Hate Has No Home In Protesting
This edition tackles rising antisemitism and violent protests
I know that many people have subscribed to me for my thoughts on film but here’s the thing: it’s really hard to discuss film right now. Not when antisemitism is out of control. Not when college students and other agitators are chanting for the genocide of Jews. Not when Jewish concerns about antisemitism are being dismissed. I’m grateful for those allies calling out the hate but wish that more people would call it out.
I’m not kidding around when I say that I’m questioning whether I still have a future in the film critic community. Freelance work has completely disappeared. Numerous colleagues have ended their relationships with me. I’m very vocal about being Jewish and calling out antisemitism, let alone calling for the release of the hostages. There is no reason for anybody to cut someone off for doing these things. And yet, some have outright blocked me on social media. These include people that I’ve known for years and talked with regularly and yet they ended friendships without as much of a notice.
I’m a trans Jew. As I’ve said time and time again, I don’t have safe LGBTQ spaces unless they are explicitly Jewish and Zionist. I don’t know why so many LGBTQ folks have been brainwashed into supporting the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and the Islamic Republic. You can see for yourself what the NYPD found on campus! Here are some more of their findings. Supporting terrorism is simply UNACCEPTABLE.
The week and a half that followed the Islamic Regime’s attack on Israel was less than pleasant. It was a week that saw antisemitic protests on campus just escalate and get out of control. There’s no place for such hateful rhetoric in protests. I’m against Netanyahu but you wouldn’t see me using any of the antisemitic language that protesters have been using in their chants. It’s very telling when campus rabbis are advising students to stay home and not come back to campus. In terms of Columbia, one rabbi advised going home but other said that their building would be open with extra safety precautions.
The protests only got worse during and after Passover came to an end. It’s already at a point where I’m seeing very different conversations taking place. Those of us in the mainstream Jewish community are very concerned with the hate speech coming out of the protests. And then you have conversations that focus on the free speech aspect and completely ignore the violent part of it, let alone any Jewish concerns about antisemitism. President Biden was clear as day when he commented on the matter this week:
So, let me be clear. Peaceful protest in America — violent protest is not protected; peaceful protest is. It’s against the law when violence occurs.
Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law.
Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations — none of this is a peaceful protest.
Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law.
Dissent is essential to democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education.
Look, it’s basically a matter of fairness. It’s a matter of what’s right. There’s the right to protest but not the right to cause chaos.
People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being attacked.
But let’s be clear about this as well. There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.
Serious talk: When people say "No Zionists welcome/allowed," what they really mean is "No Jews allowed." At the end of the day, some 90-95% percent of world Jewry are Zionists. What this means is that we all share the basic belief that we believe in Jewish self-determination and that we should be able to govern a state in our ancestral homeland.
Being a Zionist has absolutely NOTHING to do with how we feel about Israeli government policies. Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. PERIOD.
I’ll get to sharing what I’ve written shortly but here’s a few pieces I’ve been reading lately. Some touch on the antisemitic campus protests—one is written by the son of the Chicago 7’s Jerry Rubin. Others touch on how Jews have been pushed out of formerly safe spaces.
What If I Asked Them Why They Support Murderers and Rapists?
Why Aren’t Palestinians and Their Allies Condemning Calls to Support Hamas on U.S. Campuses?
As for what I’ve written, the rising antisemitism has impacted my headspace. It’s to the point in which even comedies can be tough to watch, let alone review. Since the Islamic Republic attack on Israel, I’ve watched spin-offs of The Brady Bunch, not the original series! I still have a few episodes remaining of The Bradys (1990) and I’ll probably get to those soon. There were also a few days in which the weather was so cold outside and the heat had already been turned off in the building. As such, I had little to no productivity on those days.
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