I am increasingly worried at the direction things are going.
It started off as “I am criticising the Israeli government not Jews” but it’s shifted to “well that specific incidence of antisemitism was wrong because they’re Jews but they’re not Israelis” as if Israeli citizens would deserve it.
When you call this out, people quote polls stating that Israelis support “what is happening”. When you look into it, a lot of polls are being quoted are taken out of context, misquoted, mistranslated etc. Even leaving the reliability of the polls aside, I find it a very strange argument for pro-Palestinian people to make given the polls showing support for Hamas in Gaza after October 7th.
Then they say “well that’s because they’re oppressed so it’s understandable” without a hint of irony considering Jewish history.
Then they’ll mention settlers and settler violence. I don’t support settlers at all. You can say the government hasn’t done enough and even argue they’ve encouraged it - but some civilians doing bad things doesn’t mean everyone who lives in a country is responsible. Just like how lots of Palestinian civilians took part in the October 7th attacks. It doesn’t mean then everyone is responsible right?
The oppressor vs oppressed narrative is so cemented that most people cannot see Israel as anything other than rich white evil colonisers rubbing their hands together with glee. This isn’t helped by the number of TikTok historians around who have really no clue about the history of it all.
When people say that they are criticising the Israeli government, often they’re not saying “a proportionate response would have looked like x” or “they should have done X to allow aid in” or “I believe war crimes have been committed” or “I don’t believe Netenyahu wants the war to end” or even “I think Netanyahu is a massive psychopath”.
It is that often they’re saying that Israel is uniquely evil (both the government and everyone living there), that Israel should not exist, that if Iran did wipe them out they’d deserve it. They deny atrocities that took place on October 7th including those literally captured on video. They see any concern for the hostages as not caring about Gaza and accuse you of seeing Gazans as lesser humans. They often are unwilling to acknowledge or condemn even the brutal murder of the Bibas family nor the horrific parades that took place handing the hostages or the bodies back.
I have seen online communities banning people for pointing out during the “14000 dead babies” fiasco that the claim was untrue AFTER it had been retracted. I mean if anything - surely there’s enough truth out there that warrants outrage without needing to spread misinformation on purpose.
It’s not criticising the Israeli government’s actions that I have an issue with. It’s the extreme hatred of Israel’s existence that is very frightening.
And so now we have gone from the issue being “Israeli government” to “Zionists” to “Israelis” and now it’s already shifting and I increasingly just see “Jews”. This has already started being justified - as I predicted it would - with the claim that because most Jews are Zionists it’s ok to say it.
I do think that people are not understanding how tiring it is day to day when most Jews are politically homeless and the mainstream position is increasingly that Jews must prove they are the good kind of Jew by publicly and unequivocally denouncing Israel.
There is this whole side on the left who claims to believe in inclusivity - in believing a minority group when they tell you what is offensive. In allowing everyone to be themselves no matter what. Allowing people to define their own identity and culture. In embracing and celebrating diversity. It’s become increasingly apparent that they mean “everyone except Jews”.
These same people are the people who I see disbelieving accounts of hate crimes. They unfriend me when I post a story on social media about a European child being the victim of an antisemitic attack. They see no issue with Edinburgh Fringe stopping Jews from performing.
These are the people who go quiet when they find out a colleague is Jewish. They would refuse to do a business meeting with an Israeli company - something they would not refuse from anywhere else in the world. They’re people who - on cultural diversity day - would not allow an Israeli flag to be hung.
These are the people who say things out loud like “ a lot of Jews think they’re better than everyone” - something they would literally not say about any other minority. There is this massive hypocritical gap there in which their values apply to everyone except for Jews. And I mean to the extreme that I have seen my lefty friends chastise someone for stating that breeding kinks are a bit weird because - and I quote - “kink shaming isn’t cool”.
Of course it’s not everyone. Of course a lot of people really are just criticising the Israeli government and are desperately sad about the plight of Palestinians and want them to have their own state. It’s very likely that our positions are not actually that far apart, but I support Israel’s continued existence and do not buy into the black and white one sided narrative being pushed.
I find it interesting how often people say “well you have to look at it with context and understand the history of insert black people/Palestinians/trans people etc. and what they have been through to understand why they might feel that way. We need to listen to authentic voices and encourage representation.” Yet somehow within this narrative, Jews are NEVER the underdog or the persecuted or even a valid minority. They are never included in lists of minority groups who are treated badly.