When war CRITICISM becomes a free pass for bigotry

In just the 3 months after Oct 7, 2023, incidents targeting Jewish people around the world spiked by roughly 361 percent according to ADL (the Anti-Defamation League). Those are not abstract numbers; they are violence and vandalism in synagogues, harassment in public and a constant barrage of threats and hateful messages in comment sections where ordinary family moments are subjected to targets for cruelty. In times of war and political unrest, it's easy to group politics and its relative population together, and even easier to pick a population that has been continuously subjected to unfair stereotypes for centuries. 

Growing up in California, I have been fortunate enough to live in a community where antisemitism is not something I encounter daily. I wear a small Star of David necklace and in my day-to-day life at school, in public places and in conversations about world issues, I would rarely think about it and never felt unsafe because of it. These daily experiences shape the way I understand identity, as something that can be worn, talked about and openly expressed without fear of judgment or ridicule. But this summer, while traveling in Europe with a youth group, I was told to be cautious walking around when talking about Judaism and to hide my necklace in public. In that moment, the casual comfort of being able to openly express my identity was taken away. Something as small as a necklace, something that feels like pride and belonging at home, suddenly turned into something I needed to hide in order to stay safe. This is the daily life for many Jewish people around the world; constantly calculating when it's safe to be visible and constantly carrying the weight of a history that has taught us to stay alert. It’s made me understand how fragile safety can be and how easily identity can become something you protect instead of simply live. 

There is an immense amount of misinformation spreading online, and with it, a complete disregard for people’s distinctive identities. In the past 2 years, people have started to disregard the diversity of Jewish people and have blindly linked all Jews to the actions of the State of Israel. Not all Jews are Zionists, not all Jews have a connection to Israel and certainly not all Jews, not even all Israelis, are in support of the Israeli government. To speak about these identities as if they are interchangeable is to erase millions of people's histories, griefs, fears and hopes for safety. People are complex; the Jewish people are complex and hold a wide range of beliefs around the morality of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s actions. But instead of recognizing that, constant online propaganda and push for people to take a side constantly leaves no room for nuance. Not everything is black and white and not everything is so simple. The war in Gaza has produced staggering human suffering, that of which requires every ounce of empathy and compassion we as a people have. But the conflict has also become a pretext for renewed, blatant and generalized Jewish hatred. 

I've seen simple family videos of a mother lighting Shabbat candles with her kids become an excuse for commenters to call them murderers, post dehumanizing memes and celebrate violence in language that would be unthinkable if directed at other groups. Online threads that begin as policy debates inevitably collapse into blanket accusations that every Jewish person supports every action taken by the Israeli government. That erases nuance, it fuels violence and hate and it is the precise opposite of what antiwar ethics should demand. 

Criticizing a government or demanding justice for Palestinians are legitimate and necessary pursuits; however, doing so in the form of calling for the demolition of the state of Israel is not a legitimate act of anti-war protest. The phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant very commonly heard in Palestinian protests, but rarely do people actually understand the meaning behind it. Israel is located directly between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, hence “river to the sea”. Some people use it to call for a one-state future in which Palestinians have full rights across that territory. Others, however, hear it and preach it as a demand to erase Israel as a Jewish state and as a threat to the Jewish civilians who live there. This slogan has been invoked by militant groups and appears in political documents that reject the legitimacy of a Jewish state, which is why many Jewish people view it as a call for elimination rather than emancipation. If your politics are genuinely against war, then your rhetoric must resist collective punishment and reject any slogan that turns an entire population into a political target. Advocating for the dismantling of Israel does not end the war; it sanctifies more war under a call for liberation.  

Standing against war means rejecting the killing of civilians, Palestinian or Israeli. It means holding grief for every child left without family, every home turned to ash and every parent waiting for news that will change their life forever. It means being clear that peace is not selective. Peace cannot apply only to the people we feel politically aligned with or emotionally connected to. If our activism relies on the suffering of one group to validate another, then we are not anti-war; we are simply choosing a side in it. War not only destroys cities and lives, but it also destroys empathy. It turns neighbors into enemies and shared humanity into an afterthought for no rhyme or reason. That is why language matters. When people are chanting for the erasure of a nation or mocking Jewish fear as paranoia, they are not resisting oppression; they are feeding into it. Or, on the other hand, when people are celebrating the destruction and suffering of civilians in Gaza with the excuse of being against Hamas, it dismisses an entire population of Palestinians that will be affected by this mass destruction for generations. I believe in a future where Palestinians are living freely with dignity and safety and I believe in a future where Jewish people are too. These hopes are not opposites; they are intertwined, calling for the safety of one people should never require the disappearance of another. 

To be truly antiwar is to resist the urge to dehumanize. It is to hold uncomfortable truths: the Israeli government is powerful and destructive and also the Jewish people worldwide still face real fear and hatred; that Palestinians are suffering mass displacement and death and that does not equate to Israel deserving the same fate. In moments of rising tension, it becomes easy for the world to turn Jewish identity into a symbol rather than a lived experience. But behind every symbol is a person, a student wearing a necklace, a Palestinian child, a mother on either side of the border praying for her family. If we lose sight of those people, then we have already lost the argument for peace.