects from the true sources of the conflict. While Israel has social issues and problems related to its conflict with the Palestinians, to label it an "apartheid state" on the level of South Africa's brutal segregationist regime is a distortion that ignores the rights and diversity of Israeli society as well as the history and core issues behind the dispute. The accusation does nothing to resolve the situation and only serves to further inflame tensions.

colonizer narrative

★ A key component of the "white colonizer" narrative is the idea that Israeli Jews are predominantly of European, or "white," descent. However, this overlooks the significant ethnic diversity within the Israeli Jewish population. According to genetic studies, the majority of Israeli Jews are of Middle Eastern and North African ancestry, with only a minority tracing their lineage to Europe. A 2010 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics examined the genetic roots of various Jewish diaspora populations, including Israeli Jews. The researchers that the maternal lineages of Israeli Jews were predominantly of Middle Eastern origin, rather than European. This challenges the notion of Israelis as solely "white colonizers" and suggests a more complex ethnic make-up.★ Sociological and genetic research has long shown that a recognizable Jewish nation first emerged in the Levantine region some 4,000 years ago. This population cultivated the area of Canaan—modern-day Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon—eventually organizing into the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Yihudah (Judah) in the south.★ After a colonization campaign by the Romans, this region was reorganized into the province of Judea, where the Hebrews suffered ethnoreligious persecution. Eventually, the empire stripped the region of this name—which at least acknowledged the thousands-year-old subordinate culture—and assigned it a new colonial one: Syria Palaestina. The new name “Palestine,” according to former Harvard Professor H. H. Ben-Sasson, was an attempt to destroy the connection between the Jews and their homeland.★ Modern opponents of Israel echo this tactic through the familiar apartheid analogy, which delegitimizes the Jewish presence in the Levant by likening it to the Anglo-Dutch presence in South Africa. This narrative tries to render Jewishness inseparable from the logic of the settlements. Again, these efforts belie history.★ When the Dutch and English empires arrived in South Africa, they set foot on a continent that their ancestors had abandoned shortly after the dawn of humanity. In planting the seeds of a new society, they displaced the region’s historical inhabitants. The settlers had no grounds for settlement, no cause for war, and no knowledge of or affinity for the territory. They arrived, to borrow a phrase, as “colonizers and conquerors,” establishing a government permissive of discrimination and, on certain occasions, eugenic social engineering.★ The Jewish arrival in Palestine, meanwhile, was an act of return. Decades before the Balfour Declaration signaled the prospect of a Jewish state, Jews tired of systematic persecution in Europe and the Arabian Peninsula began to migrate back to the Levant. None who made the first aliyah intended to remove the region’s new inhabitants. Local residential evictions only began after a series of violent protests across the Middle East signaled sectarian discomfort with the growing Jewish population (including the Farhud, the 1936 Arab Revolt, and the Libyan Riots).★ A more detailed history of the Jewish diaspora is too long to provide here, but the point is short: Jews have as much claim to the Levantine region as Arabs. To speak of the Jewish diaspora as though those people have always been splattered across the Earth is to deny their cohesive origin and the violent act through which they were divided. It also ignores the precarious position in which the diaspora finds itself currently, with anti-Semitism rising in Europe and the Middle East and with neo-Nazis marching at the University of Virginia.★ It is necessary in a healthy democratic culture to disagree over politics, but someone’s history and humanity are quite another matter. To equate Israel with its settlements is not only lackadaisical, historically speaking; it is revisionist. The Jewish ethnic identity was forged by thousands of years of cultural self-defense deeply bound up with the territory of modern-day Israel, and any resolution—by the DSA, the City University of New York, or others—that negates that bond is either misinformed or willfully forgetful.

genocide claims

★ The accusation that Israel is perpetrating a genocide against Palestinians is an egregiously false and historically illiterate claim that does a disservice to victims of actual genocides. This rhetoric is designed to demonize & delegitimize Israel rather than acknowledge the complex realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When the facts are examined, it is clear that Israel's policies & actions do not meet the definition or intent of genocide under international law.
★ Genocide is defined by the 1948 UN Genocide Convention as specific "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." This includes acts like killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions to bring about its physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcibly transferring children.★ In the case of Palestinians, there are now nearly 5 million Palestinian Arabs living in Gaza and the West Bank, with their population growing steadily at around 2% per year. This is antithetical to the idea of a genocide, which seeks to destroy & diminish the target population. Israeli policies, however disagreeable, do not prevent Palestinian births or constitute physical destruction of their ethnic group as a whole.★ Moreover, Palestinian citizens of Israel number around 2 million people – about 20% of Israel's population – with full rights of citizenship, representation in government and the highest living standards of any Palestinian population. If Israel truly harbored genocidal intentions, the existence and rights of this demographic would make no sense.★ The charge of genocide also contradicts basic facts like Israeli provisions of food, water, electricity and medical supplies to Palestinians, even amid conflict with Hamas. Over 1,000 Gaza children receive medical care in Israeli hospitals each year. Deliberate infliction of conditions to destroy a population wholesale is the opposite of these realities.
Accusations of genocide often fixate on civilian casualties in Gaza resulting from Israel's military offensives against Hamas. While any civilian loss of life is tragic, these are incidental outcomes of legitimate self-defense against an enemy sworn to Israel's destruction and firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities. Hamas embeds itself in civilian areas and uses infrastructure and hospitals as military bases, costing Palestinian lives.★ Even so, the Palestinian population in Gaza has grown by hundreds of thousands since Israel unilaterally disengaged in 2005, removing its settlements and military presence. This again demonstrates the antithesis of the systematic group destruction that defines genocide.★ Hyperbolic accusations of genocide distort the historical persecution and industrial-scale violence that constituted the actual Holocaust and genocides like Rwanda, where deaths reached 800,000 in 100 days. Such false rhetoric cheapens the meaning of genocide.★ The roots of this conflict are not racial or ethnic as in a genocide, but a complex struggle over land and national identity. Palestinian leaders like Mahmoud Abbas acknowledge a Palestinian people did not exist nationally until the 20th century. The claim of genocide ignores how Israel agreed to the two-state solution which would have created a Palestinian state, but was rejected.★ In truth, if Israel sought genocide, it would look quite different from a state where 20% of the population is the allegedly targeted ethnic minority, where economic and political rights for Palestinians within Israel exist, and where the Palestinian population in the territories has grown extensively despite cyclical conflicts. Heavy-handed military policies stem from security threats emanating from those areas, not an agenda of ethnic destruction.★ When critics of Israel falsely accuse the world’s only Jewish state of committing a genocide against Palestinians, it cynically sets the stage for violence to be carried out against Israelis and Diaspora Jews. Although the population of Palestinians residing in Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories has continued to increase, the government of Israel is often confoundingly referred to by its opponents as the modern incarnation of Nazi Germany, with allegations of Apartheid mixed in.★ If such claims were true, they would, of course justify violent resistance, as the Nazi atrocities did during the Holocaust. But the facts don’t lie. As the Palestinian population continues to grow, and with Arab citizens of Israel being afforded equal rights and representation in government, these dangerous claims continue to lead to tragic consequences, cycles of attacks, and more hate.★ This isn’t only an attempt to compare contemporary Israeli policy to Nazi Germany, but also to trivialize the Holocaust and use Jewish suffering during the Holocaust as a cudgel against the Jewish people, whether in the form of actual violence or the relegation of Jews to the status of pariahs.

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kapo jews

★ The term "Kapo" refers to Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps and ghettos who were appointed by the SS to supervise forced labor or other prisoners within the camps. kapos were chosen from among the prisoner population and were individuals who were perceived by the SS as being more compliant with nazi ideologies and practices.★ In a modern context, the term "Kapo" is sometimes used metaphorically to describe a jew who, whether consciously or unconsciously, aligns themselves with the dominant ideologies that promote anti-semitic rhetoric & betray the jewish community. in the context of this phrase, there exists an expectation for jews to adhere to certain narratives (anti-zionism & anti-israel) and beliefs in order to be accepted or respected as "good Jews." Those who deviate from these expectations, such as through their support of israel, are labeled as "bad Jews" & subjected to criticism, ostracism, or even exclusion from social circles.★ The idea that liking or respect for Jews is contingent upon our adherence to particular beliefs reinforces the notion that Jews must constantly prove their worthiness or loyalty in order to be accepted or valued by others. This can create a sense of insecurity and vulnerability among Jews, who may feel pressure to conform to external or internal expectations in order to gain validation or avoid rejection.

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anti semitism since october 7th

★ antisemitism has skyrocketed across the United States & around the world since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.★ In 2023, ADL tabulated 8,873 antisemitic incidents across the United States. This represents a 140% increase from the 3,698 incidents recorded in 2022 and is the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979. In fact, ADL tracked more incidents in 2023 than in the previous three years combined.★ Incidents increased in all major Audit categories. Assault incidents increased by 45% to 161 incidents, vandalism increased 69% to 2,177 incidents and harassment increased 184% to 6,535 incidents.★ In addition to individual attitudes, more than 42% of Americans either have friends/family who dislike Jews (23.2%) or find it socially acceptable for a close family member to support Hamas (27.2%).★ Nearly 3/4 of Jewish college students in the U.S. experienced or witnessed antisemitism on their campus since the start of the academic year. a new poll, released jointly by the ADL and the Jewish outreach organization Hillel International, found that 73% of Jewish college students and 44% of non-Jewish students experienced or saw antisemitic incidents since the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, ranging from antisemitic vandalism to threats of physical violence.★ jews have been prevented from entering college campuses & harassed everywhere.

how to protest without being anti-semitic

♡ call for a ceasire & return of hostages
♡ expressing concern for safety of all civilians
♡ criticizing both governments fairly
♡ protesting peacefully in public spaces without harassing jews
♡ denounce anti-semitism, including anti-semitism's relationship with israel

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