Be careful. Please.
The Israel-Palestine discourse is fuelling antisemitism. Jews are worried.
Source: Flickr
For much of the past week, I’ve found myself talking about antisemitism. It’s hardly surprising. You’d have to be living under a rock to miss the discussion surrounding events in Israel and Palestine over the last few days. It defines ‘hot button issue’. Yesterday, I saw a tweet comparing it to a geopolitical football game - everyone’s got a team, and everyone fancies a kickabout. But apart from all of the footage and news coming out of the region at the moment, I’ve noticed something concerning. It’s why, really, this article isn’t about Israel-Palestine.
As a Jew, antisemitism is never far from my mind. We are a people who live with unimaginable intergenerational trauma - not just from recent memory, but stretching back thousands upon thousands of years. Fortunately, I’ve grown up in London. Unlike my family before me, I’ve not had to leave a bag packed just in case. But I’ve always had to bear the burden of paranoia that comes with growing up Jewish. It isn’t something you think about day to day. Most of the time antisemitism is quiet. The looks people throw when they pass a synagogue, or see an orthodox family in the street. The casual use of the Y-word, the stereotypes about greed, and money. It’s so deeply entrenched that most of the time you won’t notice it at all. But that’s exactly the problem.
Antisemitism is often an invisible hatred. But it’s not staying that way. Over the last week, I’ve found myself becoming more and more unsettled by the obliviousness of people - especially young people - to the amount of antisemitism that is making its way round the internet at the moment. I’ve been speaking to a lot of my Jewish friends over the last couple of days, and we’ve barely mentioned Israel at all. Instead, what I found is that we’ve all noticed that - hidden among the infographics and videos and slideshows - there exists a disturbing amount of antisemitic language. It’s not even that difficult to spot. The problem is that people aren’t looking for it. Because of antisemitism’s inconspicuous nature and the inability some people seem to have to distinguish ‘Jew’ from ‘Zionist’ or ‘IDF’, it’s flying under the radar. And there is so much of it.
“After I messaged someone I know today asking them to take an Instagram story down…they claimed that people should ‘stop calling them antisemitic for spreading a truth’.”
A post did the rounds yesterday which falsely claimed that the only reason ‘Zionists’ are interested in Palestine was because of oil - it has over 350,000 likes. I’ve seen people branding Israel a fascist state, despite the fact that a core principle of fascism is antisemitism. A popular account that I’ve followed for a while, with an audience of over 2.7 million people posted a shocking infographic yesterday that denied the existence of Israel at all, painting ‘Zionists’ as villainous, power hungry manipulators in control of the media. The brilliant author and comedian David Baddiel was the victim of a torrent of antisemitism on Twitter claiming that sales from his book were directly funding a plot to massacre Arabs. After I messaged someone I know today asking them to take an Instagram story down because it was perpetuating antisemitic hate, they responded with a post doubling down on the offensive language they used, claiming that people should ‘stop calling them antisemitic for spreading a truth’. And that’s barely a fraction of it.
Earlier this week, I tweeted saying that I was feeling a lot of antisemitism in the air. It’s a sixth sense Jews have - though admittedly it’s been fairly obvious lately. I pointed out that, regardless of their views on Israel, a lot of Jews are feeling nervous, and asked anyone who saw it to please be careful that when they reposted things on social media, they weren’t accidentally perpetuating or legitimising antisemitism. I made no comment on Israel-Palestine. It wasn’t a question of politics - it was one of racism - and make no mistake about it, that is what it is. The next day, I saw numerous Instagram stories from friends of mine sharing posts containing antisemitic hate speech. How? How could people I know, after all the discourse surrounding antisemitism we’ve seen over the last two years, after a week of discussing it with me, after seeing my tweet the very day before, do that? It reinforced a feeling that, regardless of how true it may be, I think many Jews come to terms with throughout their lives. People just don’t care.
This isn’t about politics. As far as I’m concerned, people can and should criticise the actions of the Netanyahu government. That’s called democracy, and it is right. But please, be careful. The idea that what’s happening in Israel and Palestine right now can be distilled into a six-slide Instagram post is ludicrous. To oversimplify it to that degree, imposing black and white morality on an issue that is a million shades of grey, can lead to a dangerous amount of prejudice and sows more hatred towards both Jews and Arabs.
Before you post, take a moment to think. Jews have always been a people with a zest for knowledge - and for sharing it. I’ve forever maintained that I’m happy to talk about antisemitism with anyone. We won’t be offended if you ask. Talk to your Jewish friends and your Palestinian ones. Learn. The Israeli government isn’t going to see the antisemitic trope on your Instagram story, but your Jewish friends will.
This isn’t a game of football. This is a very real issue that affects millions, on both sides. Jews are not responsible for the actions of a government thousands of miles away - but a lot of the language being thrown about at the moment seems to suggest that we are - and some of it is being used to legitimise a hatred totally apart from politics. Not all. But some. And some is enough.
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