#Center for Antisemitic Research

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

https://www.adl.org/resources/report/antisemitic-attitudes-america-2024

By: Center for Antisemitism Research

Published: Feb 29, 2024

Executive Summary

In the months since the October 7th, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel, the global Jewish community has witnessed an increase in antisemitic activity, unprecedented in recent years. For many in and around Jewish communities, this period has felt inherently different, a sentiment that has raised several critical questions about the current scope, nature, and implications of antisemitism.

To explore this, the ADL Center for Antisemitism Research has collected data since October 7th related to the scale and structure of the phenomenon of antisemitism in the United States and compared results to past findings.

This study of 4,143 Americans, fielded between January 5th and January 18th, 2024, (with a margin of error of approximately 1.5%) found the following trends:

Anti-Jewish trope beliefs continue to increase, and younger Americans are showing higher rates.

From 2022 to 2024, the average number of anti-Jewish tropes endorsed by Americans increased from 4.18 to 4.31 out of 14. Using the original 11 statements comprising the ADL Index, agreement with 6 or more anti-Jewish tropes increased from 20% of the U.S. population in 2022 to just under 24% in 2024.

In a reversal of past trends, younger Americans are more likely to endorse anti-Jewish tropes, with millennials agreeing with the greatest number of anti-Jewish tropes on average, at 5.4. They’re followed by Gen Z at 5, Gen X at 4.2, and Baby Boomers at 3.1.

In addition to individual attitudes, more than 42% of Americans either have friends/family who dislike Jews (23.2%) or find it socially acceptable for a close family member to support Hamas (27.2%).

Conspiratorial thinking and social dominance orientation are key predictors of anti-Jewish belief.

Belief in conspiracy theories continues to be one of the main correlates of antisemitic attitudes, with an overall average correlation of .378 with anti-Jewish trope belief. Respondents who fall in the upper quartile of conspiracy theory belief endorsed over twice as many anti-Jewish tropes, on average, as those with the least conspiracy theory belief.

Anti-Jewish belief also correlates heavily with social dominance orientation – the belief that there should be higher status groups and that they should suppress lower status groups. For example, respondents who at least somewhat agreed with the statement that some groups of people are inferior to other groups were 3.6 times more likely to fall in the top quartile of anti-Jewish trope belief compared to those who did not.

There was also a strong relationship with the belief that the problems in the world “come down to the oppressor vs the oppressed.” Those who at least somewhat agreed with this belief were 2.6 times more likely to fall in the top quartile of anti-Jewish trope belief compared to those who disagreed with the statement.

A significant percentage of Americans hold anti-Israel positions, but also support a Jewish state’s right to exist.

Significant percentages of Americans hold certain anti-Israel positions, such as 20.1% who expressed support for removing Israeli products from a local grocery store and 30.4% who said supporters of Israel control the media. Younger Americans take these positions at significantly higher rates.

However, support for an independent Jewish state remains high, with 88.8% saying Jews have the right to an independent country. This is true even among those who take other anti-Israel positions. For example, 83.8% of people who believe that Israelis intend to cause as much suffering to Palestinians as possible believe that there should be a Jewish state.

October 7th and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war has not resulted in major changes in the percentage of Americans who hold anti-Israel positions.

However, in just about every anti-Israel position assessed, increased polarization appears evident. The proportion of respondents strongly agreeing or strongly disagreeing with Israel-related policies grew from the summer of 2023 to the present, whereas the proportion of those who somewhat agreed or somewhat disagreed shrank.

Individuals who held negative attitudes toward Israel-related policies, Israeli people, and Israel-oriented conspiracy theories were significantly more likely to believe anti-Jewish tropes.

Respondents not comfortable buying products from Israel were 3.4 times more likely to be among the top quartile of believers in anti-Jewish tropes.

Respondents who do not think Jews have the right to an independent country were 3.7 times more likely to be among the top quartile of believers in anti-Jewish tropes.

Respondents who believe Israelis intend to cause as much suffering to Palestinians as possible were 4.6 times more likely to be among the most antisemitic Americans.

Respondents who believe Israeli operatives are secretly manipulating US national policy through AIPAC or other influence tools were 7.5 times more likely to be among the top quartile of believers in anti-Jewish tropes.

Views of Hamas are also deeply concerning, with more than half of Gen Z expressing some degree of comfort being friends with a Hamas supporter.

[ Continued... ]

[sayruq]

The Confederation of Spanish Universities (CRUE), representing dozens of higher learning institutions in Spain, announced on 9 May that it will sever ties with certain Israeli universities and research centers. CRUE said on Thursday it will end relations with all Israeli institutions “that have not expressed a firm commitment to peace and compliance with international humanitarian law.” The decision came after students across the country set up encampments on their campuses in solidarity with Gaza and Palestine, inspired by the large-scale US student movement that began weeks ago and has since spread across the globe. CRUE has also promised to expand cooperation with Palestinian universities and research centers, including volunteer work and refugee aid programs. It has also vowed to take action against both antisemitism and Islamophobia on Spanish campuses. The confederation represents 76 public and private higher learning institutions in Spain. Its announcement came one day after the University of Barcelona voted to sever all relations with Israel. Last month, the University of the Basque Country in Spain made a similar move. Ireland’s Trinity College announced on Wednesday it would divest from Israel following student demonstrations on campus. Recent weeks have seen a large-scale student movement unfurl across US campuses in support of the Palestinian cause and in condemnation of Washington’s support for Israel. Students have demanded that their institutions divest from investments linked to Israel.

[dj-of-the-coven]

To the leftist and anarchist Jews of Tumblr -- shalom!

My name is Rivkah (aka DJ) and I work at an anarchist bookstore collective. Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in '23, I've watched as the welcoming center for humanist resources that I worked so hard to maintain became more and more infested with antisemitism--because of and in spite of people's honest attempts to be good allies to the populations of the Gaza strip and West Bank. There's been antisemitism mixed in with everyone's humanitarian rhetoric since the beginning. I knew this, as every Jew did, and it wasn't easy remaining silent about it. I was doing so in order to let the voices of the most affected people speak first, expecting that once the shock wore off, we'd have more of a national discussion about how to care for Palestinians and Israelis as well as Jews in the diaspora, shifting the conversation towards a 2-state solution, more conscious efforts to de-radicalize antisemitic and islamophobic extremists, and peace between the multiple indigenous populations of the Levant. Well. Needless to say, this was rather optimistic thinking.

A few months ago, someone in the collective crossed a line. A book appeared on our sale table entitled "The Invention of the Jewish People" by Shlomo Sand. I doubt that I need to elaborate what this is to the population of Jumblr.

After this happened, I confronted the collective about this spike in antisemitic sentiment--the deliberate spreading of Khazar theory was simply too much for me to bear--and to my horror it was also revealed that we had no literature on contemporary Jewish issues aside from books on Palestine. I snapped. In the wake of this incident, I began a project of intensive research on the history of antisemitism and the ways it infiltrates leftist rhetoric and breaks up social justice movements. What I found left me surer than ever that something needs to be done about antisemitism in leftism and anarchy before it's too late; before more innocent people are killed by ignorance and misguided justice.

I'm taking a great risk by making this request on my main blog, but I'm doing this anyway, because I want to make it clear to people that wanting peace is not a "centrist" opinion. I am an anarchist. I am a punk. And I am a Jew who believes that a 2-state solution where everyone is safe is possible. We're not going to get a perfect socialist utopia out of the region any time soon, but two democracies are better than none.

Why should any of this matter to you? Well, I have something to ask of any parties that are interested.

I'm planning to give a presentation to the collective about antisemitism and how to recognize it within themselves and their activism, and to this end I've already done a massive amount of research, but nothing is complete without qualitative data. If you have anything to say to goyische leftists about what to change rhetorically in order to reach a more egalitarian future, I want to hear about it. Feel free to add your comments in the notes or in my asks. I will be accepting stories of antisemitism that have happened to you as well, if you're willing to share.

Thank you all for reading and I hope to hear from you soon!

Antisemites will be blocked on sight. Islamophobes will be blocked on sight.

[thegayhimbo]

At this point, it's hard to tell if people like this are profoundly stupid, extremely lazy, deeply antisemitic (while trying to pretend they're not), or a combination of all three. 🙄

Since we're here, and this bozo wants examples of Antisemitism from the Left because they can't be arsed to do any research for themselves, here are some examples since the October 7th attack:

A Spike in Antisemitic Hate Crimes in London since the October 7th attack

Rise in Antisemitism in New York City

A man punching a woman for possibly being Jewish

Free Palestine users harassing a 97 year old Jewish Holocaust Survivor on TikTok (as well as bullying other Jews on social media)

Pro-Palestine protestors in Toronto attacking Jews

Threats to kill and rape Jewish students at Cornell University

Paris Subway Passengers screaming "Fuck The Jews......We are Nazis and Proud"

Twitter/X screenshots of Antisemitism from the Left

Leftist Tumblr users coming onto an Israeli LGBT woman's blog telling her "she deserves to die" (and other vile comments)

London Holocaust Library being defaced with Pro-Palestine slogans, and a Jewish Cemetery being defaced with a Nazi swastika and the ceremonial hall being set on fire

Bomb threats and attacks on Jewish synagogues

More reported cases of antisemitism

The latest cases of antisemitism (as of this week)

Jewish Students Assaulted (and Jewish Student Center Vandalized)

MSNBC calling out the rise in antisemitism on college campuses

Multiple attacks on Jews where people were either screaming "Kill the Jews" or "Gas the Jews" or defacing Holocaust memorials and other vile antisemitic acts

The infamous video of University Presidents who couldn't answer a simple "yes or no" question about whether calling for the genocide of Jews constitutes bullying and harassment

I could list other examples and links I have on file of Antisemitism from the Left (and I'm sure others can highlight examples I either didn't cover or might not know about), but I've made my point: If whenmagicfilledtheair actually gave a crap about this, they would have put in the work to look up these cases up for themselves. They are willfully turning a blind eye because it's convenient for them to do so.

whenmagicfilledtheair is antisemitic and doesn't want to own up to that. This also applies to others on the Left right now who are being downright sociopathic in their treatment of Jews.

[mariacallous]

Why disinformation experts say the Israel-Hamas war is a nightmare to investigate

The Israel-Hamas conflict has been a minefield of confusing counter-arguments and controversies—and an information environment that experts investigating mis- and disinformation say is among the worst they’ve ever experienced.

In the time since Hamas launched its terror attack against Israel last month—and Israel has responded with a weekslong counterattack—social media has been full of comments, pictures, and video from both sides of the conflict putting forward their case. But alongside real images of the battles going on in the region, plenty of disinformation has been sown by bad actors.

“What is new this time, especially with Twitter, is the clutter of information that the platform has created, or has given a space for people to create, with the way verification is handled,” says Pooja Chaudhuri, a researcher and trainer at Bellingcat, which has been working to verify or debunk claims from both the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the conflict, from confirming that Israel Defense Forces struck the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza to debunking the idea that the IDF has blown up some of Gaza’s most sacred sites.

Bellingcat has found plenty of claims and counterclaims to investigate, but convincing people of the truth has proven more difficult than in previous situations because of the firmly entrenched views on either side, says Chaudhuri’s colleague Eliot Higgins, the site’s founder.

“People are thinking in terms of, ‘Whose side are you on?’ rather than ‘What’s real,’” Higgins says. “And if you’re saying something that doesn’t agree with my side, then it has to mean you’re on the other side. That makes it very difficult to be involved in the discourse around this stuff, because it’s so divided.”

For Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), there have only been two moments prior to this that have proved as difficult for his organization to monitor and track: One was the disinformation-fueled 2020 U.S. presidential election, and the other was the hotly contested space around the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I can’t remember a comparable time. You’ve got this completely chaotic information ecosystem,” Ahmed says, adding that in the weeks since Hamas’s October 7 terror attack social media has become the opposite of a “useful or healthy environment to be in”—in stark contrast to what it used to be, which was a source of reputable, timely information about global events as they happened.

The CCDH has focused its attention on X (formerly Twitter), in particular, and is currently involved in a lawsuit with the social media company, but Ahmed says the problem runs much deeper.

“It’s fundamental at this point,” he says. “It’s not a failure of any one platform or individual. It’s a failure of legislators and regulators, particularly in the United States, to get to grips with this.” (An X spokesperson has previously disputed the CCDH’s findings to Fast Company, taking issue with the organization’s research methodology. “According to what we know, the CCDH will claim that posts are not ‘actioned’ unless the accounts posting them are suspended,” the spokesperson said. “The majority of actions that X takes are on individual posts, for example by restricting the reach of a post.”)

Ahmed contends that inertia among regulators has allowed antisemitic conspiracy theories to fester online to the extent that many people believe and buy into those concepts. Further, he says it has prevented organizations like the CCDH from properly analyzing the spread of disinformation and those beliefs on social media platforms. “As a result of the chaos created by the American legislative system, we have no transparency legislation. Doing research on these platforms right now is near impossible,” he says.

It doesn’t help when social media companies are throttling access to their application programming interfaces, through which many organizations like the CCDH do research. “We can’t tell if there’s more Islamophobia than antisemitism or vice versa,” he admits. “But my gut tells me this is a moment in which we are seeing a radical increase in mobilization against Jewish people.”

Right at the time when the most insight is needed into how platforms are managing the torrent of dis- and misinformation flooding their apps, there’s the least possible transparency.

The issue isn’t limited to private organizations. Governments are also struggling to get a handle on how disinformation, misinformation, hate speech, and conspiracy theories are spreading on social media. Some have reached out to the CCDH to try and get clarity.

“In the last few days and weeks, I’ve briefed governments all around the world,” says Ahmed, who declines to name those governments—though Fast Company understands that they may include the U.K. and European Union representatives. Advertisers, too, have been calling on the CCDH to get information about which platforms are safest for them to advertise on.

Deeply divided viewpoints are exacerbated not only by platforms tamping down on their transparency but also by technological advances that make it easier than ever to produce convincing content that can be passed off as authentic. “The use of AI images has been used to show support,” Chaudhuri says. This isn’t necessarily a problem for trained open-source investigators like those working for Bellingcat, but it is for rank-and-file users who can be hoodwinked into believing generative-AI-created content is real.

And even if those AI-generated images don’t sway minds, they can offer another weapon in the armory of those supporting one side or the other—a slur, similar to the use of “fake news” to describe factual claims that don’t chime with your beliefs, that can be deployed to discredit legitimate images or video of events.

“What is most interesting is anything that you don’t agree with, you can just say that it’s AI and try to discredit information that may also be genuine,” Choudhury says, pointing to users who have claimed an image of a dead baby shared by Israel’s account on X was AI—when in fact it was real—as an example of weaponizing claims of AI tampering. “The use of AI in this case,” she says, “has been quite problematic.”

[duckcritter]

Want a cute doodle of your OC, like one of these?

I will make a drawing like this for the first 3 people who match my €10 (10.40 USD) donation to this GoFundMe! Simply DM me first, and once i confirm your slot, i will request a screenshot of your reciept. Alternatively, you can claim this adopt the same way!

The GFM belongs to Taqwa Khaled Al-Qouqa - a survivor of an airstrike in Gaza that killed over 100 civilians. I’m going to put more information and sources covering this story under the cut, because, surprisingly, i have not seen anything about it on Tumblr yet. (Below the cut will be discussion of political violence, mass murder, and death of children)

Slots taken: 2/3

Taqwa was the sole survivor out of her 24 family members in an airstrike that hit their apartment. Among them were her 6 children, who she didn't learn had passed away until she woke up from a coma induced by her injuries. She is also pregnant, and needs urgent medical care if either her or her unborn child are to survive.

Her family were among the (at least) 106 victims* who were killed in the Engineer's Building Airstrike - an attack by the IDF on a residential building. According to an investigation by the Human Rights Watch, the victims were all civilians, and no evidence was found of a military target.

*This number is based on how many individuals could be identified... Due to many being buried in rubble, it is almost certainly higher. An investigation by Airwars estimated that there were 130+ casualties, 60+ of which were children.

NPR published an article with more details about the family’s story, in which they interviewed Taqwa.

(Note to avoid any confusion: Taqwa is referred to with her family name Abusaeid/Abu Said in the article, but she goes by her husband’s last name Al-Qouqa. I have done my research and gotten in touch with Taqwa and her sister Israa on Bluesky to confirm that they are the individuals referred to in these articles. It’s worth noting also that Arabic has different conventions than English, and this is why you’ll often see multiple different translated spellings of the same name.)

Taqwa’s sister, Israa has a GoFundMe for supporting their family’s survival as well!!

These are Taqwa’s six children who were unjustly killed by the IDF: Suhaib (top left), Ibrahim (top center), Somaya (top right), Juman (bottom right), Mohammed (bottom center) and Riman (bottom right).

Please no derailing this post with spam or antisemitism, or i will mute replies, thanks. I do not support any religious extremists or nationalism. ❤️ Reblogs are very much encouraged!

[jewish-vents]

first - i just want to say thank you for making this blog. it’s so important to know that we aren’t alone in the many things we’re experiencing and feeling right now, especially when so many of us have become painfully isolated as of late.

i apologize for how long this one is going to be.

i’ve been feeling so, so alone recently. my tumblr dash has been cut down to just a handful of jewish blogs that i can trust to be kind and understanding and nuanced, but it means that the majority of the content i see is about antisemitism and the war. after a while, it becomes draining to scroll through what feels like endless sadness. i turned to looking at fandom tags instead of following fandom blogs, but it makes me feel equally as insane to click on a blog about race cars and immediately see a post with 60k notes calling what’s happening in gaza “the new holocaust”. i started going back on twitter, but fan accounts on there too are only safe for a day or so before the account owner shares some awful antisemitic tweet from an account known to be an anti-jewish extremist. i went back on instagram briefly, but i was soon afraid to look at people’s stories for fear i’d see something terrible and lose yet another trusted person from my life.

in person, i have to walk by signs saying “zionism = genocide” and hastily scribbled palestinian flags with the colors in the wrong spot on my way to class every day. a wall across from my apartment says “BDS” in giant letters. i haven’t opened my curtains in months because of it. a “protest” of about 25 people stood in the center of campus and yelled and waved their fists in passing students’ faces, so jewish students didn’t go to class on any of the days they gathered. i only have one non jewish friend left at school - the rest abandoned me because i either called them out on antisemitic rhetoric or refused to go along with the idea that anyone, palestinian or israeli, muslim or jewish, is less than human. i had taken several of them along to our hillel’s seder in the past. i don’t know who i can safely go with this year. i have a few jewish friends, of course, but i love bringing goyische friends with little connection to judaism along to experience how joyful and loving jewish holidays can be.

it feels like there is no escape from this fucking war. it sickens me that it’s the only thing people pretend to care about - where is the attention for sudan, ukraine, armenia, uyghurs in china, syria, guyana? how is putting an emoji in your twitter bio or putting a translucent overlay of the palestinian flag on your tumblr icon any sort of real activism? how have we gone from “antisemitism is wrong” to “(((zionists))) control the world media”? it seems like the war is a fandom to these people. it seems like nobody cares enough to fully read and think critically about what they share, let alone do real research beyond looking at an infographic somebody shared on their instagram story. they’ll add on “don’t forget your click today!” to an unrelated twitter thread that went viral, flip the bird at the local starbucks, and put “won’t you free my palestine” on their instagram stories. they’ll anonymously tell a jew online to commit suicide. they’ll feel secure in the knowledge that they’re the perfect leftist, that this is somehow “good trouble”. all this praxis, and nothing to show for it but massive surges in hate crimes against jews. good job, guys! you singlehandedly saved every innocent person in gaza!

it’s isolating. it’s scary. jews can’t mourn. jews can’t be angry. jews can’t disagree. jews can’t suffer. jews can’t be whole, complex people with diverse beliefs and experiences. suffering is a game, and the goal is to hurt the most, scream the most, die the most, all to appease western leftists whose closest connection to war and violence was reading the hunger games in middle school.

i’m tired of it all. i want a peaceful and just resolution to the war. i want the mindless hatred everywhere to stop. i want to be able to scroll through social media and see nothing but fandom. i want to walk through campus with my magen david showing and all the friends i lost by my side on the way to the hillel seder. i want to open my curtains again. i know the experience of one diaspora jew is nothing compared to what people living in israel and palestine are currently going through, yet i still need this all to end. i don’t think any of us can go on like this, but we must, because we have. for thousands of years, we’ve gone on. that still doesn’t mean it has to be this hard all the time.

all i can think is “now we are slaves. next year may we be free.” now we are slaves to hatred and violence and suffering. next year may we all be free. next year may we all be in jerusalem.

.

[starscatteredsky]

Hello, could we request some angelkin tips? Thank you very much!

Tips and tricks for angelkin and celestialkin

pt: Tips and tricks for angelkin and celestialkin

allow yourself to explore a spirituality or religion that works for you

dress in things like robes, long jackets, or even cloaks

wear feathered coats!

silver, gold, white, and blue makeup looks or clothing!

if youre a less human looking angel, wearing lots of rings, or eye themed jewelery/ clothes can help!!

pure white/gold/blue/etc eye contacts!!

learn about angel numbers!

try to keep peace, and lead with kindness and rationality where possible

be firm in your beliefs around justice and stand up for them!

keep thinks like calming candles, incense, dim lighting, and other nice things in your living space!

candles and incense that you associate with your angelic self!

decorate your living space with angelic imagery

use angelic/divine neopronouns

-mono

Requests open!!!

[image description:

a DNI banner with the background being the promotional image for Little Nightmares 2. The writing reads:

"DNI: radqueers, proshippers, radfems/TERFs, antikin/antitherian, homophobic/ ableist/ anti ACAB/ transphobic/ rasist/ antisemitic/ xenophobic/ antitheist/ anti athiest/ bigoted in any fashion, NSFW/sh/ed/cringe centered blog, fakeclaimer

Before you interact: We are pro mspec gays/lesbians, anti endo/tulpa "systems", enjoy MCYT/DSMP, pro self diagnoses with extensive research, multiple alters are punks/ anarchists"

end description]

[fromchaostocosmos]

Lets talk about trauma

I know that on the many years I've been on this site that the Jewish users of tumblr have discussed, explained, broken down, and shown over and over the multiple ways we are all effected by our generational and communal trauma.

The way that Jews from all over world and varying backgrounds yet all shared the same fears, learned the same survival mechanisms, played the same "games" that were not games, but rather ways to teach children how to survive, just the same everything.

Ask any Jew if nightmares about pogroms and/or the Holocaust and being taken or dying in it and they will tell you yes.

The amount of trauma Jews carry within us is, withing our DNA, within our bodies, within our brains in is immense. We carry several thousands years worth of trauma.

We carry it all. The hypervigilance, that stress cycle, the paranoia, the various of hormones that keep us in semi permanent state of stress, the tension, and more. If you have ever done any research into what trauma does the body, the brain, to a person then you can understand.

Currently Jews who stressed and traumatized people doing our best are being severally stressed and traumatized on a whole new level.

I fear for what this will do to us in the long term. I will not be surprised if Jewish people come out this all with PTSD. I know that I've already had a nightmare where I was at some nebulous Jewish place and a bunch people who came and shot and killed us including me and did so claiming to so in name of freeing Palestine.

Which is sad that I nightmare like that because I shouldn't have to experience that. And Palestinians deserve better than to have antisemites hijacking their cause and needs so that these antisemites can pretend that they are not antisemities.

It is honestly very sad to watch how much of the pro-Palestine movement/people do not actually listen to Palestinians themselves. How much they do not care about what Palestinians want, think, or need. How much this movement supports Hamas despite Gazans direct statements and feelings that say don't support Hamas. How much these groups still will push "charities" that send funding to Hamas or not credible instead of ones that give help to Palestinians.

The self-immolation of the air force man really cemented for how much this movement has been over taken and how little they care for what Palestinians think, say, or want. Because these people have been praising, lionizing, and glorifying this man death is direct defiance of what Palestinians have said.

The way this man death has been treated and talked about makes me extremally worried, and I know other Jews are too, that we may see suicide bombers attacking Jewish centers of life and community. Which in case it isn't clear then I want to make clear this not something I blame Palestinians or Muslims for.

No, this is something we are seeing from people living in the west who culturally Christian.

The way these people talk about martyrdom is terrifying. The way that they talk about Jews is I want to say horrifying and I want to terrifying because it is and it is all not anything new or suprising.

It is horrific, it is disturbing, and there are moments of shock, but not surprise.

I don't know if it is because I've just become numb or because it is the shit gets regurgitated over and over or maybe some combination of both.

Here is a picture of pomegranate for making to the end of this rather depressing post. Pomegranates are wonderful and make things better.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

The Washington Post's official slogan is "Democracy Dies in Darkness." Outrageously, the newspaper actively contributes to the darkness it claims to dispel.

It writes, "Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest violates First Amendment protections, lawyers say." The article is written by the Post's Sarah Ellison, their "Democracy Reporter." 

The article quotes four lawyers. Jeffrey Pyle, First Amendment specialist at Prince Lobel, says Khalil's detention is “as clear a First Amendment violation as any case I’ve ever seen.” Sonja West, First Amendment professor at (University of Georgia Law School, asserts the government “disappeared” Khalil for his speech. Stephen Vladeck, constitutional law professor at Georgetown, labels it a “core” First Amendment case, not fringe. The fourth lawyer quoted is Baher Azmy, from the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is on Khalil’s defense team.

Sarah Ellison started her research from the premise that this is a First Amendment case and only interviewed lawyers with a First Amendment focus. 

They didn't interview a single expert on immigration law. 

As I've shown, a strong case can be made that Khalil should be deported under existing immigration law because he is a representative of a political, social, or other group that endorses or espouses terrorist activity. No one can claim he is not a representative of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and it is difficult to argue that CUAD does not endorse or espouse terrorist activity. The handed out "newspapers" with an ad showing Hamas embarking on their October 7 pogrom saying "Victory to the Resistance" and they praised the terror attack in Tel Aviv last October that murdered seven civilians. 

There are other reasons that examining this case through the lens of the First Amendment is false. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained this on Wednesday: 

When you come to the United States as a visitor, which is what a visa is – which is how this individual entered this country, on a visitor’s visa – as a visitor, we can deny you that visa. When you tell us when you apply, ‘Hi, I’m trying to get into the United States on a student visa. I am a big supporter of Hamas, a murderous, barbaric group that kidnaps children, that rapes teenage girls, that takes hostages, that allows them to die in captivity, that returns more bodies than live hostages,’ if you tell us that you are in favor of a group like this and if you tell us when you apply for your visa, ‘and by the way, I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, antisemitic activities, I intend to shut down your universities,’ if you told us all these things when you applied for your visa, we would deny your visa....If you actually end up doing that once you’re in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it, and if you end up having a green card, not citizenship, but a green card as a result of that visa while you’re here doing those activities, we’re going to kick you out. It’s as simple as that. This is not about free speech.

It is journalistic malpractice to characterize this as a free speech issue in an article published a day after the Secretary of State explicitly says why it isn't. 

[anghraine]

Tumblr posting isn't the hallmark of activism and no one is obligated to talk about Palestine on here. That being said, it sure is interesting that you never mentioned Israel's ongoing genocide until you decided to make a post about how antisemitic people who do talk about it can be (and provided no example, so it's vague enough it serves no purpose whatsoever, can't be argued with of learnt from).

I did wonder if that would be someone's takeaway (and even that it would likely be on anon), so this response was already largely prepared.

In any case, my fandom account is not the totality of my existence, even online, and particularly not at the moment (I used to talk about politics more here, but don't tend to use this account for that kind of thing these days; I've also barely acknowledged the Trump/Harris election that will directly and drastically impact my own life and which I'm following closely). I mentioned the grotesque antisemitism directed at Jewish people regardless of whether they're Israeli or not, mainly coming from people who have no more stake in what happens in I/P than I do, because it's become so common over the last year in fandom spaces and conversations, and is therefore relevant to this account. There are no genocides happening specifically on Tumblr, but there are people here using Israel to present their pre-existing antisemitic ideas as leftist praxis and to air them more openly.

In addition to that, I don't generally feel the need to Be Seen Having a Take on matters I'm not especially familiar with—particularly as a US American, since we tend to be too quick to share our super important center of the world opinions on other countries' geopolitics regardless of how much we know or understand about them—until I've had time to think, research, and phrase what I want to say. Once I was more familiar, I wanted to be clear that I consider Israel's actions horrific and that, simultaneously, I find the increasingly regular fandom antisemitism I've seen intolerable and unjustified (and I did feel these needed to be in the same post to avoid being misunderstood even in good faith). I kicked my post out of drafts because at that point I'd seen enough to feel equipped to do so and felt it was sufficiently clear about where I stand, and because (as I said in my tags) of a specific and particularly abhorrent display of antisemitism I saw on Tumblr yesterday.

I also did not feel the need to duplicate and broadcast specific instances of antisemitism (much less that one) in order to dunk on it or whatever. Broadly though not universally, I prefer talking about overall patterns that bother me more than litigating isolated instances, even when it's ... like, annoying trends in Pride and Prejudice fanfic or something, but all the more when it's a systemic social problem. And given that I have a number of active Jewish mutuals who would see my post, I didn't want to inflict it on them all over again. If you think I would find something grotesquely antisemitic that's actually totally fine, then you're free to find someone else to follow.

[joanofarcs-stigmata]

A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — ​what gospel is that? - Saint Oscar Romero

If you are uncomfortable with me rbing a post of yours/me interacting/etc, PLEASE let me know!! I will happily delete the post and block, no questions asked or hard feelings. I'm not here to preach or evangelize, and certainly not shame anyone. God bless

I have a goal to read more this year! Here are some notible books I've finished:

The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: An Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality - Carl McColman

Both in-depth and easy for beginners to understand. Breaks down what a mystic is, focusing on silence and radical love, then how to incorporate these into your prayer life. Multiple forms of prayer are offered, but the main focus is on Godly silence and contemplative prayer. Very long, but not dense, an easy read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Divine Feminine: The Biblical Imagery of God as Female - Virginia Ramey Mollenkott

Extremely short. Very easy read, not dense at all, but very focused on personal interpretation instead of 'facts'. Still very interesting in for developing personal ideas about God. But SO bioessentalist, even for discussing historical femaleness. Better reads out there on the same topic. ⭐️⭐️1/2

Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Middle Ages - Grace Hamman

The chapters on Jesus as a Judge, Lover, and Mother were fascinating; unfortunately, the rest fell flat. The writings were too casual, and the arguments largely vibes based. While it was clearly researched, at the end of the day it felt more centered for teens than adult readers even when the subject matter was clearly intended for older, mature audiences. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dayspring - Anthony Oliveira

(Almost) no words. Simultaneously erotic, heartbreaking, warm, and beautiful. Five stars and a hallelujah for good measure. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 🙌

Reading:

Prayer Primer: Igniting a Fire Within - Thomas Dubay

i also have a goodreads !

—

This space is pro science, celebrates queerness, supports anti racist theology and BLM, does not tolerate antisemitism or islamophobia. Women are more than a submissive rib of Adam. Evangelizing promotes colonization and bigotry under the guise of saving souls. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven

Hello! Name’s Joan-Anthony, though Emil and Sebastian is fine as well. Raised Episcopal/Catholic, left the church, now just trying to figure myself out. This is a place to explore my feelings I guess. He/Him or Rot/Rots please. I'm named for Joan of Arc and St. Anthony. I think weird things about God. I see Christ’s humanity as more important than his divinity. Hell isn’t real, original sin isn’t real, confession isn’t a requirement, we are called to be revolutionary in our love, not to convert or damn others. There will be no ‘no true scottsman’ here. Christianity hurts, Christianity kills, and if you were hurt by the church you have every right to be angry and move away from it. I myself have no love for the establishment of the church.

Here you can expect bits and pieces of my life that I'm scared to post elsewhere, liberation theology, Christian mysticism, iconography, poetry, and spiritual ramblings.

[beardedmrbean]

This one didn't feel like it should sit till Morning

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Nashville Jewish community is speaking out following a downtown demonstration on Saturday involving swastika flags and a group of people described by multiple lawmakers as “Nazis.”

News 2 spoke with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Sunday, Feb. 18 to learn more about the group marching and possible affiliations.

Carla Hill, the senior director of investigative research for ADL’s Center on Extremism, believed the group was mostly composed of members of the extremist Blood Tribe group, but also had members of the Vinland Rebels, most likely to bolster numbers. She said the salutes, chants, and marching under swastikas were all signs indicative of the True Blood group. In addition, logos for both groups were reportedly visible.

The march on Saturday, Feb. 17 was just the latest form of hate speech the Nashville Jewish community has experienced in recent history. In 2023, the Sylvan Park community had several homes spray-painted with swastikas. That’s in addition to the antisemitic flyers the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville has seen distributed around the community, as well as rising reports of problems for Jewish children in area schools.

PREVIOUS: Lawmakers react to group of ‘Nazis’ marching through downtown Nashville

“Not only Metro Nashville, but also Williamson County, Rutherford County, Sumner County, all of those areas where children are verbally attacked and sometimes even physically attacked,” said Deborah Oleshansky, the community relations director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville. 

According to the ADL, Tennessee saw 290 hate speech-related incidents last year.  

Another concern is the rise of sub-divided extremist groups, such as the Blood Tribe and Goyium Defense League, which the Jewish Federation reported seeing advertised on flyers distributed locally. 

“It is new for some of us from a certain generation to suddenly feel threatened in a way that we know our parents and grandparents felt threatened, but which we often really hadn’t felt until fairly recently,” Oleshansky said.  

Antisemitism and safety fears surge among US Jews, survey finds

Local Jewish leaders said social media has largely united and given a voice to these extremist groups and has led to an increase in propaganda spreading. Oleshansky challenged extremists to take a critical look at the messages being shared within these groups.  

“We are a tiny minority that could not possibly be in control in the way that they want to think that we are in control, and even if we were, the things we would want to be doing are things that they would probably want also, because our tradition teaches to take care of each other, to build strong community, to be in community, to help each other, to take care of our neighbors,” Oleshansky said. 

Oleshansky said the Jewish Federation felt the community’s support following Saturday’s march, but she urged all leaders to be outspoken in opposing the demonstration. 

She also encouraged those looking for support to attend one of the Jewish Federation’s upcoming events, including Jewish matchmaker Aleeza Ben Shalom coming to Nashville on Feb. 27, or the JCRC Social Justice Seder event coming up on April 11. 

Article Link

[mariacallous]

(JTA) — The Jewish French-Moroccan journalist Ruth Elkrief — who has delivered TV news in France for over 30 years — found herself at the center of the story when she was placed under police protection in December.

Elkrief received the security detail after an online attack from the far-left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mélenchon charged her with hatred against Muslims after she challenged one of his colleagues during an on-air interview about the Israel-Hamas war.

“Ruth Elkrief. Manipulator. If we don’t insult Muslims, this fanatic is outraged,” Mélenchon said of the journalist, adding that she “reduces all political life to her contempt for Muslims.”

Mélenchon, leader of the far-left party La France Insoumise, known as LFI or, in English, France Unbowed, posted his comments moments after Elkrief conducted a heated interview with LFI lawmaker Manuel Bompard on her TV channel, La Chaîne Info, on Dec. 3. Elkrief asked Bompard about his party’s refusal to condemn Hamas and its characterization of the militants as “resistance fighters” after their Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. She also asked about the party leaders’ decision to describe Israel’s war in Gaza as a “genocide,” and whether this language might provoke civil unrest in France.

In response, Bompard referenced warnings from the United Nations that the Palestinian people were at risk of genocide without a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Elkrief in turn quoted the French historian Vincent Duclert, who has said of Gaza’s high death toll, “Even a frightening humanitarian situation is not enough to qualify as genocide.”

Elkrief, who says she “came out” as Jewish to her viewers after Oct. 7, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that she merely did her job of debating an interviewee and dismissed Mélenchon’s accusation of Islamophobia. According to Elkrief, she was challenging the positions of France’s far-left political class — not French Muslims, whom she does not believe to be well represented by LFI even though nearly 70% of them voted for the party in the 2022 national elections.

“Most French Muslims don’t support Hamas and they don’t support all these catastrophes,” she said. “They can of course fight for a Palestinian state — and I agree with that — but they are not agreeing with Hamas and terrorism.”

Nonetheless, Mélenchon’s charge prompted a wave of threats against the Jewish journalist and raised an alarm for French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. Darminin said he decided to provide police protection because Mélenchon “put a target on the back of Ruth Elkrief, who already faced many threats as a journalist [and] was just doing her job.”

The government was on high alert for domestic attacks responding to the Israel-Hamas war. Mélenchon’s statement came the day after a knife-wielding man killed a German tourist and injured two others near the Eiffel Tower, telling police he was angry about the fate of Gaza and “so many Muslims dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine.”

While it’s typical for domestic attacks to increase in France during conflicts in Israel and the Palestinian territories, a recent surge in antisemitism has been especially pronounced. Darmanin reported over 1,500 antisemitic incidents in the six weeks after Oct. 7 — a three-fold increase from the total documented in all of 2022 — including desecrated Jewish graves and the stabbing of a Jewish woman in Lyon whose door was marked with a swastika.

Whether or not Mélenchon planned for an antisemitic backlash against Elkrief, his choice of language on X was loaded, according to Dorian Bell, a professor researching France’s history of race and antisemitism at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

“To accuse a Jewish member of the media of ‘manipulation’ arguably draws on long-standing antisemitic tropes about Jewish control of the media,” Bell told JTA.

Mélenchon’s words landed in the middle of a polarizing fallout from the Israel-Hamas War in France, home to one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe (about 5 million) and the world’s third-largest Jewish community after Israel and the United States (about 500,000).

French authorities met the wave of antisemitic incidents with a crackdown on pro-Palestinian rallies. Darminin attempted to impose a blanket ban on demonstrations denouncing Israel’s military campaign, which he declared “likely to generate disturbances to public order.” Although the ban was overturned, local authorities can still block protests on a case-by-case basis, prompting an outcry from some French citizens who accuse the government of suppressing free expression in support of Palestinians.

France’s Jews and Muslims have both experienced a painful recent history, including institutionalized discrimination against Muslim immigrants and Islamic terrorist attacks that targeted a Jewish school in 2012 and a Jewish supermarket in 2015. The reverberations of the Israel-Hamas war in France have further shaped a perception, solidifying for decades, that the country’s antisemitism and Islamophobia can be collapsed into a Jewish-Muslim conflict.

Michel Wieviorka, a Jewish French sociologist who studies violence and terrorism, told JTA there is no evidence that antisemitic incidents are predominantly driven by French Muslims. In fact, most of the perpetrators behind the recent spike in incidents — particularly non-violent ones, such as property damage and graffiti — are unknown. Between Oct. 7 and Nov. 15, 1,518 reports of antisemitic acts resulted in 571 arrests, Darmanin announced in November.

“Nobody knows exactly who is acting,” said Wieviorka. “Many people believe that most of these acts come from people with immigrant origins, but they can also come from the extreme right. For instance, I know some cases of destroyed graves in Jewish cemeteries — these attacks usually come from the extreme right, not from Muslims or Arabs.”

For Elkrief, Oct. 7 marked a turning point both personally and professionally. The 63-year-old journalist was born in Meknes, Morocco, and moved to France with her family when she was a teenager. (A remaining synagogue in Meknes bears her family name.) She started her long career at the French desk of the Associated Press in 1984. She spent 14 years at TF1, the oldest TV channel in France, helped found two news channels — LCI in 1993 and BFM TV in 2005 — and has hosted an LCI show about French politics since 2021.

She is also the great-niece of Chalom Messas, who was Morocco’s chief rabbi in the 1960s and 1970s until immigrating to Israel in 1978, when he became the chief Sephardic rabbi of Jerusalem. Elkrief is part of France’s small Liberal Jewish community and maintains Jewish traditions, keeping kosher at home and gathering the family for Shabbat evenings — including her two daughters and a newborn granddaughter. (Liberal Judaism in France is most similar to Reform Judaism in the United States.)

In all her years on air, Elkrief never spoke about her Jewish identity on TV before Oct. 7. She felt obliged to keep a “poker face” about her private life until the Hamas attacks, when she was moved to share more — fueled by her fear of rising antisemitism and enabled by her recent position as a commentator.

“I could explain where I was coming from and how much I was anxious about antisemitism in France after the 7th of October,” said Elkrief. “I called it my ‘coming out.’ I’ve since had some opportunities to speak about the conflict as a French editorialist, but also as a French Jew, for the first time in my life.”

On Oct. 9, Elkrief told her viewers that she was born in Morocco and lived there until early 1974, when she was 13. Her parents, both descended from generations of Moroccan Jews, feared regional tensions in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel fended off attacks from Arab countries. They went to France because they believed their children would have a safer life there.

“When I came at that time, I couldn’t imagine that there would be antisemitism in France,” Elkrief told JTA.

Worried about antisemitism gaining currency in French politics, Elkrief has criticized far-left factions heavily on her show. In addition to her dispute with Bompard, she blasted LFI for boycotting a march against antisemitism in November.

France’s traditional left, which encompasses socialist and communist parties, has nearly collapsed and left the more radical, controversy-dogged LFI in power, said Wieviorka. Meanwhile, the far-right National Rally — including anti-immigration leader Marine Le Pen, whose father and predecessor is a convicted Holocaust revisionist — has escaped the same censure for antisemitism during Israel’s war on Gaza, largely by proclaiming support for Israel.

“My idea is that they hate Arabs, Islam and migrants so much that they consider they have to be fighting on the other side,” said Wieviorka.

Bell cautioned against focusing exclusively on what is often described as the “new antisemitism” on the far left. The “old antisemitism” on the far-right never went away, he argued, but has only been masked by pro-Israel sentiment. Indeed, Bell said that historically antisemitic tropes — particularly those depicting an invasion of Jews too different or unassimilable to become truly French — have merely been recycled by the far-right to stigmatize Muslim immigrants.

And even if this narrative now primarily targets Muslims, Jews are not free from the conspiratorial discourse, said Bell. He pointed out that while members of the National Rally may not explicitly attack Jews, they sometimes use euphemisms for Jewish “elites” whom they blame for engineering mass migration, in a French version of the “great replacement” theory that has fueled violence around the world.

“When Marine Le Pen talks about ‘cosmopolitan nomads’ who are encouraging migration and destroying European nations, she has a tendency to mention Jewish French political figures — Jacques Attali, Daniel Cohn-Bendit,” said Bell. “I don’t think that’s an accident.”

Elkrief and Mélenchon have one thing in common: They are both among the estimated 836,000 Moroccan immigrants in France. (Mélenchon, 72, was born in Tangier and lived there until he was 12.) Elkrief said she is a strong believer in the “Republic,” which in France denotes an idea that there are only equal individuals in the public sphere, no minorities or ethnic groups. The country’s principle of “laïcité,” loosely and imprecisely translated as “secularism,” enshrines in French law the state’s neutrality between religions and confines religious symbols and practices to the private sphere — a pillar that Elkrief believes can protect France from discrimination against both Jews and Muslims.

“I don’t want to be defined by my religion, and I don’t want other French people to be defined by their religion,” said Elkrief. “I believe in the French Republic staying a space of debate, where religion is a private question.”

[cottoncandytrafficcones]

10 Cool Jewish Women from Modern Day: Part 5 because Jewish women are awesome and we should be talking about them more

Ava Lalezarzadeh, and actress and writer from Southern California. Co-writer and star of the award winning short In the Garden of Tulips, inspired by her mother's story of living in Iran at the height of the Iran-Iraq War. She has appeared in several off-Broadway productions, and is set to be featured in Sanaz Toossi's English.

Jy Prishkulnik, an actress, director, and storyteller and first generation Americana and MENA Jew. Born in Brooklyn, she has been involved in performing arts since a young age. She earned her BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a double minor in Theater and Film from UCLA (summa cum laude). She aims to produce stories about women.

Meorah Ha Me'ir, creative director and religious entrepreneur currently serving as the Executive Vice President of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, and the founder & creative Director of BARA Worldwide (a nonprofit dedicated to breaking the cultural barriers around Torah-observant Judaism). A Korean-American convert, Ha Me'ir documents her life as Jew in Israel on YouTube and Instagram.

Amy Albertson, A Jewish-Chinese advocate, educator, and influencer from California who has been living in Israel, where she created "The Asian Israeli." Former president Hillel, she is the recipient of the WIZO Warrior for Israel Award and was featured in Hadassah Magazine.

Cindy Seni, born in France to a Sephardic family, she and her family moved to Canada due to rising antisemitism. Founder of her campus Hillel, she has been involved in international relations. After moving to Israel, she began to document her journey as an olah and lone soldier. She currently freelances as an independent content creator, and has been featured on the Netflix show Jewish Matchmaking.

Revital Moses, a Desi Indian-Israeli who was raised in India and made Aliyah. A co-host of IsraelTech.com, videographer, and editor, her blog and YouTube channel follows her as she explores Israel. Her goal is to bridge India and Israel through cultural advocacy, and her videos often feature Jewish Indian, Indian, and Israeli culture.

India Naftali, a journalist based in Tel Aviv who works as a digital content creator for i24NEWS. After graduating from University of Georgia, she moved to Israel. In addition to videos about Israel, she also features stories about being Indian and Jewish.

Lilia Akhaimova, a retired Russian artistic gymnast who won a gold medal in the team event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Born in Vladivostok, she has resided in Saint Petersburg since 2012. She is a two time World silver medalist and a six time Universiade medalist.

Erica Lyons, a Hong Kong-based children's book author and chair of the Hong Kong Jewish Historical Society, the Hong Kong Delegate to World Jewish Congress, and the founder and director of PJ Library Hong Kong. In addition to writing, she is a speaker.

Francesca Bregoli, an Italian-American professor and researcher. an associate Professor at Queens College and The Graduate Center, her research focuses on early modern Italian and Sephardic Jewish history. She is the author of several books.

[eretzyisrael]

by Troy O. Fritzhand

A group of 3,000 teachers working in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the global organization’s agency dedicated solely to the refugees and descendants of Palestinians who fled during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence — glorified and celebrated the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 pogrom across southern Israel in an internal Telegram group, according to a new investigation by UN Watch.

The Geneva-based NGO, which monitors the UN, found that on Oct. 7, when Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel, massacred 1,200 people, and kidnapped 240 others as hostages to Hamas-ruled Gaza, the UNRWA teachers posted messages such as “welcome the great October” and “Allah is great, reality surpasses our wildest dreams.”

One principal, Iman Hassan, said the surprise attack was “restoring rights” of Palestinians. Other teachers called the terrorists “heroes” and said “foreign nationals should remain among the Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip until the siege … is lifted.”

UN Watch exposed 20 specific Gaza educators who celebrated the massacre, ranging from regular teachers to even directors of a training center.

“This is the motherlode of UNRWA teachers’ incitement to jihadi terrorism,” UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said in a statement. In a tweet accompanying the report’s release, he added that the agency was engaging in “the systematic incitement to terror.”

According to UNRWA, the agency has 702 schools with half a million students educated by nearly 20,000 teachers — including those who celebrated the Hamas attack.

Complaints that UNRWA is promoting antisemitism and terrorism are not new.

A report published in November by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an independent research group, found that at least 14 teachers at UNRWA-run schools had praised the Oct. 7 pogrom carried out by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel.

Another UNRWA teacher was separately accused by an Israeli journalist of having held one of the hostages abducted during the onslaught, depriving him of food and medical attention. For its part, UNRWA has strongly denied that there is any basis to that claim.

The US is the largest donor to UNRWA and gave over $371 million to the organization in 2023. Former President Donald Trump cut funding to the group in 2018, a move that was ultimately reversed when current President Joe Biden took office.

UNRWA’s future role in Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war ends has been a point of discussion in the Jewish state. Hebrew media reported last month that the Israeli government has outlined plans to root out the agency completely from Gaza following the war.

Part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to endorse the idea of the Palestinian Authority governing Gaza should Hamas be wiped out is due to the education it supports via UNRWA that promotes incitement against Israel and Jews.

For example, a 2023 joint report by Impact-se and UN Watch found that UNRWA employees had created classroom material celebrating the firebombing of a Jewish bus as a “barbecue party,” encouraging students to pursue jihad and martyrdom, erasing Israel from maps, and encouraging students to “liberate the homeland” with “their blood,” among other examples of incitement to radicalism.

In its new report, UN Watch called for the immediate dismissal of the teachers it identified and the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy for any future instances of calls for incitement or glorifying terrorism.