2 days ago
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It happened again. The third time this year that Jewish people were attacked with murderous intent in a major US city under the guise of the assailant caring about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. It’s the second time that fires were set. The first happened when an attacker – a US citizen – broke into the official residence of Pennsylvania’s governor in Harrisburg, on the evening of Passover and set fire to the residence. The only thing that saved governor Josh Shapiro and his family was a quick response from security guards, leaving only some Passover Haggadahs, the text that charts Jewish hopes for freedom and liberation from one generation to the next, to burn on the tables still set from dinner.
About two weeks ago, there was the murder of two innocent Jewish Israeli embassy workers who were attending an event hosted by the The American Jewish Committee at the Jewish Museum in Washington DC on how to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza; these young people were chosen at random from a crowd apparently targeted intentionally since the murderer, again a US citizen, appeared to have wanted to hunt down and kill Jews in response to Israel – a sovereign country’s – military acts. Tellingly, the gunman had a brief association to the far-left Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL said in a statement that he is not a member and that his association with the group ended in 2017).
And now, again with the element of fire, we wait for word on the condition of at least 12 victims of a torching in broad daylight in downtown Boulder, Colorado, by an assailant named Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national, who yelled “Free Palestine” and scorched the skin of activists ranging from their 50s to the 80s who gathered peacefully in that square each week demanding one thing: bring the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas home.
This group of activists, part of the international movement that posts on Twitter/X as #RunForTheirLives walks and runs each week, in Boulder, in New York’s Central Park, in Mexico and around the world, in support of freeing the hostages. They also post this missive for participants, beginning by asking: “Should I be scared to participate?” Their response: “That’s a valid concern these days. Make your best judgment to decide if it’s safe. However, we encourage a couple of principles to make this safer: don’t protest! Don’t disturb your neighbors. Do it quietly and don’t block roads. Be polite and peaceful. Focus on humanity. This is about innocent children, women, the elderly, and other civilians being held by terrorists – not about the war. We encourage carrying flags of all countries from which there are hostages.”
They encouraged bringing kids. “This is a family-friendly event. It is non-violent and does not focus on the traumatic events that occurred during the hostages’ captivity. Our events are meant to be quiet and peaceful.”
Jews demonstrating in an open town square were burned solely because they are Jews. It’s way past time; there needs to be a real and deep understanding of how ugly some factions of the US left became, both pre and post 7 October’s attack by Hamas, with a delegitimizing ideology about “settler colonialism” the wishful erasure of Israel as a state by proclaiming support for a future Palestine in a region where some protesters hope to annihilate Israel, silencing of Israeli and Jewish voices even when they are voices of protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government or even if the assailant has no idea what the victim’s position is on Israeli policies. This desire for erasure opened the floodgates to those who think they are being one of the team by killing with a slogan as their battle cry.
This is not about parsing legalisms of whether it is a legitimate protest to harm or kill civilians. It isn’t. Full stop. (And, I have said and written the same thing regarding Palestinian civilians being killed and will continue to write and protest any innocent civilians being killed. I also reject any attempts by any person or group or government to blame all Palestinians for Hamas’s actions. Also, perhaps it needs to be said here and time again: I fully support, and have spent my life fighting for, freedom and self-determination for the Palestinian people, acknowledging the rights of two people to one plot of land).
One of the first things I did after 7 October was to purchase and wear a Jewish star around my neck. In my 69 years, I had never worn my religion or my identity on my person. But since 7 October, perhaps defying the odds – but more so, wearing my pride, I purchased a star which I wear proudly. In solidarity with those in Israel and around the world who are demanding that the Israeli hostages come home, I also wear a yellow ribbon affixed to my bag whenever I leave my home. It is perhaps the sort of symbol that is an “if you know, you know,” but I want the world to know two things: this is not OK, and no one will scare me off because of my Jewish identity or my support for an end to the poisonous Hamas’s incursion of 7 October.
I intensely hope this is obvious: you can oppose policies without setting people on fire because they are Jewish. The majority of US Jews overwhelmingly oppose the Israeli prime minister’s policies. But subtleties get lost and truly unleashed people react. The leftwing reaction to an horrific action like this has to be swift and soul-searching. Again, while this current perpetrator apparently has no ties to the left, the rhetoric of the left – and the actions of some leftwing organizations – have to be examined. Imagine a situation where there was in fact an American left that embraced peace efforts on both sides instead of demonizing one side or the other, which is by the way, a mirror image of what the right wing does. Two sides. Two peoples.
I write this as someone whose entire life has been lived on the left, as a prominent activist and one who continues to believe in my gut in the values of a humanitarian left. I won’t allow a very real fear to stop me from being a proud Jew or an outspoken leftist demanding my rightful place in the lexicon of what must be an inclusive movement, promoting humanity for all and freedom for all. No erasures. No exceptions. I write this as someone whose entire life has been lived on the left, as a prominent activist and one who continues to believe in my gut in the values of a humanitarian left. I won’t allow a very real fear to stop me – not to stop me from being a proud Jew or an outspoken leftist demanding my rightful place in the lexicon of what must be an inclusive movement promoting humanity for all and freedom for all. No erasures. No exceptions.
Meanwhile, it’s important to also call out the sickening and cynical usage of antisemitism on the right by Donald Trump and his allies. The US president is handily and cynically already using the Boulder attack to attack all immigrants and to promote his heartless expulsion agenda with barely a mention of the victims of the crime. He has used antisemitism throughout his term in the most cynical of ways, never showing any genuine interest in eradicating it or embracing the victims. He pretty much ignored the heinous attack on Shapiro, most likely because Shapiro is a vocal and effective opponent of Trump. And, of course, Trump’s Darth Vader imitator Stephen Miller is hard at work using these crimes to promote his anti-American agenda to attack immigrants in the US as well as attack universities and legitimate protest. Trump’s destructive weaponizing of antisemitism to promote his own authoritarian agenda will not keep one Jew safe: in fact, it does the opposite.
Jews don’t want to be played by the left or the right. We don’t want to be pawns tossed back and forth. We want to be safe. We want to be heard. We want to be seen in our diversity, as would any people. We don’t want our lives to be at risk. Listen to and watch what each person says. See each person as an individual. Please build a serious political program that doesn’t cancel or promote violence of any kind but rather lifts up the hopes and desires of everyone. The alternative is deadly.
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Jo-Ann Mort is co-author of Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today’s Israel? She writes frequently about Israel for US, UK, and Israeli publications
