#Center for Antisemitic Research
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
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. Theyâre 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 â 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 âcome down to the oppressor vs the oppressed.â 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 stateâs 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... ]
#Hen Mazzig#antisemitism#october 7#oct 7#october 7 attacks#Anti Defamation League#Center for Antisemitic Research#Jewish state#Israel#Hamas supporters#terrorism supporters#conspiracy theories#conspiracy theorists#oppressor vs oppressed#oppressor#oppressed#intersectionality#religion is a mental illness
24 notes
¡
View notes
Text
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 âthat have not expressed a firm commitment to peace and compliance with international humanitarian law.â 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. Irelandâs 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 Washingtonâs support for Israel. Students have demanded that their institutions divest from investments linked to Israel.
#yemen#jerusalem#tel aviv#current events#palestine#free palestine#gaza#free gaza#news on gaza#palestine news#news update#war news#war on gaza#spain#ireland#students for justice in palestine#bds movement#boycott divest sanction#gaza solidarity encampment
855 notes
¡
View notes
Text
Letâs put some numbers to Jewish fear right now.
In news that Iâm sure will thrill all antisemites, it would take startlingly little effort to foment widespread violence against us and cause another genocide of the Jewish people.
I have had many fellow Jews express to me how overwhelming it is to see the rising antisemitism. I have seen many Jews express fear at being drowned out of public, online, and IRL spaces due to dangerously violent vitriol.
I have also seen people who claim to advocate for Palestineâespecially western leftistsâopenly mock Jews who express this fear.
Finally, I and my fellow Jews have often expressed that, while we wholeheartedly support Palestinian freedom and self determination, it is exhausting to have to say so repeatedly, especially when we are trying to advocate for ourselves. This is not due to any latent or widespread hatred of Muslims, Arabs, or Palestinians. It is because we are an extremely maligned and marginalized minority that is fighting to be heard against strong, hostile forces that at best wish weâd shut up and at worst want us eradicated from the planet.
There is a disconnect about how much harm people can do to Jews by spreading antisemitism and refusing to dismantle their own internalized antisemitismâand everyone has internalized antisemitism. It is one of the oldest forms of prejudice in the world and is found in almost every single culture. It is as, if not more, pervasive than white privilege. Yes. You read that right. And if asked to elaborate, I will provide numbers on that to the best of my ability. For the purposes of this post, however, I want to focus on the global distribution of religious groups only.
Specifically, this disconnect is between Jews who are fully aware and feel the affects of this damage and goyim who simply do not comprehend our marginalization.
To help, letâs put some numbers to this. In this post, Iâll be using the Pew Research Centerâs survey and findings on the Global Religious Landscape. This is the most recent data from a reputable source that I could find which surveyed every world religion at the same time. While the Jewish population has grown slightly in the intervening years, so have most (if not all) other religious populations around the globe. I wanted to use figures measured at the same time to avoid bias for or against any religious group.
For the purposes of this post, I will not be discussing folk religions or other religions. This is not because they are not important. This is because they are not a monolith and individual folk religions and other religions may have even fewer adherents per religion than Judaism. I am currently only focusing on religions and religious groups who have more adherents than Judaism.
In descending order of adherents, there number of people in the world belonging to these groups:
2,200,000,000 (2.2 Billion) Christians
1,600,000,000 (1.6 Billion) Muslims
1,100,000,000 (1.1 Billion) Religiously unaffiliated people
1,000,000,000 (1 Billion) Hindus
500,000,000 (500 Million) Buddhists
14,000,000 (14 Million) Jews
Reduced to the simplest fractions there are:
1100 Christians for every 7 Jews
800 Muslims for every 7 Jews
550 Religiously unaffiliated people for every 7 Jews
500 Hindus for every 7 Jews
250 Buddhists for every 7 Jews
Combined, there are 6,400,000,000 non-Jewish people in religions or religious groups (including religiously unaffiliated people).
This means that for every 7 Jews there are 3200 people in religious groups who outnumber us.
Jews are 0.2 % of the global population.
When we tell you that hate is dangerous, it is becauseâŚ
It would only take 0.21% of 6.4 Billion people to hate us in order to completely overwhelm and outnumber every single Jewish person on the planet. In other words, only 67.2 out of every 3200 people.
And given how violent and aggressive people have become toward us in recent weeks, that doesnât seem far off.
No, most Christians, Muslims, Atheists/Agnostics, Hindus, and Buddhists do NOT hate Jews.
But if even 0.21% of them do hate us, Jews are at a legitimate and terrifying risk of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
It is not possible for Jews alone to fight this rising tide of hate. There simply arenât enough of us. And many of us are too scared to tell you the truth: if you donât vocally and repeatedly stand up for Jews (and not just the ones you agree with) you will be complicit in the genocide that follows. Police your own communities.
Nobody acting in good faith is asking you to abandon Palestinians or their fight for self determination and equality in their homeland. All we are asking is for you to learn about antisemitism, deconstruct it in yourself, and loudly condemn it when it occurs in front of you. We are asking you to comfort us and not run away when we are scared or even angry at you. Because a lot of us are angry with you, because we are extremely scared right now and many of you are not helping us. Many of you are actively and carelessly spreading dogwhistles that further the global rise in hatred against us.
You can support Palestine AND avoid Islamophobia WITHOUT making antisemitism worse. But you canât stop antisemitism by staying silent in the face of it. And if you donât speak up, you will get us killed. Silence, in this case, is quite literally violence.
Many of us have armed guards posted at our synagogues and schools and community centers because of this. I certainly had times where my synagogue and school had to have armed security for our safety.
The only reason more of us havenât died already is because we have millennia of experience in confronting this kind of hatred and guarding against it.
But in pure numbers, if you donât speak up for us now, we donât have a chance at survival without support.
So, what can you do, specifically?:
* Make a stand or public statement about condemning antisemitism without mentioning another group. Acknowledge Jewish fear, pain, and current danger without contextualizing it in someone elseâs. It could literally be something as simple as âAntisemitism is bad. Thereâs never a reason for it. I wonât tolerate it in presence in real life or online.â If you cannot bring yourself to publicly make this statement, you should have a serious look at yourself to understand why you canât.
* Learn about the six universal features of antisemitism and the many, various dog whistles affecting the global Jewish community
* Do not welcome people who espouse rhetoric that includes any features from the above bullet point in your community unless you are able to educate them and eliminate that behavior.
* Check in on your Jewish friends, regularly and repeatedly. Do not wait for them to reach out to you. They are scared of you. Even if you donât have the emotional space to have conversations about antisemitism. Just send a message once in a while, unprompted, âJfyi, antisemitism still sucks. I support you.â
* Redirect conversations about which âsideâ is ârightâ to how to attain peace. Do this by saying that this line of argument is not conducive to peace, and link to a well-respected organization not widely accused of either antisemitism or Islamophobia that is devoted to achieving a peaceful resolution, increasing education, or providing humanitarian aid to relevant affected groupsâincluding Jews, Israelis, Palestinians, Muslims, and Arabs. You can find over 160 such organizations at the Alliance for Middle East Peace https://www.allmep.org/
* Look to support experienced groups without widespread and verifiable claims of prejudice against either Jews or Muslims or Arabs or Palestinians. Many of these organizations can also be found at the AllMEP link above. Avoid groups on the shit list as well as unproductive and harmful movements.
* Do not default to western methods of political demonstration. Specifically, protests are not useful in attaining peace in western nations at this time. Israelis and Palestinians can and should protest to the best of their abilities in Israel and Palestine so as to pressure their own governments. However, protests in western nations have proven to be poorly regulated and to further the spread of bigoted rhetoric and violence against Jews, Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians. Furthermore, there are nearly as many Palestinians in the world as there are Jews. It is extremely easy and common for the voices of bad actors and bigots on all sides to completely drown out Jewish and Palestinian voices and concerns at these events.
* Spend more time listening and learning than speaking and acting. Anyone who tells you this conflict is simple is someone who is lying to you. Take the time to learn the ways in which your actions and words can get people hurt before joining the fray.
* Stop demonizing Zionism as a concept, even if you disagree with it. Understand that it is a philosophy with many different movements that often conflict with each other. The Zionism practiced by Netanyahu and the Likud party is NOT representative of most Zionists or interpretations of Zionism. It is an extremist form of Zionism known as Revisionist Zionism.
* Donât deny Jewish indigeneity to the levant. It doesnât help Palestine and hurts Jews by erasing our physical and cultural history as well as erasing the Jews who remained in Israel even through widespread diaspora.
* KEEP THE HOLOCAUST OUT OF YOUR MOUTH
Things That Are Always OK
* Denouncing Antisemitism loudly and publicly
* Denouncing Islamophobia loudly and publicly
* Telling your Jewish and Muslim and Arab friends you support them and won't abandon them
* Elevating the work of respected, widely accepted people and organizations devoted to attaining peace for all, rather than just one group of people.
* Develop media literacy
* Understand what aspects of the current western leftist movements Jews are criticizing, rather than assuming our criticisms are motivated by hatred for Palestine or Palestinians.
* Expressing sorrow for civilian deaths regardless of religion or nationality.
* When you are not Jewish and you share a post about antisemitism from a Jewish person, please say youâre a goy. This isnât because youâre not welcome to share. This is because it is indescribably comforting to know we arenât just talking amongst ourselves and screaming into the void. Let us know you are supportive of us. It doesnât mean that you or we hate Palestine or Palestinians or that we oppose their full and equal rights in our shared homeland.
#antisemitism#leftist antisemitism#israel#Palestine#Zionism#anti zionisim#jewish muslim solidarity#Jewish goyim solidarity#media literacy#responsible advocacy#direct action#life under stochastic threat#I dare a goy to reblog this challenge
2K notes
¡
View notes
Text
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.
164 notes
¡
View notes
Text
I think one of the worst things I've heard from the head of Yad Vashem's International Education Department (YV is the Holocaust research and education center dedicated to the Jewish POV during that time, the IED is in charge of seminars for teachers and educators on the subject of the Holocaust from all over the world), is that some teachers and educators are no longer teaching the Holocaust since Oct 7. A part of them decided on this of their own accord, others because they say the students / principals at their schools refuse to have it taught.
It reminded me of that time when in YV's IED survey of UK teachers and educators, many chose to answer the question, "Who was Anne Frank?" with "A girl hiding for her life from the Nazis." When asked about the omission of the specific reason why Anne had to hide (meaning, why did they leave out that she was a Jew and was in danger because of it), their replies indicated that if students hear that Anne Frank was Jewish, then they're no longer interested in learning about her. I'll admit, I was shocked by this. If you leave out that Anne was a victim of specifically antisemitism, because of the students' antisemitism, what are you even teaching them anyway?
Similarly, in YV's IED international surveys of teachers and educators, when asked to choose a definition for what the Holocaust was, the most popular answer is the one that doesn't mention Jews.
Basically, the anti-Israel crowd isn't the start of the All Lives Matter'ing of the Holocaust, erasing Jews out of the story of our own persecution and genocide (which you can see even in the fact that too many don't realize 'The Holocaust' is a term coined to specifically talk about the Nazis' crimes against the Jews, and that there are other terms for the Nazis' crimes against other populations). But the anti-Israel crowd isn't just hijacking the Holocaust, it's also actively weaponizing it to be used against Jews, and it is even actively preventing Holocaust education altogether.
This should infuriate everyone.
(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)
#israel#antisemitism#israeli#israel news#israel under attack#israel under fire#terrorism#anti terrorism#hamas#antisemitic#antisemites#jews#jew#judaism#jumblr#frumblr#jewish#holocaust#yad vashem#shoah
521 notes
¡
View notes
Text
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. đ
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.
#tgh opinions#antisemitism#antisemitism from the left#whenmagicfilledtheair#jumblr#antisemitism on the left#'i'm antizionist not antisemitic' my ass đ#leftist hypocrisy#leftist morons#social issues
511 notes
¡
View notes
Text
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 controversiesâand an information environment that experts investigating mis- and disinformation say is among the worst theyâve ever experienced.
In the time since Hamas launched its terror attack against Israel last monthâand Israel has responded with a weekslong counterattackâsocial 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.
âWhat 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,â 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 Gazaâs 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 Chaudhuriâs colleague Eliot Higgins, the siteâs founder.
âPeople are thinking in terms of, âWhose side are you on?â rather than âWhatâs real,ââ Higgins says. âAnd if youâre saying something that doesnât agree with my side, then it has to mean youâre on the other side. That makes it very difficult to be involved in the discourse around this stuff, because itâs so divided.â
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.
âI canât remember a comparable time. Youâve got this completely chaotic information ecosystem,â Ahmed says, adding that in the weeks since Hamasâs October 7 terror attack social media has become the opposite of a âuseful or healthy environment to be inââin 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.
âItâs fundamental at this point,â he says. âItâs not a failure of any one platform or individual. Itâs a failure of legislators and regulators, particularly in the United States, to get to grips with this.â (An X spokesperson has previously disputed the CCDHâs findings to Fast Company, taking issue with the organizationâs research methodology. âAccording to what we know, the CCDH will claim that posts are not âactionedâ unless the accounts posting them are suspended,â the spokesperson said. âThe majority of actions that X takes are on individual posts, for example by restricting the reach of a post.â)
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. âAs 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,â he says.
It doesnât help when social media companies are throttling access to their application programming interfaces, through which many organizations like the CCDH do research. âWe canât tell if thereâs more Islamophobia than antisemitism or vice versa,â he admits. âBut my gut tells me this is a moment in which we are seeing a radical increase in mobilization against Jewish people.â
Right at the time when the most insight is needed into how platforms are managing the torrent of dis- and misinformation flooding their apps, thereâs the least possible transparency.
The issue isnât 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.
âIn the last few days and weeks, Iâve briefed governments all around the world,â says Ahmed, who declines to name those governmentsâthough 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. âThe use of AI images has been used to show support,â Chaudhuri says. This isnât 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 donât sway minds, they can offer another weapon in the armory of those supporting one side or the otherâa slur, similar to the use of âfake newsâ to describe factual claims that donât chime with your beliefs, that can be deployed to discredit legitimate images or video of events.
âWhat is most interesting is anything that you donât agree with, you can just say that itâs AI and try to discredit information that may also be genuine,â Choudhury says, pointing to users who have claimed an image of a dead baby shared by Israelâs account on X was AIâwhen in fact it was realâas an example of weaponizing claims of AI tampering. âThe use of AI in this case,â she says, âhas been quite problematic.â
657 notes
¡
View notes
Text
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 âŹ10 (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. Iâm 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 familyâs 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 husbandâs 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. Itâs worth noting also that Arabic has different conventions than English, and this is why youâll often see multiple different translated spellings of the same name.)
Taqwaâs sister, Israa has a GoFundMe for supporting their familyâs survival as well!!
These are Taqwaâs 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. â¤ď¸ Reblogs are very much encouraged!
#art#furry art#anthro#art for palestine#artists for palestine#engineerâs building#airstrikes#gaza fundraiser#gaza gofundme
28 notes
¡
View notes
Note
first - i just want to say thank you for making this blog. itâs so important to know that we arenât alone in the many things weâre 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.
iâve 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 whatâs happening in gaza âthe new holocaustâ. 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 peopleâs stories for fear iâd see something terrible and lose yet another trusted person from my life.
in person, i have to walk by signs saying âzionism = genocideâ 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 âBDSâ in giant letters. i havenât opened my curtains in months because of it. a âprotestâ of about 25 people stood in the center of campus and yelled and waved their fists in passing studentsâ faces, so jewish students didnât 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 hillelâs seder in the past. i donât 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 itâs 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 âantisemitism is wrongâ to â(((zionists))) control the world mediaâ? 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. theyâll add on âdonât forget your click today!â to an unrelated twitter thread that went viral, flip the bird at the local starbucks, and put âwonât you free my palestineâ on their instagram stories. theyâll anonymously tell a jew online to commit suicide. theyâll feel secure in the knowledge that theyâre the perfect leftist, that this is somehow âgood troubleâ. 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!
itâs isolating. itâs scary. jews canât mourn. jews canât be angry. jews canât disagree. jews canât suffer. jews canât 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.
iâm 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 donât think any of us can go on like this, but we must, because we have. for thousands of years, weâve gone on. that still doesnât mean it has to be this hard all the time.
all i can think is ânow we are slaves. next year may we be free.â 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.
.
83 notes
¡
View notes
Note
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]
#mod mono#alterhuman#otherhearted#otherkin#otherkin community#nonhuman#otherkinity#alterhuman community#fictionkin#otherfolk#fictionfolk#other folk#angelhearted#angelcore#angelkin#divinekin#actually angelic#fallen angelkin#godkin#dietykin
241 notes
¡
View notes
Text
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.
104 notes
¡
View notes
Note
What's your opinion on this [https://www.tumblr.com/ratinacoat/764250900023951360/no-one-who-says-ramcoa-isnt-real-is-saying-that?source=share] (highlighted for convenience) post? I came across it and felt a little miffed by it. Though I do see where they are coming from, I suppose. I wondered what ya'll's opinion would be... I just don't feel it's an adequate reason for programmed systems to stop using terms that makes them feel seen and comfortable. Thank you for reading this.
Well Wishes,
Pomegranate O.L.
From what I can gather, they are boiling RAMCOA down to âritual abuseâ and âtraffickingâ but completely disregarding the âMCâ part of the acronym. I understand where they are coming from, as the acronym was unfortunately created by people who are antisemitic, but that is hardly the survivorâs faults, imho. It sounds like they are conflating the MC part of the acronym with conspiracy, when MC is not a conspiracy, even though it is unfortunately riddled with people who are conspiracy theorists.
Weâve said it before and we will say it againâMC is not really done by hyper-secret government orgs, theyâre done by the church on the corner, theyâre done at daycare centers, theyâre done by political cults, religious cults, familial units, and trafficking rings. MC is not complicated on the surface, itâs just conditioning taken to an extreme degree. Not everyone who has MC done to them will develop a dissociative disorder, and adults who go through MC who didnât prior have a dissociative disorder can then develop one after going through MC traumas. This is OSDD-2, in the DSM-V. MC done to children who have the tendency to dissociate and have disorganized attachments to their primary caregivers will most certainly develop DID, and if they do, itâs not terribly difficult for MC abusers/programmers to learn how to negatively or positively trigger out certain alters to do undue harm to them and manipulate them to have certain beliefs about themselves and behaviors that the part will repeat when triggered out.
Those that wrote books about RAMCOA are shitty people who abused their patients and are antisemitic, but that doesnât mean we should discount everything they learned. Like we have said before, we donât discount all research in the medical and psychological field just because the studies or the doctors were abusive. Van der Hart was also a POS who abused his patients, yet his book âThe Haunted Selfâ is one of the best written works for people with dissociative disorders and is consistently recommended to dissociative patients. I donât know why we excuse him, the Axis powers in WWII (Germany and Japan), and all other horrific human experiments done in the name of science, but suddenly draw the line at RAMCOA researchers/therapists. Yeah, they were bad. Yeah, they are antisemitic. Iâm not saying we should excuse their behavior. They were right to be removed from their positions. However, what they learned cannot be completely discounted. This shit isnât black and white.
As an aside, we made a post about how planting false memories in patients is not possible and talked about why the False Memory Foundation and their supporters pushing this narrative is a detriment to survivors everywhere, but especially those who have been through RAMCOA traumas.
In addition, there is a new acronym out there (though itâs not my personal favorite) which is OEA, which means âOrganized and Extreme Abuse.â I feel like it doesnât quite capture what is necessary under that umbrella, but it is a viable replacement term and has a very broad umbrella that covers a lot of things. What terms survivors use is not up to anyone else but the survivor, and pulling the âconspiracy theoryâ card is getting old as hell. I do sort of understand where OP is coming from in terms of the origins of the acronym, but survivors are not at fault for where it came from and it should be up to the survivor to choose how they want to refer to it for themselves. My therapist uses the terms OEA and RAMCOA interchangeably because they mean the same thing. If antisemitism is the main complaint, then I think it would be beneficial to consider spreading the term OEA and encourage people to use that term instead rather than being angry at people using the term that they have a problem with and saying itâs all a conspiracy theory when itâs not.
I wish people would stop policing what terms other people use and stop conflating MC with conspiracy, though I doubt that wish will come true anytime soon.
#anon ask#ask#ramcoa#oea#manybutone#opinion post#OP is allowed to have their opiniom for the record#but so can everyone else#not trying to start anything
29 notes
¡
View notes
Text
In the context of what weâve learned from our investigations into opt-in polls, we took particular notice of a recent online opt-in survey that had a startling finding about Holocaust denial among young Americans. The survey, fielded in December 2023, reported that 20% of U.S. adults under 30 agree with the statement, âThe Holocaust is a myth.â This alarming finding received widespread attention from the news media and on social networks. From a survey science perspective, the finding deserved a closer look. It raised both of the red flags in the research literature about bogus respondents: It focused on a rare attitude (Holocaust denial), and it involved a subgroup frequently âinfiltratedâ by bogus respondents (young adults). Other questions asked in that December opt-in poll also pointed to a need for scrutiny. In the same poll, about half of adults under 30 (48%) expressed opposition to legal abortion. This result is dramatically at odds with rigorous polling from multiple survey organizations that consistently finds the rate of opposition among young adults to be much lower. In an April 2023 Pew Research Center survey, for instance, 26% of U.S. adults under 30 said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. This was 13 points lower than the share among older Americans (39%). Our estimate for young adults was similar to ones from other, more recent probability-based surveys, such as an AP-NORC survey from June 2023 (27%) and a KFF survey from November 2023 (28%). We attempted to replicate the opt-in pollâs findings in our own survey, fielded in mid-January 2024 on Pew Research Centerâs American Trends Panel. Unlike the December opt-in survey, our survey panel is recruited by mail â rather than online â using probability-based sampling. And in fact, our findings were quite different. Rather than 20%, we found that 3% of adults under 30 agree with the statement âThe Holocaust is a myth.â (This percentage is the same for every other age group as well.) Had this been the original result, it is unlikely that it would have generated the same kind of media attention on one of the most sensitive possible topics. Likewise, our survey found substantial differences from the December poll on support for legal abortion. In the opt-in survey, roughly half of young adults (48%) said abortion should always be illegal or should only be legal in special circumstances, such as when the life of the mother is in danger. In our survey, 23% said so. These differences in estimates for young adults are what we would expect to see â based on past studies â if there were a large number of bogus respondents in the opt-in poll claiming to be under the age of 30. These respondents likely were not answering the questions based on their true opinions. The takeaway from our recent survey experiment is not that Holocaust denial in the United States is nonexistent or that younger and older Americans all have the same opinions when it comes to antisemitism or the Middle East. For example, our survey experiment found that young adults in the U.S. are less likely than older ones to say the state of Israel has the right to exist. This is broadly consistent with other rigorous polling showing that young people are somewhat less supportive of Israel â and more supportive of Palestinians â than older Americans. Rather, the takeaway is that reporting on complex and sensitive matters such as these requires the use of rigorous survey methods to avoid inadvertently misleading the public, particularly when studying the attitudes of young people.
77 notes
¡
View notes
Note
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 withâparticularly 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 themâuntil 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.
35 notes
¡
View notes
Text
This one didn't feel like it should sit till Morning
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) â 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 âNazis.â
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 ADLâs 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. Thatâs 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 âNazisâ marching through downtown Nashville
âNot 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,â said Deborah Oleshansky, the community relations director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville.Â
According to the ADL, Tennessee saw 290 hate speech-related incidents last year. Â
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.Â
âIt 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 hadnât felt until fairly recently,â Oleshansky said. Â
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. Â
âWe 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,â Oleshansky said.Â
Oleshansky said the Jewish Federation felt the communityâs support following Saturdayâs march, but she urged all leaders to be outspoken in opposing the demonstration.Â
She also encouraged those looking for support to attend one of the Jewish Federationâs 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.Â
Article Link
102 notes
¡
View notes
Text
My grandparents were all Holocaust survivors. A large part of my family was murdered in that genocide. I chose to deal with the family trauma by becoming an educator on this subject. I give tours, lectures and workshops on the Holocaust, on antisemitism and on Jewish history.
Intellectually, I'm perfectly aware of how the massacre that Hamas perpetrated is NOT like what the Nazis did. More Jews were murdered over the course of just two days in Babi Yar (33,771 men, women and children), which is just one Nazi shooting pit out of almost two thousand, than during the entire Israeli-Arab conflict. Even after the carnage brought on by Hamas, this is still true. The Nazis were far more systematic (which eventually made them turn industrial) in carrying out the genocide of the Jews than Hamas has been. There's no comparison in terms of scale and industrialization.
And yet emotionally, I can't help but be hit by the similarities in terms of the immediate brutality of the murderers and the experiences of the Jewish victims. Because I am listening to the testimonies and some are so eerily similar to my research, I simply can't process how these are from recent days, not 80 years ago.
Jewish kids hiding from their would be murderers, scared to make a sound for fear of being discovered and killed.
Jewish families completely wiped out.
Jews asking themselves how did they survive and the person next to them did not.
Jewish people executed in droves, their bodies piled up.
Jews begging to be spared, to no avail.
Jewish women raped, most of them then killed.
Jewish babies executed in barbaric ways.
Jews being burned, some after being murdered, some while alive.
Jewish communities devastated. Take kibbutz Be'eri for example. It was founded before the State of Israel. Despite many terrorist attacks, it has continued to thrive in Israel's south. A small, close knit agricultural community. Over 100 people (at least) have been slaughtered there. Homes were destroyed. Everything the kibbutz's economy was based on was laid to waste, too. Be'eri has become synonymous with the worst of the carnage. IDK how they'll build their lives again after the war is over. IDK if they can. A community of almost 80 years, quite likely gone.
Foreign reporters who had been to kibbutz Kfar Azza all talked about the eerie silence and the stench of death rising from the bodies. Eerie silence is exactly how visitors to the sites of the shooting pits describe those places, while the allied soldiers who liberated the Nazi camps talked about the stench of death there.
Some of the reactions to this massacre also remind me of the Holocaust. Even though the Nazis, the murderers themselves, documented their extermination of Jews, there are those who deny the Holocaust happened, painting the Jews as liars. Similarly, even though Hamas documented themselves, and released the footage themselves, there are people going around denying the atrocities, painting the Jews as liars.
Then there's the justification of the mass murder of Jews by insinuating they brought it on themselves... Back in 1943, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aware of the plight of Jews under the Nazis, told government officials in Allied-liberated North Africa that the number of local Jews in various professions âshould be definitely limitedâ so as to âeliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany.â Understandable complaints. Understandable complaints of Germans against Jews. Roosevelt, the liberal president, said that while Jews were being exterminated by the Germans. In the same manner, we're seeing people justifying the murder of Jews at the hands of Hamas, even though it's a known antisemitic terrorist organization which has repeatedly called for the murder of all Jews in the world. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a reportedly Hamas affiliated Imam declared, "If the Zionist state were to move to the other end of the Mediterranean, our war would not be over, for the enemy is the Jew.
And while I stand by my statement that the scale is nothing alike, the carnage that took place in Israel IS the biggest massacre of Jews since the end of the Holocaust. Not even during Israel's Independence War and some of the massacres of Jews that happened during it (like the Kfar Etzion massacre) were this many Jews murdered during a single day.
Just like so many were silent back then as Jews were being both killed for being Jewish AND blamed for their own murder, many are silent now as well. Don't get me wrong, there are A LOT of amazing people who reached out to their Jewish friends, who showed they care, who took to the streets, who held vigils for the massacre's victims! Many heads of state also condemned this vicious attack. But I'm looking at Tumblr specifically, and it is FULL of posts justifying Hamas' slaughter of Jews. They're being reblogged everywhere, spread in every fandom. People who claim to stand for social justice feel absolutely no shame sharing such de-humanizing posts on their blogs. And what do we do? Are we calling them out? Do we make it clear that it is morally unacceptable to blame Jews for their own murder? Do we unfollow these bloggers, so that at least the dropping numbers send out the message that it is unacceptable to justify the massacre of innocent people?
TLDR:
This massacre is not like the Holocaust, but the cruel antisemitism that motivated it is the same. Let's not let antisemitism thrive here. Please do what you can (whatever that is) to stand for what's right.
(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)
#israel#israeli#israel news#israel under attack#israel under fire#judaism#jewish#antisemitism#holocaust#holocaust denial#historical revisionism#jew#jews#jumblr#frumblr#antisemites#antisemitic#terrorism#anti terrorism#hamas
769 notes
¡
View notes