Thread by @jeremyslevin

There are dozens of antisemitic incidents happening around the country right now.

These should shock and frighten everyone—especially Jews.

Antisemitic violence has been on the rise for the past several years—roughly since Donald Trump became president. 2018 saw the largest mass shooting targeting Jews in history.

It is also, sadly, part of a much broader rise in hate crimes/incidents, particularly against the Muslim and Asian communities

To some people, this rise in anti-Jewish hate affirms the need to defend Israel at all costs. Israel is the only Jewish state in the world, they say, and criticizing it is *equivalent* to antisemitism.

This isn’t an exaggeration—pro-occupation groups and the Trump Administration literally enshrined this view into law. prospect.org/politics/weapo…

This is rooted in genuine fear. Jews have experienced oppression for centuries, and these threats only confirm the importance of Jewish dominion over Israel to them.

This is flawed for several reasons though.

First, the overwhelming majority of antisemitic hate incidents in this country are committed by white supremacists —including the Tree of Life shooting in 2018 and the Poway shooting in 2019.

Second, criticizing a government’s actions are not the same as hating an entire faith! (See entire earlier thread). Pretending that legitimate criticism of the occupation is equivalent to antisemitism does not make us any safer.

https://twitter.com/jeremyslevin/status/1393661393807843333?s=20

In fact when people repeatedly claim a state is acting on behalf of an entire faith (as Netanyahu does)—it puts all people of that faith at risk, even if they have no connection to the state.

And you can’t permanently suppress people from speaking out and organizing for basic human rights. Suppression of dissent only inflames anger and tension.

Nor can your solution to discrimination against one oppressed group rely on the discrimination of another oppressed group somewhere else.

Instead the steps to address antisemitism must be rooted in our common humanity.

We must recognize that Jews face unique threats, but that our destinies are tied with others facing discrimination.

Walling ourselves off from others will only perpetuate the cycle of hatred

Only by building community and rooting out all hate will we all be liberated.