#from the Antisemitism crowd

[beardedmrbean]

They survived Hitler and the Holocaust – but these Jewish New Yorkers never imagined they’d witness images evoking the horrors they experienced 80 years after liberation.

Aron Krell, a 97-year-old survivor of Auschwitz and other camps who was liberated nearly 80 years ago at 18, said the images of the three Israeli male hostages released from Hamas’s clutches looking weak and malnourished after 491 days in captivity, evoked painful memories.

“You could have lifted me up with one finger,” Krell told The Post on Sunday of his own liberation as a “weak” and “feeble” survivor from the “warehouse of the living dead.”

The chilling footage of the three released hostages, Or Levy, Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, revealed their dangerously gaunt and hallowed features.

For Krell, their photos brought rushing back painful memories of the darkest days of his life and moved him to tears.

“When I saw their pictures coming out of captivity, they looked so emaciated and so sick,” he said. “And the world doesn’t care. I can’t understand — where is the outrage?”

“It breaks your heart to see how Jews are being treated today. And no one says a word,” blasted Krell, echoing the cries of Jews who took to social media to lambast the apparent apathy.

“It’s a sorry sight to look at, and even sorrier we have to discuss it. It evokes so many things when you think about it,” he added. “It brings back the memories you try to forget, but you can’t forget.”

Another point of connection the Holocaust survivor shares with the liberated men is the bitter reality they came home to — as each improbably survived hell not knowing the fate of their loved ones.  

“It’s a tragic moment when you find out you have no one — no mother, father, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins. Everybody is gone,” said Krell, noting that Sharabi only learned that his wife and two teenage daughters were brutally murdered during the October 7 Hamas attacks upon his release on Saturday.

“What kept me alive was being an optimist — thinking that one day that things will end and we’ll come out free,” Krell said, hoping he would see his remaining family after the separation.

“It’s the only thing left — maybe I’ll meet somebody again,” he recalled some 80 years later of his mindset to stay alive.

Though 6 million Jews were killed in the camps, antisemitism has survived — and mutated all these decades later.

“We thought of what had been done to our people – that was supposed to be history,” lamented 91-year-old Lucy Lipiner, a longtime Upper West Side resident who’s lived in New York City since she was 16 when she arrived as a stricken, 90-pound Holocaust survivor from Poland in 1949.

“The horrible images of the hostages pale and starved that were released yesterday brought me back to a very dark time in my life,” Lipiner wrote on X.

The emaciated hostages held captive in tunnels, looking listless and lifeless, evoke classic Holocaust imagery.

“The three men look like they came out from Auschwitz,” she said.

“It breaks your heart — how can this be happening in 2025, 80 years after the vow, ‘Never again’?” Lipiner asked incredulously.

The images of the three Israeli hostages looking like shells of their former selves, having reportedly lost some 30 percent of their overall weight, pierced Lipiner to her core.

“I saw almost skeletal men walking. The worst thing about them was the depression that was written on their faces – the hollowed cheeks, sunken-in faces… can you imagine this emotional torture, on top of physical torture?” she said of the painful parallels between past and present.

President Trump also pointed out the disturbing resemblance between the hostages and victims of the Holocaust.

“They literally look like the old pictures of Holocaust survivors. The same thing,” he said on Sunday.

For Krell, the fresh images evoking Holocaust survivors put a modern color patina on what should have remained in black and white.

“The whole world doesn’t really care. When it comes to the Jews, the Jewish question, everything is moot,” said the survivor of Poland’s Lodz Ghetto, followed by multiple camps – including Mauthausen in Austria and Auschwitz.

The Upper East Sider, who has accused leaders failing to condemn antisemitism of having “a case of laryngitis,” admitted that when tearing up over Saturday’s images, he thought to himself, “It’s a sorry thing, but history does repeat itself. It’s not very pleasant to revisit.”

After living in a German DP camp for displaced persons after the war and learning that one-third of the world’s Jewish population was annihilated, Krell said wearily, “I didn’t expect antisemitism to exist to such a high degree again — I figured the world has learned something.”

“And it’s like nothing happened.”

The deafening silence since the three hostages were released, is a bitter pill to swallow for Krell.

“There’s very little hope — you can see that the world is ambivalent.”

Lipiner, who moved to Tel Aviv weeks before October 7, summed it up: “After the Holocaust, we always said, ‘Never again.’ And I believed that.

“I never believed there was something like a Holocaust. But this was.”

[a-very-tired-jew]

So we all saw the MIT sukkah and how bad that was.

Are you ready for NYU’s?

Because not only is it bad, but the persons behind it are either Jews with no connection whatsoever to their culture and can’t be bothered to do a basic fact check or it’s goyim who can’t be bothered to do a basic fact check.

That’s right. It says “l’chaim intifada” on their post. Yes, the structure is made out of wood. Good job for not using an event tent as the base like MIT. But you've built it under a tree, a no-no, and just said “To life intifada” on your “solidarity” sukkah poster.

That’s as bad as the backwards Hebrew.

It’s a nonsense phrase and makes no sense.

So what else is in the post?

Points 1 through 3 are standard for these organizations. Others that have more experience regarding the legalities of these asks have broken down why it won't happen for 1 and 2.

Point 3 is just xenophobic and discriminatory, and shows the hypocrisy of these orgs. I hate whataboutisms, but this same academic boycott is not being held for other countries that have committed or are committing comparable or worse actions. I have not seen calls to boycott Russian, Chinese, or Iranian academics and condemn research alliances or remote campuses.

Why is it only Israel?

(we know why)

Points 4 and 5 are what we expect as well. But here's the thing. Point 4? So much research and innovation comes through military contracts and funding. Medical entomology alone is reliant on massive funding from the military and was actually established by the US Military as well. The break throughs in treatments for vectored diseases typically come from their projects.

This is going to piss people off. But cutting funding projects that are associated with our military industrial complex is actually really bad for innovation, research, and scientific advancement.

"They can get the funds elsewhere".

No the fuck they cannot. Tell me you know nothing about research in academia without telling me.

But sure, cut funding to things associated with the MI-complex. I'm sure the DHS and DOD projects that are working on medical innovations will definitely help "Free Palestine".

Point 5 states it is "No Normalization", but the text reads more that they want to undo the Find Out portion of the Fuck Around they've been doing all year. As well as redefine antisemitism the way they want so that their dog whistles can be allowed and then it gets to the normalization thing. Which is just a way of saying they don't want peace. I'm not surprised as normalization processes lead to peace, and these groups don't want that. We've seen them eschew peace repeatedly and endorse violence.

But they'll tell you they're a peace movement.

Point 6 is just odd to include. 1 through 5 are standard, but 6 gets into the academic pay scale and structure and that just feels tacked on. It's trying to put a rider to ban abortion at the back end of the agricultural bill. It's trying to say "while I have you attention, also this."

I'll be the first one to say the academic pay structure is fucked and needs to be overhauled (The Cali University system has had multiple protests because Professors can't afford to even live in the cities they teach in). But putting pay structure issues onto this is just "everything relates to Gaza!" nonsense. We've seen countless occurrences of these activists trying to link any and every movement and concern to I/P throughout the year and it's just ridiculous.

Also note the text "expanding further into the city and across the globe" makes it seem like they view the university they are attending as a colonizer as well. If such is the case, and they're against colonization as vehemently as they attest to, then why are they still attending as their tuition is funding colonization? Yes, this is a "why don't you leave" argument, but they have the option to drop out or transfer. It's not leaving the USA, it's leaving or changing schools (and that's much more doable).

Point 7 isn't really a point. It's the same thing we've seen from anti-Israel groups across college campuses in the USA a long time. The problem is that they deny Zionism/Zionist has become a major dog whistle that has a history of being one ever since the Soviet era. Is every instance of anti-Zionism antisemitism? Of course not. But because major antisemitism groups, militias, and governments have used it for decades as a cover it is often viewed as such.

There's no denying that.

The problem is that you have college kids who are earnest in their beliefs that they don't see how they're being manipulated to use said dog whistles. It's especially worse when it comes to anti-Zionist Jews because they will say/endorse absolutely horrendous antisemitic rhetoric while justifying it through "Don't worry, I'm a Jew".

Unfortunately the sukkah they've built and the "L'chaim Intifada" brings in to question how Jewish they are. Even secular Jews would know that L'chaim means "To Life" by simply existing within our culture. So they're either extremely detached and didn't fact check, they're religious Jews who don't know enough Hebrew and didn't fact check, or they're goyim who are cosplaying as Jews and didn't fact check.

Initially I was leaning towards the detached as being behind this as I personally know several detached Jews who are using their ethnicity to defend antisemitism in NYC and by these groups. And because this is NYU it's more than likely that detached Leftist Jews are behind this with support from goyim than simply goyim alone. Which shows how little is know of our culture in general and means they really shouldn't be relied upon as arbiters of what is offensive to Jews and what isn't.

However, there is nothing Jewish about what they post. They even have photos of them in the sukkah and there's not a single kippah in sight. It's all keffiyehs. You'd think that if they wanted to show solidarity there'd be some variation in garb. You'd think that if they wanted to show that Jewish religious traditions and culture are welcoming that you'd have some visibly Jewish persons in your sukkah sitting side by side with keffiyeh wearing activists in this "solidarity sukkah"

But there's not.

Now this isn't to say I know who is behind this group, who the members are, or what the agenda is.

But this organization has only existed since November 2023, regularly cross posts with NYU SJP, and endorsed/justified 10/7 as well as the anniversary events celebrating it.

Come to your own conclusions as you will, but I know what I think.

[hawkins-batman]

The Noah Schnapp Situation Going Into S5

With Stranger Things Season 5 coming out this year, we are unfortunately going to see a revival of the debacle around Noah, even though by then it will be an almost 2 year old subject. So, I thought I would get ahead of that with some of my thoughts based on what I've seen these last few weeks and more broadly over the last 6 or more months I've been on this scene.

Spoiler Alert: This is going to be a long one. It'll probably be my new pinned post.

Why Still Talk About It?

Frankly? Because it's still going on. Keep in mind, Liam Payne died in October 2024 (just three months ago), right around Noah's birthday, and THIS is how Twitter responded to that.

And just in case anyone thinks I had to dig back a whole 3 months to find Noah-hate-content on Twitter, here was just random things I grabbed from the last week:

Which brings me to the next point.

Why Do You Even Care?

"Noah doesn't know you." "He's not your pookie."

I know that. The funny thing is, from what little I know about Noah, I'm pretty sure if he DID know me beyond the ONE DM conversation we've had, he'd probably tell me to chill. Dude is very non-confrontational and nice. So, why do it?

Because I think the online movement in favor of Palestinian self-determination has been hijacked by teenagers and performative leftists who care more about looking good for their peers than practicing what they preach.

Because (as you can see above and in screenshots like the one below), people who claim to hold my liberal/progressive/left-leaning values have used this as an opportunity to be openly homophobic and antisemitic towards a then-19-year old who had JUST come out of the closet.

Proponents of the hate campaign against Noah have said that they are just "holding him accountable" or "criticizing him" in the hopes he "learns something."

Look up. Point to me which image is accountability. Point to me the valid criticisms.

There are none. There is just flagrant homophobia. And then there are posts like this one, coming from the same crowd:

This behavior is wrong on its face.

It is violent. It is bullying (which doesn't seem like strong enough of a word) and it's bigoted.

Wanna see more? Look up @noah_schnapp on Twitter/X. See what they've done to his account.

Inevitably, some of the people participating in this will see this blog post. If you've made it this far, this is for you:

This behavior discredits your activism. It makes you look performative and fake to say in one breath that you are a "Leftist" who cares about Palestinian lives as well as the lives of minority groups worldwide, and then to turn around and talk like this about a Jewish person and a gay KID. Because he WAS a kid when this started. Furthermore, it makes it clear to those of us who actually hold the beliefs we claim, that you are vapid enough to use Palestinian suffering for your own personal vendettas. That the APPEARANCE of goodness is more important than goodness itself. And that you will shuck solidarity with minority groups the MOMENT one of them steps out of the lines you have drawn around them.

Not to mention...

It's Based Mostly On Lies

As a reminder, this is what Noah Schnapp actually said shortly after October 7, 2023:

Read that again.

"...we will hope and pray for safety, justice, liberation, and self-determination in Palestine." That was part of the very first thing he ever said about the issue.

And then this happened:

This was the image he was crucified for.

Stickers that weren't even his. That he wasn't holding up or making. He was in a cafe, someone else came up to him with them, and he was videoed with that person.

That's it. That's all. All those tweets you saw above? The fake stories made up about him like this one?

All of that was supposedly "accountability."

The harassment of his family. Murder threats. Rape threats. All for stickers that weren't even his.

There's even a paid Stranger Things author on this very site, styling herself as a Byler shipper, who has contributed to the lies that have further added to the hate campaign I've described.

As an aside, Noah wasn't the only one in that video. The influencers that actually posted the video and HAD THE STICKERS?

Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

And just to be clear - I don't think they should get hate. I think non-Jewish online Leftists appropriated a term from Jewish culture, redefined it, and are weaponizing it to beat down Jews all over the internet—which is par for the course for this charcuterie board of performative activism.

Yet the point stands. Noah was specifically targeted; and the homophobia that IMMEDIATELY came from the Left suggests to me that it was his sexuality and cultural/religious identity that motivated the attacks.

Again, I'll say, this is wrong.

Noah Has Since Responded

It hasn't stopped the bullying.

Didn't stop him from withdrawing from spaces he loved. From needing therapy from what we've learned from his now-deleted second TikTok.

And that really says something, does it? He cleared up his point. He tried to clarify and even apologize.

They didn't accept it. Not because it wasn't good enough. Not because it was "too late." Because this was the point. They wanted to keep doing it. They get sick joy from it.

Which is why...

I'm Not Shutting Up About This

This post doesn't even nearly cover the whole situation. The Byler fans who try to replace Noah's image in fan art and fan fiction. Who fan cast themselves as Will instead of Noah. The stalking and doxxing on Twitter. People reporting to GIANT hate accounts his location and when he's alone, PRAYING for him to be hurt.

I wish I could cover it all.

We have to stand up to this. On tumblr, on TikTok, on Threads, Twitter/X—everywhere we see it.

For our gay and Jewish siblings who see how Noah was attacked and feel less safe in their online spaces as a result, we have to speak up and say something.

And yeah. We have to say something for Noah, too.

The person who replied to me like this:

Him?

He did it because he needed to see a show of love from his fans. Doesn't mean he's perfect. Doesn't mean he won't mess up or do something in the future.

And no. Standing up for Noah, or for Jewish people, or other gay folks does not make you a genocide supporter or apologist. It doesn't mean you want any innocent people harmed. Don't give them the power to talk down to you like that. It's bullshit. You know it, and I know it.

All standing up to this vile shit is is an acknowledgement that Noah is a living, breathing person, as some of these people tend to forget.

And he didn't deserve this.

Any of it.

Related Blogs:

The Evolution of a Lie

[the-lesser-light]

"They're running towards the house on fire." -Rubin talking about all conversion students after Oct 7th.

A recent notion came to me about a month back. "I feel like a sleeper agent."

Something woke up my Jewish soul. It feels like it has always been there, waiting for me. Nothing has felt more like coming home than working on my conversion.

I've heard from a Rabbi in New York that Judaism's introduction courses have a seven month wait list and have doubled in size.

Hebrew classes have grown and the demand for them is growing still.

Hebrew reading comprehension courses are being introduced to learning apps that have long ignored Hebrew in the past. Prayer book study courses are increasing and attendance to the bigger services this year like Yom Kippur were quite massive compared to previous years.

Not only are we seeing more new faces in Synagogues of people looking to convert or who are curious, but OLD faces are starting to come back.

This past Friday the Rabbi stopped while looking out at the crowd and went, "I see some faces I have not seen in over ten years!!"

I spoke with a man that only appears at the holiday events and he admitted that it had been a while since he had done anything, but he was starting to hear a calling to come back.

Antisemitism is on the rise. Violence towards Israeli and Jews in the Diaspora is growing and there has been a lot of betrayal from former safe places and groups.

Yet there is a sold out Jewish Music concert happening downtown next week. Synagogue tours are still happening and Judaica decor is certainly on the rise. The Jewish Bakery near me today was having a special Hanukkah festival and the line was incredible.

The Jews are Tired. A saying that has been going around any time we read idiotic posts filled with Antisemitism. I think that table has turned. The Jews are Angry.

The Mountain is calling and it feels like so many more are coming home.

[the-library-alcove]

One of the things that repeatedly pissed me off over the last sixteen months feels like it shouldn't be as impactful as it actually was. Specifically, I hate, hate, hate how the Hamasnik crowd on the Left forced so many Jews to unwillingly play Defense Attorney for fucking Benjamin Netanyahu.

I, and a lot of others, would have loved to play prosecutor against that piece of excrement, zeroing in on every bit of his overreach, political gamesmanship, and corrupt dealings.

But nooooooo. Rather than accuse him and Israel of the actual crimes that were being committed (excessive force, willingness to accept collateral damage, the occasional war crime by overzealous troops, etc), the Hamasnik crowd had to dive headfirst into Holocaust Inversion, virulent antisemitism, and active support for an explicitly genocidal terrorist organization of Islamist fanatics.

So we had to play Defense Attorney instead. We had to point out that it's not a genocide, again and again and again. We had to correct bad faith historical revisionism of Jewish history. We had to defend fucking Benjamin Netanyahu when these people decided to go full Protocols on him and just do full antisemitic canards and caricatures of him. And on and on and on.

And while all of that is just part of the whole issue from the last sixteen months, it's still something I'm stewing on with deep and abiding resentment.

[the-indigo-symphony]

I don't think I'm gonna really say this better than the Jewish folks I've already seen talk about this, but I kinda feel obligated to on some level, so here we go

"Punch a Nazi" is all well and good, but over the past few years, I've seen lots of otherwise respectable and kind people drink the antisemitism juice until they become Nazis in all but recognized name. And I say "recognized name" because people have somehow forgotten that the core of Nazism is Jew-hatred, and not just being an extreme bigot (or even just a run-of-the-mill asshole), so people refuse to look at what's in front of them and name it (Nazism) for what it is. So many would rather use that serious, specific term as a general insult for anyone they disagree with online. Ignorance is bliss, after all, even if it means looking the other way as a mere mention of someone celebrating Hanukkah brings out accusations of blood libel from your fellow activists. (I'm not exaggerating with that example, btw, I've seen simple posts just about celebrating Hanukkah get filled with comments accusing the poster of supporting child murder. And a lot worse besides.)

If you want to punch a Nazi, if you're concerned about parallels to the years before the Holocaust... learn to recognize a Nazi before they get on national television and """throw their heart out to the crowd""". And perhaps more importantly, learn to keep yourself from going along with their shit for even an inch.

Listen to Jewish people. And when you do, be aware – there will be a part of you that is biased, that is antisemitic, and you have to pay attention to when it rears its head and you have to kill it where it stands. You have to listen to Jewish people, you have to have an open mind when you do it, you have to remember that you are not immune to subtly internalizing the idea that you, too, should be biased against a group that has been hated and scapegoated and lied about and cast as the root of all evil for centuries upon centuries.

The point of punching Nazis is to stop Nazism. And the first step to accomplishing that is keeping yourself from joining them because you didn't catch your bias becoming prejudice becoming discrimination becoming hatred becoming... any of the bullshit I've seen, any of the bullshit that Jewish people have had to put up with as antisemitism rises over the past few years.

No one is immune to propaganda. I know I'm certainly not. And none of the formerly respectable and kind people I've seen fall to hatred over the past few years were, either.

You want to be inclusive? You want to be accepting? You want to minimize harm and help bring about a brighter tomorrow?

Then make sure you stand alongside Jewish folk as you do it.

Name and kill the Nazi in your head before you go out punching the ones around you, or you may find yourself marching with them without a second thought.

[former-leftist-jew]

"however you are not the victim in this situation. and there are actual palestinian people who are being killed for no reason."

As opposed to actual israeli people being killed for "good reason??"

Fuck off.

crazy how palestinian children have had their limbs amputated without anesthesia because israel cut off all resources to hospitals but go on about how israel is the victim and how all free palestine people are anti-semites

i’m truly sorry you’re being harrassed online, that fucking sucks and no one should have to go through that. and i understand how being jewish can put you in a bit of a tough spot. however you are not the victim in this situation. and there are actual palestinian people who are being killed for no reason.

also how was the previous ask about this topic proving you right?

"however you are not the victim in this situation"

however, 🖕

i made a post about how a lot of free palestine people post graphically anti-semitic shit on their posts and then invade jewish people's ask boxes/lives to insult them, their judaism, and their country's right to exist.

i literally made a post about how jewish people ARE victims. people being harassed and having death threats against them and not being able to publicly be jewish IS being a victim.

there's so much that goyim don't fucking understand and y'all have the audacity to come up in here and tell me im not a victim?? fuck off.

"go on about how israel is the victim and how all free palestine people are antisemites"

BITCH FUCK OFF

literally jewish people are suffering. israelis ARE suffering. JEWS ARE SUFFERING.

if canada and the us were in this position, NO ONE would act like this. but y'all don't care because- once again- this is about hating jews, not supporting palestinians.

[unsolicited-opinions]

I'm starting to think that a whole lot of US Jews don't understand why a crowd of tiki torch Nazis chanted "Jews will not replace us" in Charlottesville. It seems like a lot of US Jews don't yet understand how the anti-immigrant sentiment Trump used to recapture the presidency is a direct threat to US Jews.

If you don't know this yet, please read the broad strokes below:

1. Like a certain Austrian in the 20th century, Trump saw both a disgruntled part of the electorate and their antipathy for non-white, non-Christian, foreign-born people. He capitalized on their xenophobia and feelings of abandonment by blaming foreigners, LGBTQ+ folks, and DEI for all the US's challenges.

He's used and amplified bigotry against already-marginalized people in order to ride his base's bigotry to power. All comparisons people make between this and how Hitler amplified and harnessed the power of antisemitism are entirely appropriate. It's demagoguery.

2. One of the existing, popular, xenophobic ideas on which Trump capitalized is a right-wing conspiracy theory usually called The Great Replacement.

It seems as though many US Jews do not realize that Jews are a huge part of this conspiracy theory.

Great Replacement, also known as white replacement theory or white genocide theory, claims there is an intentional effort, led by Jews, to promote mass non-white immigration, inter-racial marriage, and other efforts that would lead to the “extinction of whites.”

This conspiracy theory was famously promoted at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA, when white supremacists chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”

Right wing commentators have invoked the Great Replacement theory to say Democrats are “replacing” American citizens with illegal immigrants. Belief in the Great Replacement theory has been cited as motivation for recent terror attacks, including the 2018 Pittsburgh, PA, synagogue shooting at the Tree of Life, the 2019 El Paso, TX, and Christchurch, New Zealand, shootings, and the 2022 shooting in Buffalo, NY.

4. This isn't a theory limited to the far-right fringe. About half of US Republicans believe it.

It's been actively promoted on Fox "News" by Tucker Carlson and others.

This was the theory Elon Musk agreed with in a tweet, causing a mass exodus of advertisers from Twitter and prompting Musk's apology tour to Auschwitz with Ben Shapiro.

5. The anti-immigrant fervor, the mass deportation plans...? They're all tied up with Jews in the minds of the far-right base to whom Trump and his henchmen keep winking and dogwhistling. Trump has openly endorsed this conspiracy theory.

I see a lot of Jews online deciding to keep their heads down because they think Jews aren't the immediate target of this authoritarian and I'm gobsmacked by their ignorance of history and failure to pay attention to the rapid and violent increase in far-right antisemitic violence in recent years, driven by the very same Trump who they mistakenly believe is "good for the Jews."

Jews are being set up as scapegoats.

----

The irony is amazing, too. If you ask believers in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory for evidence of the Jewish plot to replace white people, they'll produce headlines about Jewish charitable organizations which seek to aid refugees:

The fact that Jews...care about refugees...is the proof of our sinister plot against white people.

[directactionforhope]

So, look, the genuinely upsetting truth is that it's unlikely that Kamala Harris is going to do much of anything to help Palestinians

But unlike her, if Donald Trump is elected president, he will make it way harder for you to help Palestinians.

You will have a much harder time helping Palestinians if/when Trump:

Declares martial law/invokes the Insurrection Act (which there is extremely real danger of Trump doing) x, x, x, x, x, x

Destroys the right to protest (which his hand-picked Supreme Court has already done in three states) x, x, x

Starts arresting, criminally charging, and assassinating his political enemies (which he has talked about doing and which the Supreme Court just made fucking legal) x, x, x, x, x

Legally protects people who drive cars into crowds of protestors (which two Republican states have already done, and more states have introduced bills to do so) x, x, x, x

Starts deploying the US military in US cities and against protestors (which he has said he is going to do) x, x, x

Makes it so that anti-Zionism is legally defined as antisemitism in order to prosecute people (which the US House of Representatives and several states have already passed a bill to do) x, x, x, x

Advocates for Netanyahu to "finish the problem" in Palestine (he has already done this) x, x

Bans Palestinians and Palestinian refugees from entering the United States (which he has said he is going to do) x, x, x, x

Deports and revokes visas of pro-Palestinian protestors, including student visas (which he has said he is going to do) x, x, x

Reinstitutes and expands the Muslim ban (which he has said he is going to do) x, x, x, x, x

Calls for or incites violence against refugee communities (he is already knowingly doing this) x, x, x, x

Wrecks the economy so that a hell of a lot more people can't afford to donate money to support Palestinians x, x, x, x

Wrecks the economy and turns this country into an even shittier, more violent place, where far more people are too exhausted and focused on trying to survive to have the time or energy to advocate for Palestine (source: see all of the above)

The status quo is fucking bad but that doesn't change the fact that Trump would be fucking worse.

[gingerswagfreckles]

It's crazy because this isn't the first time this has happened this year but no one ever talks about it no one ever cares. A week or two ago a woman was murdered by having her throat slit in front of her two kids by a guy who screamed "free Palestine" and all the comments on the article were theorizing that it was a false flag attack actually organized by The Jews. A few weeks before that a synagogue was bombed in France by a guy who literally wrapped himself in a Palestine flag as he did it and every single news organization cropped the images so you couldn't see the flag. Several Jewish women have been raped in France "for Palestine" and several other Jews in the country murdered. Some Jews were kidnapped in Australia by "activists." In the US an elderly Jewish man was murdered by protesters months and months ago and absolutely no mainstream news reported on it. A plane in Russia was stormed by a mob looking to find Jews and kill them because they mistakenly thought the plane was landing from Israel. A few days ago in NYC several Jewish men were stabbed in the span of a couple of hours in separate incidents by people screaming "free Palestine" and they're still hospitalized. A terrorist convicted of bombing a synagogue in 1980 and killing four Jews in France is now teaching a social justice class at a Canadian University. There was a crowd chanting "Heil Hitler" at the Israeli athletes at the Olympics while waving Palesfine flags. Students at Columbia University made a chain to block Jewish students from attending their classes. They cornered them in a library and chanted "globalize the intifada." Students at UCLA made their Jewish classmates wear badges to identify which had passed their Good Jew test and could be allowed to pass their mob to attend class. Hate crime numbers around the world have gone up by thousands of percentile points and the increase has been driven almost entirely by LEFTISTS and their crazy insistence that the full blown murder of Jews for being Jewish by terrorist organizations "isn't antisemitism" but is in fact a form of "resistance." Against the Jews who secretly control the world. This has been happening for months and months and months and nobody cares and you all just gaslight Jews and tell us we are being hysterical and this is all our fault anyway and now it's normal again to have full blown pogroms in every country in the world where mobs chase down people screaming "Jew! Jew!" to try to kill them and you are STILL. ALL. JUSTIFYING IT. You guys have become literal full blown Nazis and I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Nazism has been normalized again and it hasn't been normalized by the right, it has been normalized by the left through your desperate desire to roleplay a Huger Games type revolution against a tiny minority group who can't hurt you back.

[baroque-hashem]

I wear the Magen David for many reasons, but do you know what my proudest reason is? The reason I display it proudly for all to see rather than hide it when antisemitism is skyrocketing across the globe? I wear it because it makes other Jews feel safe. I work in a very popular tourist location, and thus I see people from all over the country (USA) and the world. I wear my Magen David proudly for that older Jewish woman who feels insecure next to my goyish coworkers, so that when she sees me she smiles and shows me her necklace too and says how nice it is to find another member of the tribe way out here. I wear it so that the Jewish couple from out of town can see it and find another Jew in the crowd, someone they know they can trust, someone they can wish a "Good Shabbos" to. I wear it so that the Jewish woman my age can see it and then excitedly show me her Judaica tattoos, thrilled to find another Jew her age who isn't afraid to be openly Jewish.

I am not a Jew with trembling knees. And I want every member of my community to see me and know that they are safe with me, that here is a proud Jew to whom they can go. That is why I wear the Magen David, above all other reasons, so that my fellow Jews feel safe.

[utilitymonstermash]

In California due to prison over crowding and a policy called realignment, many sentences are now served in county jail. Recently I came across this very funny jail memoir in The Newsweek.

On race:

I knew that I had to join the Peckerwoods, a notorious white supremacist gang. But I am by birth half-Jewish. I have a Jewish last name too, so I was fearful.

My plan was to pretend I was German since my last name is Yiddish, so pretty similar sounding. It's probably not politically correct to say this, but I also don't look like a stereotypical Jewish person, at least in the eyes of neo-Nazis.

I also think my image played into it. They saw a crackhead from Skid Row who weighed 130 pounds and just didn't connect that with a Jewish guy. So I got away with it. They believed I was just a German-American. They had no suspicion whatsoever.

For about three or four weeks, I played along. But I soon realized there was no need to. I never heard anything really racist or antisemitic.

There was another man named Lou. He was probably 50 years old, and every day, he would get a different meal than everyone else—a special meal in a blue box—and people lined up to buy it.

I was curious. I looked in the garbage and saw there was Hebrew lettering on this blue box so I knew Lou was probably Jewish. I asked Lou if he was, and he said yes, that's why he gets the kosher meal.

I said: "I'm Jewish too, actually." He didn't really care. I said I had told the shot caller—a kind of gang leader—and all the guys that I was German when I came in, and now I'm thinking about getting the kosher meal.

I asked what he thought the consequences would be of revealing that I was Jewish. He said: "Oh, well, they're not going to care that you're Jewish, but they are going to care that you lied. So, I would just go talk to the shot caller privately and work this out."

I expected a very violent repercussion for lying. There are violent repercussions for everything, from not washing your hands after using the bathroom to getting caught sharing food with another race.

I talked to the shot caller. He was pretty angry that I lied, but at the same time, he said: "Listen, I'm half Armenian. I'm not even fully white. We don't really care. These are just the rules and we have to follow them.

"As the shot caller, if it gets out that I'm not enforcing these rules, I'll get stabbed on the yard.

"You lied. You got to come clean to all the boys, and it's not a big deal. Just when you get the kosher meal, make sure that white guys get preference over buying it. If no one white wants to buy the meal, then you can sell it to the other races."

On managerialism:

Violence is highly organized in the California prison system. I was in county jail, but it's just as bad as prison, if not worse.

If you get into an altercation with someone, you're not allowed to fight them. You have to go to your shot caller, and he has to go to his shot caller, and the shot callers must decide whether you're allowed to fight in a very controlled environment.

[...]

I had to fight people for breaking very stupid rules, such as sharing food with a Black person—a rule that I think is ridiculous. To be honest, my shot caller thought it was ridiculous too. He told me personally that he shared food with Black people all the time; he just had to keep it secret.

[...]

It's Kafkaesque; there's some kind of bureaucratic overwatch going on and you don't even know if it exists or not, but you just have to follow these dumb rules.

A shot caller is your gang leader in jail. This is not the leader of the entire gang but the leader in your pod, meaning your dorm.

Every gang has a shot caller, and then that jail has a head shot caller, and then the whole prison system has a single shot caller somewhere at the top that is this Wizard of Oz-type overlord who no one ever really sees but somehow enforces the rules.

On yarmulke:

I'm not a practicing Jew; I never was, and no one in my family really is. But when you get the kosher meal, they also give you a yarmulke for some reason.

When the other inmates saw the yarmulke, they were mesmerized by this magical Jewish hat. The people who ran the world wore these hats, they thought, and now they were around one in a jail cell.

The Mexican shot caller would request to wear it when he gambled to bring him financial luck. This started sort of a buzz in the jail, and eventually, lots of people were requesting to wear it. Even neo-Nazis requested to wear it when they were gambling.

I asked them to treat it with respect, not because I am religious, but I thought: "My ancestors were religious. Don't be disrespectful."

The amount of respect they had for this yarmulke was actually disturbing; the fact that a Nazi with swastika tattoos would be so polite about a Jewish yarmulke.

On tolerance towards the Jews:

Once it came out that I was Jewish, I experienced zero antisemitic hate. It was more of a fascination. A lot of these people had never met a Jewish person. They pictured Jewish people as owning banks and companies and potentially even the jail.

So when they saw this Skid Row homeless addict who was Jewish, a lot of light bulbs went off about their preconceived ideas. Immediately, they asked: "What are you doing here? Can't you make a phone call? Don't you know a lawyer?"

I said: "No, I'm Jewish. My dad was a heroin addict carpenter. Not all Jews are what you think they are."

It opened up a lot of playful conversations with these people. They were fascinated with the concept that Jews were lawyers, so I started getting a lot of requests to consult people on their cases.

I had to tell them: "Listen, I'm a carpenter crackhead homeless guy. I'm not a lawyer."

They didn't care; they wanted to go over their cases with me. There was almost some soft antisemitism, but it mostly was playful and fanciful obsession and inquiry. They thought I had mystical powers.

[...]

I have stayed in touch with some of the people in jail. Not all white people were Nazis. In fact, a small minority identified as neo-Nazis; most just identified as Peckerwoods. I've kept in touch with both.

On demographics as destiny:

I talked to Lou about it, and he said that there used to be some problems for Jews, but in the end, the white gangs have such low numbers that they don't really care. They needed people.

[shizucheese]

So about that Dropout Tweet...

There's a common trend in influencer/ content creator apologies, where the person doing the apology will say they are sorry for the harm that they did, claim they are taking ownership of it and using the whole situation to become a better person, etc. etc. Usually in a way that makes it sound suspiciously like it was written by ChatGPT.

And then they'll go on to say something along the lines of "But we've been getting a lot of death threats guys, and that's bad!" As if the fact that they're getting death threats somehow absolves them of at least some of the guilt of whatever it is that made the apology necessary in the first place. As if it means they're the real victims here.

Apparently Dropout decided to just skip the "ChatGPT apology" part and jump straight to the "We're getting physcal and legal threats" part. Followed up with them once again saying they support Palestiniens and ending it with "We reject antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of bigotry, and welcome all to our platform who treat others with respect, empathy, and human dignity."

And they did it on Twitter, and only Twitter. You know, the website that's notoriously overrun by Nazis. Nothing on Tumblr or Instagram, where the original statement that sparked all of this (which has since been taken down) were posted.

@dropoutdottv, @samreich, this is not listening to the Jewish members of your community who are speaking out about antisemitism. This is reinforcing the antisemitism that those Jewish members of the community are speaking out about. Because what this Tweet does is paint everyone who spoke out against the antisemitism in your original post with the same brush as the people who were sending you threats.

Which, let me be clear, they should not have been doing and I wholeheartedly condemn.

But the actions of the people sending you threats of violence and threats of legal action do not invalidate the things being said by the people who haven't threatened you with anything worse than a boycott. I have literally seen people say "the fact that they got threats just proves they were right." Is that the outcome you were trying to achieve with this?

People who did bad things get death threats all the time; refer back to the beginning of this post. Does that make their critics wrong then, too? Or is it only now, when the accusation being made is that a nerdy comedy network beloved by people on the left did an antisemitism?

I honestly can't tell if you have no publicist helping you out with one, a bad publicist that needs to give you your money back, or an evil genius publicist that knew that if you made a post like this one, it would distract from the fact that you're being accused of antisemitism, maybe even act as a dog whistle to to paint anyone who accuses you of being antisemitic of being "Zionists" (meant in the derogatory way, where people claim they're only talking about people who uncritically support the Israeli government and their actions in Gaza, but then in practice will use it against anyone who believes Israel has the right to exist, including those who want a two state solution, whose hearts break for the people in Palestine, and call Netanyahu a fascist and probably want him gone more than even the people calling them "zionists" do). Maybe even make up for all of the subscriptions you're losing over this and even gain a few by catering to the antisemitic leftist crowd.

Is that really the kind of culture you want to cultivate? If not, then do better. Acknowledge the Jewish voices that are speaking out. Listen to them. And do it in a way that doesn't bring up any other marginalized group. Because like...fuck, man, I reject Islamophobia, and all forms of bigotry too. And I'm sorry you guys are receiving threats; that truly does suck and I hope everyone that works for you guys are staying safe.

But you're specifically being accused of antisemitism. Can you really not reject it all on its own without including other forms of bigotry in the same statement?

And do it on a platform that *isn't* run by an infamous antisemitic, and overrun by more antisemitics? (You can turn off comments and reblogs on Tumblr and comments on instagram, in the same way you disabled replies on your Tweet, you know.)

Here, I'll even write the statement for you: "Earlier this week, we made a statement regarding accusations that Dropout was platforming zionists. At the time, we made a statement focusing on our support of the Palestinian people. We stand by this statement. However, we have received feedback from several members of our community that some of the things that we said were inappropriate insensitive to the Jewish people. "Zionist" and "Zionism" mean different things to different people, ranging from "people who support the Israeli government's actions in Gaza" to "people who believe that Israel has a right to exist and the Jewish people have the right to self-determination." We had meant it in the context of the former definition, but we understand that many Jewish people identify with the later, including many people who are disgusted by the Israeli government's actions in Gaza, and we should have been more sensitive to this fact. Additionally, we would like to reiterate that, to our knowledge, nobody who has appeared on Dropout has openly stated support for the Israelie's actions in Gaza, and several of those accused have voiced their support for a free Palestine. We would like to take this moment to remind everyone that just because a person is Jewish, and may have ties to Israel, does not inherently mean they condone the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza, and to suggest otherwise is antisemitic. We at Dropout reject all forms of antisemitism and are committed to providing a safe space to everyone regardless of religion or ethnic background. We apologize if we made the Jewish members of our community feel like that was not the case."

See how easy that was? I feel something like this is the bear minimum, and if you had said the things in the last three paragraphs from the start, you could have avoided having to say everything in the first two paragraphs and the apology at the end.

That's...pretty much everything I have to say on the matter. To anyone reading this: Do not use other Jewish people to silence Jewish voices.

Do not use people of other marginalized groups to silence Jewish voices.

Just...maybe just listen to what we have to say without twisting our words and putting words in our mouths? Maybe?

Thanks for reading.

I'm so tired.

[xclowniex]

Re a post going around about someone's feelings towards the Palestinian flag and them working on it and getting unfairly dunked on (forgot who made it but please tag them if you know who):

What I'm going to say is going to be controversial to a certain crowd.

It is not abnormal for jews, both in Israel and the diaspora to have gut reactions to the Palestinian flag. This is not because of Palestinians and is literally psychology.

For Israeli jews, they get attacked by Hamas. They have to run to bomb shelters, hide and hope that they or any of their loved ones don't get killed. So many Israelis either knew a victim of Oct 7th or knows someone who knew a victim. And Oct 7th wasn't the first tome Hamas or some other group has attacked Israel.

Whether you like it or not, Israelis are human beings. Regardless of the Israeli government's actions, Israelis are human beings. It is not abnormal for someone to develop a gut reaction to seeing the flag of a country where SOME people from that country have tried to kill you, regardless of what the government of your country has done.

For diaspora jews, we have seen so many people, often times people who are not Palestinian, weaponsize what is going on in Gaza to hurt us. And that fucking sucks for everyone. It sucks on the front that people are finding ways to excuse and justify their antisemitism, and it sucks on the front that people are weaponizing Palestinian suffering full stop.

I have been harassed by strangers who wear a Palestinian flag pin, who do not know my opinion but see that I'm Jewish and will walk up to me or past me and call me slurs and insult me. It has gotten to the point where I've almost been attacked.

Then you see online a 12 year old Jewish girl being raped. Jews being attacked for simply walking past a pro Palestine protest in Germany as they have a destination which requires them to walk past the protest. We see at counter protests how it's mainly the jews at these protests who get hurt and rarely pro Israel goyim.

You see all of that done by people who claim to support Palestinians and use their flag.

It is hard not to have a gut reaction.

I can imagine that it is the exact same, if not worse, for palestinians and the Israeli flag.

And the thing with all of this is, all of us are allowed to feel fear, anxiety, at seeing flags. It does not indicate that we hate the people from the countries those flags represent, or that we want them wiped out. It is a survival mechanism that our brains have learnt to keep us safe.

Where it matters is our actions and wants.

It is never okay to harm people for holding or wearing the Israeli or Palestine flag. It is never okay to want people dead because of the country they're born in. And that's where it really matters.

I and so many others on both sides actively work to get rid of this gut reaction. For me personally, I am grateful that I have a good foundation to start from in that I only get the gut reaction when a non Palestinian person wears, holds or has it in their bio. But it is okay if you're not there yet.

It is honestly disgusting to have this moral purity that you have to have started with no gut reaction and that working on it and changing doesn't matter. Because it does matter.

Calling whoever made that post a bad person for actively working to fix that gut reaction is wrong and doesn't do anything to help them improve.

[fairuzfan]

June was working at the Goldie restaurant in Philadelphia on Sunday night when protesters started assembling outside the Israeli-American-owned eatery waving Palestinian flags.

"Goldie, Goldie, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide," they chanted.

The 24-year-old June, who asked to be identified by his first name only, told Middle East Eye that they watched the rally through the window of the restaurant which sells falafel, hummus and other Middle Eastern cuisine. June was shift-leading at the time.

"I remember thinking it was a big crowd, given it had been raining," June said.

"No one inside was bothered. I didn't feel unsafe. There were orthodox Jews taking part in the protest. We even had a customer come into the business," June, who is also Jewish, added.

After a few minutes, the protesters left.

When June went home after the shift, they found social media alight with accusations that the crowd had targeted the restaurant because it was a Jewish establishment.

But June says they knew that this wasn't a case of antisemitism.

"The protesters had assembled outside Goldie because the restaurant owner had sent money to an aid organisation that supported the Israeli military. They had come because two employees at Goldie were fired for expressing support for Palestine," June told MEE.

Outraged by the feverish pace with which the false narrative of a marauding mob intimidating a business on account of their Jewishness was being amplified on the internet and the news media, June posted on social media in support of the protesters.

"If you don't want to be directly funding genocide, stay away from Goldie, Kfar, Federal Donuts, Laser Wolf or Zahav. Goldie's parent company CookNSolo held a fundraiser where sales from all their restaurants went to an org [sic] that gives supplies to the IDF [Israeli military]," June wrote.

On the way to work the next morning, June received a call from the restaurant. They were told that they were no longer needed and they was fired with immediate effect.

That made June the third person at Goldie to be fired on account of their pro-Palestinian advocacy since 7 October when Israel's war on Palestine began.

Since late Sunday, the US media, prominent Jewish Americans, Philadelphia's mayor, several lawmakers, and even the White House have issued statements condemning the protests outside the restaurant.

"This is idiotic and dangerous. Protest outside the Israeli consulate or the offices of your member of Congress, not Jewish or Israeli-owned restaurants," prominent Jewish-American writer Peter Beinart wrote.

Likewise, Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, described the incident as "antisemitic and completely unjustifiable to target restaurants that serve Israeli food over disagreements with Israeli policy".

On Tuesday, US Vice President Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, called Michael Solomonov, the owner of the restaurant group, to express support for his business.

But former employees at Goldie as well as pro-Palestine advocates who either organised or participated in the protest say the outrage was manufactured to distract from both the crimes of the Israeli state and those who have chosen to support it.

"While Goldie was not the goal of our protest, we briefly paused and led chants [outside the restaurant] because the owner, Michael Solomonov, has used proceeds from the restaurant to fund an organisation that works directly with the Israeli Occupational forces," Natalie Abulhawa, a spokesperson from the Philly Palestine Coalition, said.

Abulhalwa said that the group spent only a few minutes outside the restaurant and moved on to other stops before continuing the rally.

"We also stopped at Starbucks for the same reason and then continued to march. Our march was roughly three hours long and we stopped at Goldie's for four minutes, at most," Abulhalwa added.

June, who was at the business at the time, confirmed to MEE that the protesters were only around for a few minutes.

Sophie Hamilton, who worked at Goldie for more than two years, including as a store manager, confirmed to MEE that Solomonov had held a fundraiser in mid-October, where $100,000 was raised for United Hatzalah, an Israeli emergency aid organisation based in Jerusalem.

She said Goldie, part of the CooknSolo company, was not some small-time "mom-and-pop" business, but a sprawling company whose owner was appointed by the Israeli tourism ministry as its culinary ambassador for Israel in 2017. Solomonov is an Israeli chef who owns four restaurants in the Philadelphia area under the CookNSolo banner.

According to a statement released by the Israeli authorities at the time, the role was designed "to champion Israel’s extraordinarily diverse and vibrant culinary landscape".

Hamilton said the company had mischaracterised United Hatzalah to staff as "non-partisan, non-military aligned, like the Red Cross", when a cursory internet search showed that not only did the charity openly collaborate with the Israeli military, they also spoke like an arm of the Israeli state.

"The influx of terrorists infiltrating Israeli territory and the resulting high number of injured individuals also prompted United Hatzalah to provide additional medical supplies and protective equipment to IDF teams on the ground," a statement issued in late October by United Hatzalah, reads.

"Since the beginning of the war, United Hatzalah medical teams have treated over 3,000 soldiers and civilians and provided more than 900 soldiers, civilians, and volunteers with psychological first aid. The organization also delivered over 30 tons of medical supplies and humanitarian aid to the IDF and residents of southern Israel," the statement added.

Hamilton said when she had discovered the information, she refused to take part in the fundraiser because she didn't want to be complicit in the genocide of Palestinians.

However, when she returned to work after the fundraiser, she said she still wanted to show solidarity with Palestinians and decided to wear a pin bearing the Palestinian flag on her shirt.

A few days later, the company came out with a new policy that banned any pin or patch unrelated to the store on their uniforms.

"I wore the pin anyway in defiance of the policy and I was sent home that day," Hamilton says.

When she returned to work, she decided she needed the job and abided by the policy. But when one of her colleagues, Noah Wood, refused to take off his pin, and she wouldn't discipline him as his manager, she was fired. And so was he.

"I would never, as a manager censor someone I work with for showing their heartfelt belief in human rights," Hamilton said.

Wood, who had already resigned from his job on account of the suppression of Palestinian advocacy at the restaurant, was serving his notice period at the time when he was told to stay home.

He told MEE that it appears a customer complaint may have led to his dismissal.

"We've had LGBTQ flags up in the store. They might still be up. And one of the other locations had Black Lives Matter signage, so it wasn't as if it was an entirely politically neutral work environment," Wood said.

"You must remember Sophie and I didn't say anything. We didn't argue with customers. We weren't posting online. We were just wearing Palestine patches and pins and this seemed to make a customer uncomfortable, and this was enough for termination," he added.

Goldie and its parent company, CookNSolo, did not immediately reply to MEE's request for comment.

Activists say they remain appalled by the smear campaigns pitted against Palestinians on a daily basis. The rush to defend a business working with the Israeli army under the mask of an antisemitic attack was in line with the higher echelons of the American state to equate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, they say.

With the devastation in Gaza spiralling and the death toll ever increasing - now upwards of 16,000 Palestinians - organisers say the rapid resort to smear those who dare to raise the plight of Palestinians was the surest sign that officials had run out of excuses to justify the support of Israel.

Activists say the flurry of support for the Israeli-owned business also showed the close ties between the US political establishment and Israel-aligned businesses.

"The hypocrisy of our elected officials is despicable. Within a couple hours of our protest, Pennsylvania's Governor Josh Shapiro and others ran to Twitter to accuse us of antisemitism with absolutely no context and no facts," Abulhalwa, with the Philly Palestine Coalition, said.

"No one from their offices reached out to us to 'investigate'," Abulhalwa added.

Organisers said US politicians were constantly attempting to portray pro-Palestinian protesters as unhinged or violent when it was the US state that was supporting genocide in Gaza and it was Palestinians in the US who have either been killed or physically attacked.

In its report about the call made by Emhoff, the US vice president's husband, to Solomonov, the owner of Goldie, NBC News reported that the duo spoke about "how food was actually supposed to bring people together rather than be a source of division"

Likewise, Pennsylvania's Governor Shapiro, who was among the first to condemn the protests outside Goldie, baked bread with its owner, Solomonov, as recently as September.

"Being an Israeli ambassador is a big part of Solomonov's brand," Leila, a Jewish-American who took part in the protest outside Goldie on Sunday, said.

Leila, who offered only her first name to MEE, said the suggestion that any part of the action outside the restaurant may have been construed as antisemitic was simply absurd.

June, the former employee at Goldie, who had watched the protest from inside the store itself, said the charge of antisemitism was divorced from reality.

"They didn't come to the restaurant simply because it was Jewish-owned. If that was the case, they would've gone to hundreds of restaurants across the city," June said.

Likewise, Abuhalwa said the smears against Palestinians were once more exposing a double standard toward Palestinian life.

"Palestinian protesters being held at gunpoint by a racist, Islamophobe is a hate crime. Palestinians being shot for wearing keffiyehs is a hate crime. A grown man stabbing a little boy for being Muslim is a hate crime. Using your First Amendment rights and peacefully protesting is not a hate crime.

"They accused us of targeting Goldie because it's Jewish-owned, which is far from the truth. Solomonov is not being targeted due to his religious beliefs, but rather his ties to a violent apartheid state that is currently enacting a genocide," Abuhalwa added.

Meanwhile, June, the 24-year-old who lost his job at Goldie for supporting the protesters, says he has no regrets.

"If I could educate more people on how this company feels about Palestinians being killed, I'd gladly do it in a heartbeat," June said.

"I will always advocate and support anyone who advocates for a ceasefire and an end to the occupation of Palestine," they added.

[transmascpetewentz]

Genuine, good faith question, I'm just clueless and looking for input

I see a lot of pro Palestine/anti genocide people saying that Zionism is inherently bad and bigoted and supportive of the genocide. Meanwhile, other people (like you) say that that's not true and that, while terrible people who are Zionists do exist, that Zionism is not inherently bad like some people claim.

Now I'm just very confused and don't know what to think. I don't want to risk being antisemitic, but I also don't want to risk supporting genocide. :( Can you perhaps help explain this to me, if it's not too much trouble? I keep hearing conflicting information and I don't know what to do anymore

there are a couple of things happening here:

israel's war crimes have attracted disproportionate international attention compared to other countries doing the same or worse currently because israel is the only jewish state. while it's important to point out all countries' war crimes, the fact that the focus is solely on israel is because of antisemitism. this is a systemic issue and is basically impossible to point out on an individual level.

there are multiple types of zionism. political zionism, labor zionism, revisionist zionism, evangelical christian zionism, etc. these all have different definitions of zionism and different reasons for holding the positions they hold. labor zionism, which is the type of zionism i follow, holds that jews should have the power of self determination in eretz yisrael (think landback in america but for jews) and that they should use that power to seize the means of production. most labor zionists support palestine's right to self determination as well.

the non-jewish non-palestinian american hamasnik crowd has 2 different definitions of zionism. on paper, they'll conflate zionism as a whole with revisionist zionism or kahanism. kahanism/revisionist zionism is a deeply racist extreme right wing ideology that conflates jewish connection to the levant with social conservatism at the expense of primarily arabs, but also women, gay people, trans people, and every other type of minority that exists within every ethnicity. hamasniks will say that this is their definiton of zionism and that anyone they call a zionist follows this specific ideology.

however, when they are finding criteria to call someone a zionist, this is not the definition that they use. hamasniks will use very loose, liberal criteria to put someone in the zionist box. mostly, however, they will call any jew (zionist or not) a zionist and any non-jewish zionist a zionist sympathizer. in this context, "zionist" = jew and "zionist sympathizer" = ally to jews.

so essentially, hamasniks will call someone a zionist based on very loose evidence, but because their on-paper definition of zionism is kahanism, they will claim that someone they called a zionist due to, say, having an israeli cousin, is actually a kahanist.

that's essentially the deception. so you can be a zionist without supporting genocide (but i'm not sure what the current consensus in on non jews (i assume) calling themselves zionists, so i would stay away from it). i'm of the opinion that anti zionism isn't inherently antisemitic, but acting like zionism is some otherworldly monster ideology is.