Reach out to your Jewish and Muslim / Palestinian friends

Which bit are you accusing me of lying about? Just to be clear?

I’m not accusing you of lying. I just don’t really want to be jumped on for making a fairly innocuous comment.

Which bit are you accusing me of lying about? Just to be clear?

Funny, because I've had kind, supportive, caring emails from at least 10 separate non-jewish friends since October 7th.

None of them "asked me about israel". And none of them seemed to find it in any way difficult to avoid being antisemitic. Most people don't

Yes, I’m sure.

Most antisemites are very invested in pretending that that isn't true.

Despite the rather obvious evidence - see attached.

Funny, because I've had kind, supportive, caring emails from at least 10 separate non-jewish friends since October 7th.

None of them "asked me about israel". And none of them seemed to find it in any way difficult to avoid being antisemitic. Most people don't.

You said he's a passionate Corbynite and a person who didn't care or listen when you, a Jewish person he knows in reality, reached out to him.

This has nothing to do with the Palestinians. Corbyn's antisemitism runs way deeper and has far older historical roots than that.

Your friend is not a decent guy. Sorry. He's a huge fan of a massive antisemite. And he doesn't give a damn about you.

I don’t have anyone to reach out to, as far as I’m aware.

Regardless of any individual’s opinion of or feeling affected by the situation, and the fear of othering them, Islamic hate crime has doubled and Jewish hate crime increased ten fold over a similar period last year. (Statistics maybe woolly as I’ve a bad memory).

so absolutely reach out, as a stand against hate crime of nothing else.

If someone reached out the way you're suggesting, as a Muslim I'd appreciate it. It's always nice to be thought of. It's like when it's Christmas/ Eid and we reach out to our neighbours of a different faith to wish them a lovely time. Not necessarily but always nice to be on the receiving end of someone's thoughts and well wishes.

But you have to understand that from a Muslims point view this is a very passionate subject. We've been crying and screaming about the injustice done to the Palestinian people for years and years. And only after an attack on Israelis is it being spoken about. It's scary and devastating for all people directly and indirectly connected to this conflict. So while most will smile and say thank you, some might go off on one. Just know that it's coming from a place of incredible frustration.

Its good to encourage people to be thoughtful but, really, we’ve been told so many times these past few weeks that it’s antisemitism to ask Jews about Israel. I would be a bit wary.

Because the first thing that muslims are asked is do you condemn Hamas like we all support them or something.

Also because of the way that muslims are we genuinely feel like the bombs falling on Palestinians are falling on our own family (whether it be Palestinian muslims or Christians).

Naturally you’ll find a muslim who’ll say they don’t care what happens in Palestine but they’ll be the minority.

Jewish people feel that this is an attack on all Jews though. The very definition of antisemitism. And Hamas and their fellow travelers are calling for the death of all Jews. I’m not sure how difficult it is to see that unless you are wilfully not seeing it.

There are still voices for peace, despite the horrors.

www.allmep.org

www.oasisofpeace.org.uk

Tomorrow's Women - Leadership organization for young Palestinian and Israeli women (tomorrowswomen.org)

onevoicemovement.org.uk

My Muslim friends come from India/ Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia. Why would I reach out to them to see if they want to talk about it? This is not an attack on all Muslims, and by making it seem like it is, this will quickly grow into something much bigger.
As for my Jewish friends… I don’t think any have family in Israel, so same applies.
i have, however, reached out to my colleague in Israel to tell them to stay safe.

Yes-I don't think that it's appropriate to start a debate with someone just on the basis of their religion/ethnicity, but I don't think that's what the OP was suggesting. Just to say that you are thinking of them- especially if you know they have relatives or friends in the region.

When this all started, I reached out to a Jewish friend; he thanked me, said he was worried about his sons and then expressed concern for the innocents of Gaza. It was a generous response given the atrocities of that dreadful weekend. I have read it again a few times to remind myself that there are many people who care about all the innocent causalities of this horrific war, even if personally affected. It helps.

Especially when I read polarised stuff online.

Like with Brexit, the pandemic etc, the moderate voices in the middle tend to get drowned out. Good to see so many others on this thread.

Hang on, when did I say he hurled abuse at me? He doubled down on his arguments, he never once abused me personally. Dont put words in my mouth. I was disappointed that he didn’t recognise that the (skewed) memes he was putting up were hurting me without a “I understand, but..” clause. I would have preferred “I understand” (full stop)

I also think there IS a difference between being pro Palestine and being anti semitic by the way. Even as a Jew I see the point of view of the Palestinians. My problem is with the terrorist organisation Hamas, not peaceful Palestinians who want a home, the same as the rest of us.

My employer has offered support and I did make a point of speaking when in the office to the one colleague who I know to be Jewish (just general how are things?).

Massive antisemites who double down on hurling abuse at Jewish people they know, when they try to reach out to them, aren't decent people.

You might think you're his friend. He's certainly not yours.

He’s a hot headed Corbynite. I’ve known it since day one of meeting him. It’s by far his worst trait in an otherwise decent guy.

He's not your friend. Sorry.

I tried to reach out to a pro Palestine friend to explain why, as a Jewish person, I needed to mute his social media posts for a bit as I didn’t want us to fall out, and I couldn’t take the narrative of one side “bad” the other “good” when I had friends and family living in it.

He doubled down in his response rather than being at all understanding of my position.

I understand the call of armchair politics, but this really upset me. I wasn’t asking him to stop, I was letting him know my decision to walk away.

Thank you for this OP, a good reminder to message a friend who has connections

We (Muslims and Jews) have a lot in common, and often understand each other a lot better than people who are not Muslim or Jewish. A lot of the antisemitism has been driven by white European people, as it has for centuries.

Others feel the conflict is no more their problem than any non Jewish person.

But this is just not true at all.
There has been a massive, massive surge in antisemitism as a result of the mass murder and torture of Jewish people, and every single Jewish person I know is affected by it - in the UK, in the USA, in Israel, France, Germany etc.

What you have here is non-Jewish posters telling Jewish people that we are choosing to be affected by this. We are not choosing any of it.

There is no empathy or understanding here of the reality of our situation and a lot of minimising.

This thread is about getting in touch with your friends, people you actually know, and saying I hope you’re okay and I’m thinking of you at this horrible time.

Completely differently to walking up to random strangers in the street and demanding they must have a political conversation with you.