Perhaps the most common phrase heard from supposedly “pro-Palestinian” activists around the world is the claim that opposition to Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitic. They point to Jewish academics such as Noam Chomsky and groups such as the Jewish Voice for Peace (a radical campus organization that encourages the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and lists Denial of the (Palestinian) Right of Return as one of the “Ten Plagues of the Israeli Occupation”) to insist that the worldwide anti-Israel movement isn’t actually focused “anti-Israel,” but rather “pro-Palestinian”.
But aside from the fact that only Israeli defensive actions seem to spur the “humanitarian activists” to action (formal second-class status for Palestinians in Jordan and Lebanon, and the 250,000 deaths and 2 million refugees from Syria’s three-year-old civil war have been little more than a footnote to the non-anti-Semitic pro-Palestinian activists), isn’t it fascinating that demonstrations around the world supposedly on behalf of Palestinians can’t quite seem to break free of… well, bashing Jews.
The most recent example of this phenomenon surfaced in Paris over the past week, when one group Jews had to barricade inside a synagogue to escape an angry mob, and more recently when rioters looted and ransacked Jewish-owned businesses in Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris.
In Antwerp, home to a large Haredi community, non-anti-Semitic protesters suggested a peaceful solution to the Palestinian conflict with Israel: Slaughter the Jews. In Malmö, Sweden, long a home for non-anti-Semitic violence against local Jews by peaceful pro-Palestinian activists, a local rabbi said the city is no longer safe for Jews after a man was savagely beaten in the city for the crime of displaying the Israeli flag.
In Berlin, non-anti-Semitic protesters chanted, “Jew,Jew, cowardly pig, come on our and fight.
In Great Britain, the Jerusalem Post cited the Jewish community’s Community Security Trust, which said that “approximately 60 recorded incidents, ranging from verbal abuse to physical attacks, on buildings and people over the first two weeks of July and over half of which were attributable to the current situation.”
The Post also cited an incident last Tuesday, when a Jewish shopper in northeast London was surrounded and harangued by dozens of anti-Israel activists who had just completed a vigil outside the new BBC Headquarters protesting at what they claimed was bias in the BBC’s coverage of the Gaza conflict. She had been shopping when the demonstrators came marching down the road shouting “Free Palestine” and “Zionist murderers.”
“They surrounded me, pushing and yelling ‘Jew/Zionist/murderer/thief,” she said, while in the northern English city of Manchester, a group of pro-Palestinians drove through the Broughton Park area shouting “Heil Hitler.”
Further to the north, a man of South- Asian appearance was seen following an anti-Israel march in Glasgow, Scotland reportedly shouted “f***ing kill the Jews.”
Across the pond, a Jewish student in Boston and his Israeli partner were assaulted with non- anti-Semitic shouts such as “Jews back to Birkenau” and “Drop dead, you Zionazi whores,” while across the country, protesters in Seattle said Jews kill Christian children to use their blood for ritual purposes, including Passover matzah.
Down Under, an Israeli man in Melbourne was attacked and beaten by a non-anti-Semitic gang for the crime of wearing a t-shirt with Hebrew writing on it. The attack came several days after non-anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian demonstrators told a Jewish blogger
We don’t want jews in Australia go back to Europe so another Hitler can appear and finish you scums off. I don’t blame him for burning 6 million of you scums alive. You wanna know why youre the most hated religion on this planet? because god has labelled you as the prophet killers. He favoured jews over all his creation and all he asked for in return was their submission, but instead they boycotted and killed every prophet he sent them. You even killed Jesus (peace be upon him) you mutts!!!! so God sent down a verse saying “Become apes: Despised and Disgraced!”
In Malaysia, one Islamic authority said “Hitler may have been right” to exterminate the Jews.
