- Global surge in antisemitic incidents following the conflict between Hamas and Israel, affecting Jewish communities in various countries.
- Antisemitic acts range from verbal abuse to physical assaults, often justified by anger over the Gaza conflict.
- In areas like the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, and South Africa, antisemitic incidents have increased several hundred percent compared to the same period last year.
- Official responses vary, with Western authorities generally quick to support Jewish communities, while some countries like China have not taken steps to curtail antisemitic content online.
Media Bias Fact Check (Reuters):
Overall, we rate Reuters Least Biased based on objective reporting and Very High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing of information with minimal bias and a clean fact check record.
If you keep telling people that any criticism of Israel is antisemitism, and the IDF goes out and commits war crimes, don’t be surprised if people say “well if I’m gonna be called antisemitic for hating war crimes I might as well go all the way to actual antisemitism”. It seems kind of obvious.
If the only thing keeping you from being a bigot is people patting you on the tummy then… you are a bigot.
The issue that has become increasingly apparent throughout this (and any other time people remember that the Palestinians exist) is that: Yes, you can be anti-Zionist (for a range of definitions of “zionist”) without being anti-Semitic. But it is REAL easy to not stop with the former when there is such a strong push to be incredibly careful how we refer to Hamas (the de facto government of Gaza) and Palestine with almost no care being given toward the IDF (and Mossad and Netanyahu) and Israel. Or why the Israelis are in the region to begin with or how much of their demographics are refugees from nearby Arab nations.
Which kind of gets back to the idea of: When your rant is indistinguishable from that of a bigot…
To make it clear: The IDF are horrifying monsters who are actively engaging in genocide. Hamas are terrorists. And this is more or less a war between two countries at this point. But when talking points are “Fuck Israel, they never deserved to be there in the first place. Kick them all out” without even an acknowledgement of WHY they are there (and why “The West” supported them going there in the 40s…)? Well, if it quacks like a duck…
Yeah, this is a great example of why I make an effort to specify the government when criticizing countries. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? I call Putin and his government evil but never the Russian people at large. China’s genocide of the Uyghurs? I call Xi Jinping and the CCP evil but never the Chinese people at large. Israel’s apartheid state and ethno-religious cleansing? I call Netanyahu and his government evil but never the Israeli people at large (and certainly not Jews at large).
The allure of treating entire demographics or populaces as a monolith and blaming them for the crimes of their government is exactly why genocidal rhetoric is so dang pervasive, and I won’t abide by it.
(Yes, I will also criticize civilians who actively support these crimes, but I make sure to be clear in distinguishing between them and the rest of the civilian population.)
Yeah, it’s basically terrible people shooting at terrible people at the behest of terrible people with tons of civilians (on both sides) having to suffer because of it. And because of how the situation works it’s hard for anyone involved to not get sucked into this maelstrom of hatred.
And to think that there have been a number of times when this could’ve been avoided but hasn’t because the people with the power to do so either didn’t care or deliberately made things worse to further their own interests. (Or tried but were removed from power by more ruthless people.)
It’s a horrible, convoluted, heartbreaking, multicontinental multi-century mess that’s almost impossible to even talk about without wronging someone.
And some assholes take that as an excuse.
Ahh, the “if you call me a Nazi I might as well act like one” defence.
So you need reasons to not act on your anti semitism? You are just repressing it.
This is fucking ridiculous tbh.
I posted this in another comment, but srsly did you read the article? “In Los Angeles, a man screaming “kill Jews” attempts to break into a family’s home. In London, girls in a playground are told they are “stinking Jews” and should stay off the slide. In China, posts likening Jews to parasites, vampires or snakes proliferate on social media, attracting thousands of “likes”.”
That’s not criticism of IDF being taken badly, that’s random Jewish people being subject to severe antisemitic rhetoric simply for being Jewish.
Nah, it just shows that the masks have fallen down
It’s interesting how often people who oppose the existence of Israel (not to be confused with being rightfuly critical of its actions) are the first too make us feel unwelcome and tell Jew who facing antisemitism outside of Israel, that we just need to deal with it (and even expect it, acording to you), and if we don’t like it, we should just leave… But where is it we should be going…?
It’s almost as if what you really want is for Jews to just not exist.
It’s as if antizionism is like antisemitism 🤔
Oh wait, they’re literally the same. Most “antizionists” I’ve known and also seen online are covert antisemites.
I do think there can be legitimate criticism of Israel and zionism that is not antisemitic (like accepting that Jews deserve a safe place to live on our ancestral land, but also that ethno-states are a bad thing), but I do agree that, especially online almost all anti-zionism comes from an antisemitic place, or at least an ignorant one.