#but also please do not fucking use palestine as an excuse for antisemitism

[lab-practicum]

yeahhh man im sure no one has used judaism as a "manifesto" for anything

I/P has never been a religious conflict. Islamophobia and antisemitism will never be tolerated.

[autisticidolfan]

People online have called me shit like "Chickens for KFC" because I'm queer and support Palestine like bitch, I'm sorry but I do not view solidarity as transactional and I am against genocide even when it happens to a group of people that might include some people that hate me

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Ok so I can't screenshot so I'm putting this in the asks but people are talking about netanyahu because he's getting the attention right now. And that's because he's genociding Gaza right now and nothing else of that scale happened since. So of course he's the it girl rn.

Like I wholeheartedly agree with you, we shouldn't be saying people "deserve to die", I just want to point out that I don't like it whenever people go "but why are people talking about this figure (who's getting all the attention right now) and not these other figures? (Who aren't getting attention)"

But TLDR netanyahu's doing some fuck shit that's getting reported on so obviously he's getting talked about the most generally.

To bring it back to the original conversation, people were talking about Putin when the Russo Ukraine war was going on. I saw people get excited at the idea that he might have cancer when that lump on his face showed up. Putin was the it girl and now it's netanyahu.

Look I'm sure you don't mean it this way, but the original comment I was responding to was antisemitic and your comments excusing it are microaggressions.

[Original post for reference]

There are a few things going on here:

1. People are giving a hugely disproportionate amount of attention to Israel's military response to the October 7th massacre in Gaza because they are antisemitic. There have been plenty of humanitarian crises affecting Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, yet the world literally only cares about them if they can use it as a cudgel against Jews. Obviously it's a humanitarian crisis and it deserves attention, and Israel deserves scrutiny and accountability for its actions. But the laser focus on Israel and only Israel belies the true motivation.

2. There are numerous other humanitarian crises happening right now that affect substantially more people, and which are unquestionably genocide. Can you name them? Can you tell me the relevant major players by name? Can you tell me the number of people murdered? Why or why not?

3. Specifically naming Bibi out of every possible vile human one could name, to me, specifically, a Jew - that's extra sus. Taken in combination with the previous points? Yeah, it's antisemitic.

4. The genocide of Ukraine by Russia is still ongoing, and ignorance about it is leading to dwindling support to such an extent that Ukrainians are having to ration bullets to defend themselves with. This one isn't meant as a scold, by the way �� the plight of Ukraine is getting intentionally buried. Please don't stop talking about Ukraine, they need all the help they can get.

[And in b4 someone thinks I'm trying to say you shouldn't pay attention to what is happening in Gaza: please DO keep paying attention to Gaza and keep holding Bibi's feet to the fire. He's awful, his policies are awful, and he's encouraging the absolute worst members of Israeli society for his own selfish reasons. The people of Gaza are going through hell and need our help. Just please, for the love of G-d fact check things first and make sure you're not "supporting Palestine" by being antisemitic. Also make sure you are holding Hamas responsible for its part in the humanitarian crisis.]

[olderthannetfic]

People have said this in the reblogs, but people who are concerned about what Project 2025 might do to AO3 should try to prevent that by voting for Democrats, including Joe Biden (or whomever replaces him if that happens), and supporting campaigns by canvassing, phonebanking, donating, sending postcards. If you're not a U.S. citizen, you can't vote or donate but you can probably find other ways to support, including by reblogging pro-voting posts on here. It's not a done deal. One person in the reblogs brought this up too but I wanted to elaborate: There's a huge problem on Tumblr with anti-voting propaganda, especially spread by tankies and other kinds of horrible people. I think that more people need to consider that if they're going to decide "hey, the occasional funnee meme isn't worth following a terf or Nazi or other anti-LGBTQ+/racist bigot" that should expand to tankies. Supporting dictators like Putin and Xi is supporting anti-LGBTQ+ politics, supporting racism (these people all violently suppress racial and religious minorities) and is supporting censorship. They are kind of famous for that. Supporting Putin, especially if you are also downplaying or making excuses for the invasion of Ukraine, is also supporting genocide because that is what he is doing to Ukraine right now. That should be a firm line for you, I think, if your convictions aren't like completely worthless lol. Some things should be more important to you than fucking memes! And at least have the bare minimum critical thinking skills to wonder if people who spend so much time doing apologetics for right-wing homophobic transphobic dictatorships, might be discouraging voting because they're ok with the U.S. also becoming a right-wing homophobic transphobic dictatorship.

One of my eternal vent pet peeve things is how many people make excuse for the blogger heritagep/osts (username is without the slash, but they and their friends are name-searchers). This is a person who regularly reblogs pro-dictatorship propaganda including for fucking North Korea, discourages and shames voting, and also is a vicious anti-semite who tries to hide that under supposedly being pro-Palestine. The way you can tell this is they're constantly making "Zionist blocklists" but if you look at the names that are actually on those blocklists, they're nearly all people who are outspokenly ANTi Zionist but who happen to be Jewish and post about that.

The excuse people constantly use for following them is that their blog is about documenting old Tumblr posts. Which just seems so flimsy because there are so many blogs that do that these days? Nearly all the rest of which are not antisemitic transphobic-dictator-apologists. H/eritageposts' commentary isn't even that funny. A lot of it is "anti" adjacent shit acting like everyone who ever liked Hetalia or Shingeki no Kyojin is antisemitic and responsible for rising Nazi sentiment online, which is kind of rich given the antisemitism and pro-right-wing-dictator stuff they've been radicalized into. Like lol call fujoshis "cringe" all you want but hardly any of the people I know who were into Hetalia in 2010 are antisemites in 2024, but you, on the other hand... Like maybe fandom is not in fact the danger and you can be a sucker for Internet extremism even without it!

Anyway, people, please just have bare minimum standards and compassion for who you follow and promote. No one's saying that you ahve to research everyone you reblog from, but there are blogs who regularly post this shit, you'd notice if you followed them or even glanced at them, that people make excuses for following because "funnie posts." Like come on. Have more self-respect and more actual courage of your convictions than that. All you're showing is that when the actual dictators are here you'll fall right in line the second they make a joke you laugh at.

--

Even if that weasel wins, plenty of people have fought horrendous governments before.

Queer people didn't have any fucking rights in the US when I was a kid, so we fought. We'll just have to fight again if it comes down to it.

Always vote.

Even if all the candidates suck, they're never all the same.

[legallyacceptibleurl]

this shit infuriates me to no end

this isn’t a callout and there isn’t anything wrong with this post in and of itself, let me gripe

ID: screenshot of a post reblogged by @jewish-kulindadromeus

@sinothetimes: “while l'm on a roll of no longer giving a shit, I also think it's stupid to pretend that the rise in antisemitism, while terrifying, is a bigger issue than the active genocide being perpetrated in Gaza. like, the hate and the potential for things to get worse in the future is incredibly horrible. the fact that most like well over 100,000 gazans have been murdered in the last year is inherently worse because those people are dying right now. this is not saying stop talking about antisemitism but that is me saying if you use leftist antisemitism as an excuse to turn your back on the ACTIVE GENOCIDE youre kind of a shitstain.

End ID

what really grinds my gears is when someone like a-dinosaur-a-day/jewish-kulindadromeus/zygodactylus has the gall to act like eir’s not part of the problem.

EDIT I FORGOT TO ADD A CUT

ID: a set of screenshots showing @jewish-kulindadromeus reblogging from @shofarsogood, @starlightomatic, @notyourgoodjew, @tributary, @jewishlivesmatter, @yidpunk. End ID

(eventually i will have posts about all those blogs, but these take a long time to make because of the image descriptions but i will not skimp on accessibility. but if you know these blogs you know)

it’s good to have issues with how people use talking about antisemitism as a reason to ignore the genocide, but clearly ey doesn’t care too much about people doing that type of shit. a post here and there about how ey doesn’t believe in violence and reblogging a couple gazan donation posts doesn’t cancel out the much much more frequent posts reblogged from people who would like everyone to stop talking about the genocide pretty please

like it rings so fucking hollow when a few days later ey goes and reblogs this (on eir other blog)

ID: a screenshot of a post that @zygodactylus reblogged from @jewish-rock

@anshelsgendercrisis:

an image of the meme of two spider-men pointing at each other. one of them has the text “ppl who use "zio" as a slur for jews” and the other one has “ppl who use "pali" as a slur for palestinians”. the text of the post says “get it bc ur both extremist assholes who are making things worse.”

@transmascpetewentz: “radical antizionists (handshake emoji) kahanists

literally their entire ideology other than whose side they happen to be on”

End ID.

again it’s not the post itself (stupid as it fucking is), it’s the poster or rather who ey reblogged it from. this is @jewish-rock on the same day that @jewish-kulindadromeus/zygodactylus reblogged a posts which ends with “if you use leftist antisemitism as an excuse to turn your back on the ACTIVE GENOCIDE youre kind of a shitstain.”

ID: two screenshots of a post reblogged by @jewish-rock

@jewish-mccoi: “Can we talk about how fucked up it is that Jews and Israelis have no safe spaces online? And if we dare complain, we're told we're whining and other groups have it worse.

And no one seems to either notice or care. The pro Palestine movement is infested with antisemitism. Leftist spaces are infested with antisemitism. It's impossible to engage with the pro Palestinian movement because to do so, they demand you denounce Israel's existence and make you be their token Jew. Like no? The fuck gives you the audacity?

I'm tired of walking on eggshells around leftists for fear of being called a colonizer or a genocide apologist because guess what??? It doesn't fucking matter what I say, you're gonna do it anyway, because I'm an evil Jew!

I could talk till I'm blue in the face about cease fires or how Hamas is purposefully putting civilians in harms way, but the second I do, people are like "oh you mean Israel. Israel is the problem." Actually, you fucking black and white thinker, ISRAEL IS NOT ALWAYS THE PROBLEM. Israel has done fucked up things. So has every fucking country on earth. But the news is dominated by "Israel is awful" and "wipe Israel off the map." Why do you think that is.

IT'S ANTISEMITISM. It's just that simple. Really fucking is.

And because the movement keeps flooding Jewish tags on tumblr with antisemitism, I am gonna tag this so the "river to the sea" people ACTUALLY ADVOCATING GENOCIDE can have their safe spaces (Jew free spaces) interrupted. I'm tired of taking the high road.

You all would rather side with terrorists than Jews. That's how bad the leftist problem with antisemitism is. Terrorists who admit to using rape and murder and torture ON CIVILIANS as tactics. That's how much you fucking hate us.

Well, tough fucking luck. We're here and we're not going anywhere. Am yisrael chai, fuckers.”

End ID.

at most mildly perturbed by people using leftist antisemitism as an excuse to turn their back on an active genocide, not enough to unfollow them though

i find it so fucking spineless. be mutuals with & follow a shitload of zionists who have spent the last 11 months downplaying and trying to distract from the endless massacres in gaza, who try to discredit any and all efforts to help people who are fenced in & bombed. but claim moral righteousness by every now & then going “war is bad you guys, can’t we all be friends, i don’t support either side i support peace”, thinking that absolves you for supporting those people

[lady-byleth]

So Israel, in its absolutely ludicrous arrogance, has now managed to:

Get Pakistan and Iran, who attack each other, to somehow...burying the hatchet cuz FUCK ISRAEL I guess??

Piss off the Houthis

Bring in the West and piss off the whole of Yemen MORE

Piss off the Yemeni so much the various government parties and civilians ALSO bury the hatchet cuz FUCK ISRAEL

Bomb Libanon

Piss off Hezbollah

Get Hezbollah chomping at the bit for any excuse to reenact 2006 because FUCK ISRAEL

Teach the world through research into Hezbollah that Israel LOVES the human shields excuse (its your choice to kill them anyway, habibi)

Bomb Syria

Bring in the Iraqi resistance that promptly attacks Haifa and disables the airport because FUCK ISRAEL

Piss off the Saudis who block the airspace to anyone trying to deliver weaponry

Piss off every goddamn civilian in the area because FUCK ISRAEL is apparently a very common sentiment

Give Hamas TONS of good press through dozens of easily seen through lies

Raise support for Palestine MORE through said lies

Turn the whole civilian world against them

Fuck up their own economy

Divide the Jewish into two distinct factions like never before

Expose the corruption and depravity in the world governments for all to see

Make people aware of media bias against Arabic and North African people

Put Islam into a favorable light for the first time in decades because the world actually learns about it now despite Hollywood's best efforts

Improve everyone's legal knowledge cuz we're all following the court proceedings

Improve everyone's understanding of how to get reliable information and spot propaganda

Educate the world about Apartheid

Educate the world about Nelson Mandela specifically

Boost Palestinian solidarity AGAIN because even Nelson Mandela said FUCK ISRAEL

Make FUCK ISRAEL the most common stance on them

Improve understanding of Antisemitism through constantly using it as a defense and annoying people into not being antisemitic in the first place (from what I've seen anyway)

Humiliate Germany on a global level (which I am quite pleased with as a German)

Unite and mobilise people like never before

And all that by being so fucking shitty at military, human rights and PR that no one can deny it unless they're literally doing it on purpose

I don't remember the world ever agreeing so wholeheartedly on something as they agree on FUCK ISRAEL and, more importantly,

From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free

[officialromaniantranslatiuni]

What you wrote in that post about the course for teachers meant to prevent antisemitism in schools is proof that it is much needed and something like that should have been implemented yesterday. You could have done some research about the massive misinformation campaign started by the both sides of the I/P conflict (including allies, especially) since 7 October and the blatant antisemitism that is corroding the pro Palestine side, because many of their supporters have decided to show their solidarity through antisemitic biases and actions that most of them don't even understand are deeply problematic and are in no way helping Palestine, but your first reaction was to assume the Jews Israel is controlling the narrative and weaponizing antisemitism - at a time when antisemitism is skyrocketing everywhere around the world.

Also, there's a reason why the Jewish community of Timișoara is so small, isn't it? Actually, there's a reason why the Jewish community in Romania is so small now compared to how it used to be before WW2, isn't it? You're a teacher and you oftenly complain about how closed minded and ignorant your fellow teachers and your students' parents are, you should have known better than this.

Ok, anon who invented mineral water and is extra educated. I have no idea if you have no reading comprehension or if you were just looking for an excuse to insult me and whine.

But I shall approach you like one of my students:

In what context would the Palestine vs Israel conflict be approached by History teachers?

There is no present day history being taught as far as I know. I am not using contemporary because it leads up to the 21st century but not in detail and it only mentions a couple of events.

So the context would be... non existent.

I do not follow the news and the few I have been following are plainly stating facts. X is doing atrocities to Z. You can place either team. I do not deny your claim that some outlets are probably using discriminatory tactics just for kicks.

The thing is that Romanian pupils are not watching news on foreign politics. If anything, they would care about the war a few km away from us.

Let's address antisemitism and when it's discussed during History lessons:

- WW2 (I am no longer aware when exactly it's taught but I learnt about it in years 7, 8, 11 and 12)

- The new school subject added this year for 11th graders: The History of the Jewish People/Holocaust (it's a thing since like uwu yesterday uwu and the information is the same as in history lessons except with the emphasis on the Jewish community obvi)

- maybe other subject which tackle communities, tolerance and maybe even Religion (I remember learning a lot in primary school about their history)

So, please enlighten me why should this contemporary political/military issue be suddenly discussed in class?

Can we trace a timeline that would lead to understanding the reasons behind this war? Yes.

Does a teacher going to class and shouting "hey, kids, stop watching dances on tiktok and let's discuss the news which are very antisemitic" sound like a plausible thing? Definitely, but not really in a country that already supports Israel in this war and which is already the reason why Israel has a significant community number of citizens from here. Because things have been going on before and after WW2, but you call me ignorant and compare my intelligence to the one of a 6 year old, darling.

So to sum up... If you want to call out antisemitism in mass media, you approach zealots, uneducated adults and the media outlets themselves, not freaking children who don't even know where fucking Palestine and Israel are and don't know shit about politics to begin with!

[nevermindirah]

Ok it's Jewish Booker o'clock, I can no longer stop myself, let's do this!

Why Jewish Booker? Dude was born in Marseilles in 1770, which happens to be a FASCINATING time and place in Jewish history, and it adds ridiculous layers to his character (without excusing a damn thing). Alternately just because I think he’s neat :)

Jewish Booker headcanons that make me happy:

not to be all "real Jews do X" but Jews fuck with candles hard. Book of Nile thrives on old/modern analog/digital giggles. Booker lighting Shabbat candles, lighting yarzeit (memorial) candles for his wife and sons (sob), lighting a menorah, lighting candles just because he's feeling emotional even though it's not chag (a holiday) or a yarzeit and Nile thinks he's trying to be sexy but he's really just in his feelings. just like. so many candles.

maybe Booker was the person who punched Richard Spencer at Trump's inauguration, just bringing back that time somebody punched a famous neonazi in the street and said neonazi has all but stopped appearing in public after a few rounds of public punching

were the Old Guard in Charlottesville in 2017? how many times has Booker the Blond Jew infiltrated North American white nationalist / Klan type activities and then stolen their weapons and/or killed them? likewise there's plenty of horrifying white nationalist shit happening across Europe this century, how many Pim Fortuyn types has he been involved in taking down? (I Am Of Course Not Endorsing Violence TM ;) ;) )

SINGING. Mattias Schoenaerts sings in Away From the Madding Crowd but it's church shit, sigh, anyway he has a nice voice. a lot of Jewish prayer is sung/chanted (depending on when/where you are and the gender rules of the community you're in) and there’s been a lot of innovation to Jewish singing in Booker’s lifetime, and I just want Nile to overhear him singing to himself on Friday afternoons

Nile Freeman was four years old when The Prince of Egypt came out, she grew up on that shit, she would want to introduce her new family to that shit. Please join me in picturing Booker, Nicky, Joe, and Andy all shouting "that's not how it happened!!" throughout this beautiful nightmare of a movie with lovely animation and songs but where white people voice most of the Egyptian and Jewish characters, because Booker Nicky and Joe's religious texts all frame the Exodus story a little differently and Andy was probably there when it happened (except for how it didn't actually happen it's an important story but it's just a story pls just let me giggle about Andy being super old)

Read below the cut for sad Jewish Booker headcanons, French Jewish history (mostly sad), context on antisemitism (enraging/sad), and all the way to the very end for a himbo joke.

Jewish Booker headcanons, I made myself sad edition:

he is a forger. who was alive. in 1939. visas. VISAS. V I S A S. how many of us did he save? how many more could he have saved if he didn't sleep that night? how heavily does that weigh?

how do we think he BECAME a forger? most likely he was doing what he needed to do to support his family, which gets extra poignant if he was also trying to help his people, forging documents as well as money even during his mortal life

Booker raised Catholic by crypto-Jews adds ANOTHER layer to the forgery thing, no shit he'd get good at falsifying paperwork and coming up with plausible cover stories

do we know how Booker made it back home after his first death in 1812? his route between the Russian Empire and Provence in 1812 would've been a patchwork of laws about Jews, in case starvation and frostbite weren't enough for him to have to deal with, he's blond and could maybe get away with pretending not to be Jewish if he had to, alternately maybe synagogues and yeshivot took him in on his way home

the structural and sometimes-interpersonal dynamics of antisemitism cause many individual Jews to experience feelings of teetering on the fence between a valued member of a not-exclusively-Jewish community and a scapegoat/outcast/problem. HOLY SHIT BOOKER. "what do you know of all these years alone" is the most Jewish loneliness-in-a-crowd shit I've ever heard. fear that we're not wanted, or only wanted so long as we're useful — that's something that basically all people struggle with under capitalism, but it's especially poignant for many Jews because of the particular way antisemitism operates. (NOTE this can tip from a legit Jewish Booker reading to woobification of the sad white man who couldn't possibly be held responsible for his own actions because he's so sad, which, NOPE. it's very understandable for him to feel left out and misunderstood and not as wanted, as the youngest and not part of an immortal couple and maybe Jewish, but NONE OF THIS excuses his betrayal.)

Crusaders murdered a lot of Jews on their way to the ~holy land~. how many of Booker's people did Nicky kill on his way to kill Joe's people? has Booker ever actually talked to either of them about it?

I read this really beautiful fic about Joe needing to circumcise himself after getting run over by a cart (ouch) — this is a hell of a thing for Joe and Booker to have in common

just generally Jewish Booker adds more layers to him and Joe so clearly being such close friends, ugh that look Joe gives him when they're leaving the bar at the end of the movie, and I very much do not mean this in a gross Arab-Israeli-conflict way because Joe is Amazigh not Arab and Booker is Jewish not Israeli (and also a lot of Jews are Arabs) (but most importantly there's no ~eternal conflict~ between Muslims and Jews) (more about OP Is Not A Zionist below)

like, the UK and France (and to a certain extent Italy) carved up the former Ottoman Empire after WWI; among other things, the UK took Palestine, and they could've worked on eradicating European antisemitism so Jews wouldn't have to leave but instead they used their control of Palestine to encourage Zionist emigration of Jews out of Europe, and France took what is now Iraq, which has some pretty direct implications for US military involvement in that country in Nile's lifetime; France colonized Tunisia in the late 19th century and still held it during the Vichy era which means Tunisian Jews were subject to Nazi anti-Jewish laws which is just layers upon layers of colonial racist Islamophobic and antisemitic nightmares for Joe and Booker to live through

to be crystal clear before anybody gets ooh Muslim-Jewish conflict up in here, antisemitism is an invention of European Christians that they imported to the places they colonized, the European colonial powers encouraged Zionism because it was easier for them to encourage Jews to leave Europe and set us up as middle agents between the colonial powers and the ~scary brown people~, the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim governments historically have had a second-class citizenship category for non-Muslims that rankles my American first amendment freedom of religion sensibility but was very much not targeting Jews specifically, and these two men who've lived for a long-ass time through many varieties of geopolitical awfulness (and alongside a certain unwashed Crusader who has since learned his lesson) would have Things To Say about how our current mainstream discourses frame these things

getting off my soapbox and back to this action movie I'm trying to talk about, the ANGST of Booker's exile, which is simultaneously a very valid decision for Andy Joe and Nicky to make, an extremely long time for Nile who is only 26 years old to be separated from the one person on the planet in a position to really understand the crisis she's going through, and holy shit expelling a Jew from your group when he's already been expelled from mortality and his family and being expelled from places and continually having to start over somewhere new is THE curse of surviving through antisemitism, OUCH MY FEELINGS

Some French Jewish history:

France, like basically all of Europe, periodically expelled its Jews, but Provence (where Marseilles is) wasn't legally part of France during the expulsions up through 1398 so Provence had a continuous active Jewish community; about 3,000 Iberian Jewish refugees ended up in Provence after the expulsions from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s

the 1498 expulsion of French Jews DID apply to Provence but many "converted" to Christianity and reestablished a Jewish community when enforcement of the expulsion chilled out (which was in the government's interest because they were really into taxing Jews at higher rates, so much so that they taxed "new Christians" at higher rates once they realized expelling Jews meant they wouldn't be around to overtax, ffs) — by the mid-18th century Provence had notable communities of Jews and crypto-Jews (forced converts and their descendants who still kept some Jewish practices in secret)

Booker would've been 21 when revolutionary France granted equal legal rights to Jews in 1791 — his mortal life and first century of immortality happens to line up almost perfectly with the timeline of legal emancipation of Jews across Europe

the American and French Revolutions happened pretty much concurrently and took different approaches to religious freedom that make Book of Nile with Jewish Booker and canon Christian Nile extra interesting — French emancipation, at least from my American sensibility, is about secularism and religion not "interfering" (hence French Islamophobic shittiness about banning hijabs), whereas American religious freedom is more of "the government can't stop me from trying to evangelize / religiously harass people at my school/workplace/etc" — to be clear I think both countries' approaches to religious "freedom" are hegemonic as shit and have devastating flaws, but they're different models that emerged at the same time in Booker's youth and Christianity is clearly a source of emotional support for Nile and there's so much to explore here

Napoleon tried to ~liberate~ the Jews of places he conquered for his dumbass French Empire, but liberation from ghettos came with strings attached (like banning us from some of the only jobs we'd been legally allowed to have for centuries, and liberating us for the stated purpose of getting us to assimilate and stop being Jews) and many places that were briefly part of the French Empire reinstated their antisemitic laws after Napoleon was gone, can you imagine being a French Jew forced to fight and die in Russian winter for that jackass and then have to trudge back through a dozen countries whose antisemitism was all riled up by French interference?

Some facts about antisemitism:

antisemitism operates differently than many other oppressions, it doesn't economically oppress the target group in the same way as antiblackness or misogyny or ableism etc — the purpose of antisemitism is to create a scapegoat to blame when European peasants are mad at the king / the church / the people actually in charge, and structural antisemitism encourages a system where some Jews become visibly successful so that those individuals and our whole community are easier to make into scapegoats

one of the historical roots of antisemitism is stuff in the Christian Bible about moneylending as sinful — Jews in medieval Europe were often barred from owning land and Christians barred from moneylending, so some Jews found work in finance and some of us became very visibly successful for working with money — a few individual Jews running a particular bank or finding success as jewelry dealers turns into "Jews control global financial systems" scapegoating — a more recent example of this is the participation of nonblack Jews in white flight and the role of Jewish landlords doing the visible dirty work of non-Jewish institutions in American antiblack housing discrimination, Nile grew up on the South Side of Chicago and would have seen some shit along these lines and might repeat hurtful ideas out of a lack of knowledge, here's Ta Nahesi Coates on some of these dynamics

Booker canonically being a forger (specifically of coins in the comics?) needs a little extra care to avoid antisemitic tropes about Jews and money, I will happily answer good-faith asks about this if you want to check on something for a fic/etc

antisemitism in the United States where I live in October 2020 isn't institutional in the sense of targeting Jews for police violence or anything like that. it IS systemic, however, for example in all the antisemitic conspiracy theories the Trump administration and several other Republicans peddle (ie QAnon), and in how the Trump administration points to support for Israel as if that means support for Jews (it doesn't, it's evangelical Christians who push the US government to support the Israeli government because they think Jews need to be in the ~holy land~ for Jesus to come back that's literally why the United States funds Israel at the level it does). antisemitism also gets weaponized to encourage white Jews (those of us of European descent, who in the United States are definitely white because the foundation of US racism is slavery and antiblackness as well as anti-indigenous genocide, maybe European Jews aren't included in whiteness everywhere but we definitely are where I live) to side with white supremacy instead of building solidarity with other marginalized people (ie a lot of mainstream Jewish groups shit on the Movement for Black Lives because of its solidarity with Palestinians)

the Nation of Islam has a major presence in Chicago and its leader Louis Farrakhan who lives in Chicago has long spread a variety of antisemitic as well as homophobic bullshit but there are genuine good reasons many Black people find meaning/support in the Nation of Islam and Nile would've grown up with that mess in the air around her, this is a good take from a Black Jew about the nuance of all that

the way the Old Guard comics draw Yusuf al Kaysani is HOLY SHIT ANTISEMITISM BATMAN I hate it please summarize the comics for me because I DO NOT WANT to look at that unnecessarily caricatured nose why the fuck did they do that human noses are beautiful there is absolutely no need to draw Joe like a Nazi would

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice is a local NYC group that recently developed a fantastic resource for understanding and fighting antisemitism (pdf) 11/10 strongly recommend

Zionism disclaimer: A lot of Jews feel strongly that we need a Jewish-majority country in order to be safe from antisemitism. I strongly disagree with this idea on its merits (Jews disagree about who is a Jew and making Jewish status a government/immigration matter means some of us are going to get left out; also non-Jews aren't fundamentally dangerous and separatism isn't going to end antisemitism) but I have a lot of empathy for the very valid fear that leads a lot of my people to Zionism. Whether I want a Jewish-majority country or not, what Israel has done and continues to do to Palestinians is a deal breaker. Emotions run very high on this subject — I spend a lot of my not-Tumblr life talking to other Jews about Zionism and I'd rather not have this Jewish Booker headcanons post become yet another place where fellow Jews yell at me in bad faith. Block me if you need to, you're not going to change my mind. Call me self-hating if you want, I know I love us.

Racism in fandom disclaimer: I feel weird about increasing the volume of meta about Booker in this fandom. Nile Freeman is the main character and deserves lots of attention and adoration from the fandom — and she deserves emotional support from as many friends and orgasms from as many partners as she wants. I think Jewish Booker makes her friendship and potential romantic relationship with him even more interesting, hence this post. Ship what you ship, but be aware of the racist impact of focusing your fandom activity on, for example, shipping two white men while ignoring awesome characters of color especially the canon man of color one of those white dudes has already been with for a millennium. Please and thanks don't use my post for shenanigans like sidelining Joe so you can ship Booker with Nicky.

Oh and a non-disclaimer fun fact, Matthias Schoenaerts was born in Antwerp which apparently has one of the largest Jewish communities still remaining in Europe?? ~Jewish Booker headcanons intensify~

In conclusion: Jewish Booker! Just because it's fun! It exponentially increases the angst of his mortal lifetime and it puts his first century of immortality smack in the middle of the most intense changes to Jewish life since the fall of the Second Temple (aforementioned emancipation, also founding of Reform Judaism, the Haskalah, Zionism, and then of course the Holocaust). It makes his relationships with Nile, Joe, and Nicky more interesting and potentially angstier and with more intense commonalities and tenderness about their differences. It's very common for Jews to not believe in God (this confuses the shit out of a lot of Christians) and this would probably have further endeared him to Andy.

One more thing: Booker as golem. (A golem is basically an earthenware robot of Jewish folklore.) He's tall and blond and the most Steve Rogers-looking of all of them and from the Himbeaux region of France. THE trope of Book of Nile is he will do WHATEVER Nile wants or needs him to do. I was today years old when I learned that Modern Hebrew speakers use golem figuratively to mean "mindless lunk" and I'm choosing to squint and read that as "hot kind and dumb as rocks" because it amuses me.

[katiemcgrath]

there's nothing abt the jews being wiped out in the bible, that's horrible and untrue, there is predictions about the world turning against Israel, which is not a positive thing just something that is going to happen beforethe end of the world according to the scripture, but it's not a positive thing or something anyone wants to happen. some christians are pro Israel because the jewish people are the chosen people of god. please stop shitting on faiths u clearly don't understand. many christians are pro Israel many are not for a variety of reasons, I'm sure many christians are antisemitic as well just like with any large group of people but that doesn't mean they're right or that it's a part of our faith. also trump isn't christian, he just uses certain christian beliefs to fool christians into supporting him. what's happening in palestine is terrible but it's not an excuse to be hateful and spread lies about other faiths and u should be ashamed of yourself

Why are you telling me it's not in the bible? I'm not doing the teaching. Do I seem like religious to you.

I was curious as to why Evangelical American Christians support Israel so strongly so I read this research paper, you can read it yourself and complain to the man who has done extensive research and cited multiple sources that he is wrong.

I'm not hating on your faith nor am I 'spreading lies', I'm expressing my views that perhaps the interest evangelical Christians have in Israel isn't rooted in actual interest for Jewish people.

I'm not saying ALL Christians share these views and values, which you have presumed I meant, but it is commonplace in evangelical churches.

What do I have to be ashamed about?

Edit:

And to be perfectly honest with you, fuck you. Christians want to wash their hands of fucking everything. Christians will colonise and destroy entire nations in the name of their faith and then turn around and say 'how dare you criticise Christians'. A bunch of evangelical Christian brits decided to create Israel in Palestine and now children are dying. Go fuck yourself and do some critical thinking.

[cometconmain]

Antisemitism hasn't stopped and it HAS gotten worse actually. There ARE people using the pro-Palestine movement to be antisemtic and it is absolutely fucked up. Jewish people the world over haven't suddenly become less marginalised because the Israeli military is committing genocide. They used Hamas doing a horrific thing to helpless civilians as their excuse to do what they've always wanted to do to those they oppressed, and people who were already antisemtic the world over are using the horrific things to helpless civillians the Israeli military is doing as their excuse to do the things they've always wanted to do those they oppressed.

It's a never-ending either-or cycle and you're playing into it. Please consider that most Jewish people talking about antisemtism aren't either-or people who think what's happening to Palestine was ever right. Multiple truths can and do exist. It's true what's happening to Palestine is fucked up and needs to end. It's true 300 Holocaust survivors called it out all the way back in 2014 warning about where it was headed.

It's also true that Jewish people have never seen an end to the antisemtism plaguing society the world over and that doesn't stop being true because of something a subsection of Jewish people in military and government are doing supported by a subsection of Jewish people online. None of them speak for every Jewish person. I would say they don't speak for most either.

Don't play into the propaganda saying supporting Palestine is antisemetic by also being antisemtic on the side. Fight to end antisemtism too and don't shut down Jewish people talking about antisemtism. I rarely see anything about it on my dash to reblog anymore and it's concerning. They shouldn't have to stop talking about it because shitty people are co-opting an actually valid and important movement supporting Palestine because they think it suddenly excuses antisemtism/makes antisemtism irrelevant/makes talking about antisemitism immediately anti-Palestine when it doesn't.

wistfully remembering how people (pretended they) cared about antisemitism when it was primarily coming from the right. like there are pre-2023 posts with tens of thousands of notes about antisemitism. now any mention of the existence of antisemitism (when its worse than it ever was) doesn’t breach containment outside of jewish circles. its almost funny how quickly people stopped caring when it was inconvenient.

[kick-a-long]

cool, why am i fallaciously reasoning?

jews in the diaspora are telling you that the way you are advocating for Palestine (not that you are advocating which is good and reasonable, just the language you are using) is making people emboldened to do hate crimes, encouraging neonazis to march, encouraging antisemitism in younger people, spreading basic misinformation and conspiracy theories about jews, and making college an unsafe place for jewish kids.

you can advocate for Palestine without making jews unsafe by including language that doesn't vilify all jews. specify what orgs, governments (besides zionists which are most jews) and people you are opposing or exempt israeli jews that have nothing to do with what their government is doing. you can learn about the decades of neo nazi dog whistles about jews (you don't even need to learn the two thousand year old history and legacy of it) so you can spot it and correct it when you see it in others.

why, if you really care about all the men, women, and children affected by this conflict, are you not policing the people in your movement that are actually doing jews in your country harm? why are you not taking reasonable steps to curb the rising bigotry? why don't you include a hope that the hostages return so Bibi doesn't have anymore excuses for bombing and has to stop? Bibi is a monster, jews aren't him. jews don't control anymore as a group than any other minority. white christians control FAR FAR more, you can look at how many people in the us government are christian compared to jewish.

im american, have never been to israel, wouldn't even qualify as jewish enough for citizenship there, but im afraid to even check out local synagogs.

this just happened in Texas. the woman was an antisemite pro Palestinian and she shot up a church because she hated jews. it makes no sense. she's not a muslim, which makes sense because the vast majority of terrorism in america doesn't come from muslim extremists. muslims are scared shitless right now too. because the people you embolden with antisemitism are also islamaphobic, xenophobic, racists, and all kinds of gross.

please advocate for palistine, they need someone on their side because right now they are getting killed in a proxy conflict between iran, russia, hamas, the us, israel's fucked up government lead by a guy who should be in jail (not even just for bombing, he's also a criminal wannabe dictator.) but the way you are setting up your advocacy is screwing them over as well as every other group that gets targeted by neo nazis and authoritarians.

israel is the only democracy in the middle east. it's not perfect but it is the only one. it's the only one where they even attempt to have freedom of religion and gender equality and sexual freedom.

this guy is an israeli. it's just one perspective and might not be 100% something you agree with but it's worth seeing his point of veiw.

genocide supporters when you confront them with the fact that it was never about hamas and you also tell them you don't support the murder of innocent men (fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, human beings), women (mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, human beings), and children (sons, daughters, sisters; brothers, cousins, "fragile lives," "minors," human beings): omgggg so you hate Jewish people 🤬🤬 antisemitism antisemitism antisemitism!!!!