The keffiyeh and watermelons are antisemitic symbols.
That’s according to training that the New York Police Department received in January from outfits closely associated with the pro-Israel community. The US magazine Jewish Currents, which obtained details about the training, questioned the focus of the presentation.
“They are actively conflating any care for Palestinian humanity or rights – and in some cases, Palestinian existence itself – with antisemitism,” Dove Kent, the US senior director for Diaspora Alliance, a group that battles antisemitism and its weaponisation, told Jewish Currents. “None of this does anything to increase Jewish safety.”
Barely a week goes by without mainstream media and Zionist groups telling the public that antisemitism is at record highs.
The head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jonathan Greenblatt, recently went on CNN to detail his organisation’s new research, which asserts that antisemitic incidents have skyrocketed by 10 times since 2015.
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But the ADL acknowledges that 58 percent of the 9,354 incidents assessed in 2024 were “related to Israel or Zionism”. According to this logic, if a protester at an American university shouts: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, this is antisemitic speech that threatens Jews.
Peaceful anti-genocide activism is framed as inherently suspicious. This is why groups such as the ADL advocate the censoring of popular social media apps, because “we really have a TikTok problem” – namely, a younger generation that isn’t pro-Israel enough.
Dangerous framing
Unsurprisingly, many react badly to seeing daily images online of Israel massacring Palestinian children in Gaza and bragging about it. The latest public opinion polls in the US reveal a sharp decline in support for Israel, with a majority of respondents under 49 years old having a negative view of the country.
In times of crisis for Jewish supremacy and Israel, it’s easy to assert that the root cause is antisemitism – an ancient and irrational hatred of Jews because they’re Jewish.
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But this framing is dangerous and largely inaccurate. True antisemitism, the targeting of Jews and synagogues, is occurring in multiple countries and should worry us all. No attack against Jews, simply because they’re Jewish, is ever justified. It’s a scourge that must be fought vigorously, alongside the rise in hatred against all minorities.
But the deliberate conflation between Israel and Judaism – pushed by virtually every mainstream Zionist group in the West, the Trump administration and corporate media – is inflaming the conversation, and doing nothing to protect Jewish life.
When Israel unleashes unparalleled violence in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and beyond, is this the responsibility of the global Jewish diaspora? Many Jews have no tangible connection to Israel and its government, but what about those prominent voices who love Israel and its prime minister more than their own mothers?
Zionism is an ideology that revolves around a state, which can and should be challenged, like any other nation on earth
As a Jew myself, I know that non-Jews are often baffled and outraged by the full-throated backing that some in the Jewish community give to Israel, even in the face of its genocide in Gaza. Are there no red lines? Are there no Israeli actions that would pause this blind support?
As Israel is a proudly Jewish supremacist state that actively discriminates, kills and targets non-Jews, I’m not surprised that some can’t tell the difference between Israeli Jews and diaspora Jews. Israel and its supporters claim that there is no real difference in ideology or beliefs. This is how one form of antisemitism thrives and festers.
Zionism isn’t Judaism. Anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism. Zionism is an ideology that revolves around a state, which can and should be challenged, like any other nation on earth. Every state must abide by international humanitarian law and treat all its citizens humanely and equally. Israel, and a host of other countries, are manifestly failing in this basic responsibility.
The Trump administration is publicly committed to fighting antisemitism, or so it claims – but in reality, this is a war on the “bad” Jews and those who aren’t fully signed-up members of the Israel right-or-wrong brigade. More than 500 rabbis and cantors recently signed a statement opposing the White House’s antisemitism agenda as deliberately divisive.
Creating an echo chamber
President Donald Trump’s war on higher education, under the guise of protecting Jews, is a smokescreen for bullying university administrators into creating safe spaces for non-thought, where only sanctioned speech on Israel, Palestine, religion, US foreign policy and Islam are acceptable (and will be rewarded with federal funding).
As just one example, a serious education policy would address why too many young people globally know so little about the Holocaust and the evils of the Nazi regime, or why there’s a long and noble history of Jewish opposition to Israeli nationalism and racism.
Unfortunately, too many other Jews who should know better have taken a shine to the Trump agenda and the forced removal of non-violent, pro-Palestinian activists who have broken no US laws.
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What is today directed at Muslims and other minorities will inevitably come back to target Jews. Those who don’t understand this are ignorant of history and Trump’s far-right agenda. Trump and his associates don’t care about real antisemitism, but instead want to police and silence anti-Israel speech.
Weaponising antisemitism in the service of Israeli extremism isn’t a sign of friendship towards the Jewish community. A recent article in Haaretz was headlined: “Wait Till the Jews Are Blamed for Bringing Down Harvard.” Even some Israeli academics have recognised the dangers, issuing an open letter that says the US administration is “fostering anti-Jewish sentiments, easily lending itself to chauvinistic, exclusivist, and racist tropes”.
Trump’s antisemitism envoy is Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, an ultra-orthodox member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and long-time friend of leading pro-Israel advocate Miriam Adelson. He’s a strong supporter of crackdowns on legitimate speech.
The fight against antisemitism is important, and deserves a committed campaign of action, education and intellectual rigour. The Trump administration is both incapable of and unwilling to fight this scourge, aiming instead to create an echo chamber of pro-Israel voices to soothe its most belligerent supporters – Jewish, Christian and evangelical.
Israel’s own actions since 7 October 2023 have increased anti-Jewish sentiment around the globe. The sooner that Israeli militarism and supremacy are isolated and ended, the better it’ll be for the safety and security of Jews worldwide.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
