- A 400% increase in antisemitic incidents.
- 12% of Americans told pollsters
that Jews in this country have too much power.
- The rise in antisemitism.
- There's no question that antisemitism
has been on the rise.
- Antisemitic attitudes show higher levels
among young people.
- Reports from the ADL, FBI and AJC,
all show sharp increases in reports of hate speech,
vandalism, and violence.
- At least four people are believed
to be held hostage right now, including a rabbi.
- Much of this hate stems from right wing extremism.
Endless antisemitic rhetoric echoes across internet forums
such as 8chan and Gab,
which have been connected to shootings
such as Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue,
and Poway, California's Chabad.
As terrifying as these right-wing extremists acts are,
it's not particularly surprising.
White supremacists have been the source
of antisemitism for generations.
- Jews will not replace us.
- What's new is that in progressive, liberal leaning
and left-wing spaces,
Jews are experiencing increasing hostility.
- So I often feel judged, or at least prejudged
because of my Zionist identity and my Zionist beliefs
in progressive spaces that I often move in.
- With what Israel and Zionism stand for today,
ethnic cleansing, apartheid, xenophobia, and racism.
- I often feel alone in my support for Israel,
especially as a loud liberal.
- Zionism is racism, Zionism is violence.
- Anti-Zionism has created
such a toxic, terrible environment for Jews.
- I felt as if I could not exercise the right
to be a proud Jew.
- Even though this issue isn't inherently violent,
in a lot of ways,
it's more insidious because it's normalizing
leaving Jews out of social justice, progressive politics.
- Jewish people have been active in progressive,
humanitarian and liberal causes all over the world.
So why is it that the far left is beginning to exclude Jews
and what does that mean for our Jewish identity?
- Okay, got it.
- Yeah, replace it. - Yeah.
- We're rolling.
Am I looking in the camera or? - Yes.
- Which? This, that way.
Oh.
- Figure how to word this right.
(crew chuckling)
- All right, let's do it.
- The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
created a definition of antisemitism.
It has been accepted by 32 countries,
including the United States, Canada, the UK, and the EU.
It says that antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews
which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews.
The IHRA then lists several examples
which typify that definition.
When you're saying the whole country needs to be dismantled,
that Zionism is in and of itself a racist endeavor,
and therefore illegitimate,
the IHRA definition says that is antisemitism.
- Hey hey, ho ho.
Israel has to go.
We don't want two states.
- Bring us back to '48.
- Zionism is hate in and of itself.
- I think that a lot of people who are trying
to be social justice activists use certain words
when they're talking about Israel,
like settler, colonialists.
- The settler colonial state of Israel.
- And genocide.
- Israel, Israel, you can't hide.
- We charge you with genocide.
- And that Israel is an apartheid state.
- That kind of oppression, that kind of apartheid really.
- I've also heard Israel compared to Nazis.
If you're against apartheid, if you're against genocide,
if you're against settler colonialism,
you need to be against Israel.
- I remember people asking either me
or others that I knew, are you a Zionist?
As if being a Zionist is something that is bad
and Zionism is the belief
that the Jewish people have the right
to self-determination in our native homeland.
- Zionism is still perfectly compatible
with Palestinian liberation and nationalism,
and that there can be equality
and balance between those two.
- It's like this one girl just posted a a map of Israel
and said like, this should be Palestine.
I swiped up and I was like, hey, can we talk about this?
You know, I think that it's a little bit more nuanced.
And she, in short, basically said that Israelis
are white supremacists, and if I support Israel
in any way, then I am a white supremacist as well.
- Anti-Zionism is antisemitic
because fundamentally, it is a worldview that says out
of all nations and peoples, only one has no universal right
to self-determination.
- Another example of antisemitism given by IHRA
is holding Jews collectively responsible
for actions of the state of Israel.
- If you're saying that an Israeli or a Jewish person
that has ties to Israel is excluded,
that's a form of xenophobia.
- Or antisemitism.
A recent example of this was in October of 2021
when the DC chapter of the Sunrise Movement,
the environmental advocacy group, denounced Zionism
and pointedly called for the removal
of three Jewish groups from a voting rights coalition.
- The idea is even if you're tangentially involved
with Israel, you are problematic.
- I talk about feminist issues a lot, and a lot
of the time at certain spaces like the Women's March,
people who think favorably
of Israel are excluded from those spaces.
- Sunrise D.C. apologized for singling out
the Jewish organizations, saying they oppose antisemitism
and that they should have instead
excluded even non-Jewish groups that support Zionism
but their blanket opposition
to the state of Israel is also antisemitic.
- It's perfectly fine to have strong critiques
of Israel and its government.
- Loving your country is not supporting everything she does
but but fighting for her to be her best self.
- I'm also an activist in issues relating
to racial equality in Israel, issues that affect Jews
from diverse backgrounds like myself.
(pensive music)
- You can criticize a policy,
you can criticize borders, have different opinions.
You know, you can want one state, two states,
how you want citizenship to apply
and be available to the people living there.
I can disagree with that.
You can disagree with me.
That's not calling for the eradication of a country.
- Most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state
in any part of Palestine.
No Palestinian, rational Palestinian,
not a sell-out Palestinian
will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.
- The largest and most vocal movement associated
with condemning Israel in its entirety
without distinction or nuance is the BDS movement.
BDS stands for boycott, divestment and sanctions,
and the idea is that everything
and anything associated with Israel should be boycotted.
- The BDS movement explicitly states
that it does not recognize Israel having a right to exist
as a Jewish state.
That is, of course, antisemitic.
- The BDS movement is completely just modern day
antisemitism wrapped up
in a nice bow of social justice activism.
- We firmly reject the BDS movement,
which unfairly singles out Israel.
- I think maybe one of the most important examples
in the IHRA definition is the double standard.
- I think there are many other countries
that are committing human rights violations.
- I mean, it would be naive to not raise an eyebrow
and to say, well, why this place?
Smaller than New Jersey when you know, just next door
are countries that are literally still involved
in the slave trade and throwing gays off buildings.
Israel's held to that double standard
because it's filled with Jews.
- The double standard is perhaps best seen
in the Democratic Socialist of America platform,
which is considered by many the foundation
of progressive policy in America.
But it also suffers
from some serious double standard language,
supporting normalization with oppressive regimes
like Iran, North Korea and Venezuela,
but opposing normalization with Israel.
The platform makes no mention of human rights violations
in places like China, Myanmar, and Syria
but calls out Israel twice, and the platform opposes the use
of sanctions against any country other than Israel.
And it's not just words on a website.
When Democratic socialist Jamaal Bowman
visited Israel recently with J Street,
the liberal pro-peace process advocacy group,
the Democratic Socialists
of America considered expelling him.
And the DSA condemned Bowman
for voting to continue funding the Iron Dome
missile defense system that protects Israeli cities
and civilians from rockets coming from Gaza.
- Progressives in the House have blocked
a $1 billion funding provision for Israel's Iron Dome.
- The overwhelming majority of Congress voted
to replenish the bill to support a defense system in Israel
but there were a small select group
of progressive politicians who voted against it.
- I will not support an effort to enable
and support war crimes, human rights abuses, and violence.
- And if you listen to its detractors,
they'll call it a weapon.
In reality, it's a defensive system.
It's knocking down rockets out of the sky
that are being launched at a country.
- Israel relies on the Iron Dome to defend her citizens
against incoming rocket fire
from terrorist groups like Hamas,
Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
- And it saves Palestinian lives too.
What would any other country do?
What would America do if rockets were being launched at it?
- Israel has the right to defend itself from its enemies,
just like any other country does.
- The debate in Congress came
after the conflict between Israel and Hamas in 2021.
For many, that May was a turning point
in the war of words against Israel and Jews.
(siren ringing)
- Tonight in Tel Aviv,
images that change everything
in an escalation that has already spiraled so fast.
(rockets booming)
- The cycle of bloodshed has returned.
(rockets booming)
- In May of 2021,
the conflict between Gaza and Israel really amplified
and with that came a lot of open hostility to Zionists,
often sliding into antisemitic territory.
And I think where this landscape is starting to shift
is really on social media.
- I would like see my closest friends who I sat with
at lunch saying that Zionism was equal
to genocide on their stories.
- I hate your shirt.
I'm gonna set it on fire.
I'm serious.
- They would post that Israel is an apartheid state?
Israel is a racist endeavor.
- Essentially, hoards of people report my videos
under hate speech.
They've done this on videos of my cats,
videos of me making bread.
And then after enough reports are made,
TikTok automatically removes the video.
- And you have to wonder
if these people actually think that they're taking part
in freeing Palestine by harassing Jewish activists online.
- I think that social media companies
have a greater obligation
in stopping hate that's being spread.
- The irony is all of this is happening
during a time when victims
of hatred are finding a powerful voice,
recognizing their shared oppression and shared mission,
commonly known as intersectionality.
While progressives have found unity in their joint fight
against hatred and discrimination,
many within their ranks are espousing hatred
and supporting discrimination against Jews.
- I look for spaces that support me as a woman
or as a woman of color, a person of color, an Asian person.
And when those same spaces that I found safety in
as one of these other parts
of my identity push a one-sided narrative about Israel,
they're saying that as a Jewish person,
I'm not safe here and I'm not welcome here.
- And let's be clear.
Some of the people pushing this antisemitic,
anti-Zionism are Jews.
- Stop funding apartheid.
Stop funding ethnic cleansing.
- Being Jewish doesn't give anyone a license
to push antisemitic tropes or support the destruction
of the Jewish state.
What's important to recognize is that as much
as this hatred is a political threat to Israel,
it's also a threat to the very core of who we are,
a threat of stigmatizing Jewish identity itself.
- People are hiding their Jewish identity more and more.
- Seeing things posted on their peers' Instagram stories
about the Jewish state being this evil, horrible place,
of course, it turns them off from wanting to be Jewish
or wanting to say that they're Jewish.
- I definitely have friends who do not like being public
about being Jewish.
- I have lost friends because I am a proud Jew.
- I shouldn't have to minimize my Jewishness
for the LGBTQ+ community to accept me.
- So many of our generation
is even scared of visiting Israel
because of fear of being judged for it.
- Antisemitism isn't new, but for our generation,
we're experiencing it firsthand, almost casually
and in spaces we really want to be a part of.
We're facing a critical dilemma.
Support the causes we're passionate about
or support the culture we come from.
- It has really been a struggle trying
to uplift myself when I watch people try to tear me down
because I am a Jew who cares about my people.
- So a lot of times within the Jewish community
when issues of antisemitism come up, we're constantly tasked
with setting aside the amazing things we have to celebrate
about our identity, our history, our culture
and focus on antisemitism.
- We should just be allowed to be students and be young
in the world and not have to deal with discrimination.
But we live in a world where antisemitism is prevalent.
And so I believe that being involved in Jewish organizations
and Jewish life, being part of Jewish community,
having Jewish friends definitely strengthens your commitment
to your Judaism
and therefore, your commitment to your people.
- I'm going to care
about climate change or healthcare or feminism.
- Criminal justice reform,
climate change, reproductive freedom,
combating racism and economic inequality.
- I gonna care about all of those things.
And I'm also gonna be a Zionist.
I'm also gonna be Jewish.
I'm also gonna be proud of that identity.
- So when I feel isolated as a Jew, or even not as a Jew,
just as a human being, going through this life, I think one
of the great comforts of my life has been the fact
that I belong to the Jewish people
because the Jewish people,
we like to call ourselves the tribe.
We have to think about what does that concept means?
What's a tribe? A tribe is an extended family.
It's a space where you can feel
like you're not judged, where you belong.
And for all my Jewish brothers and sisters out there,
you belong to the most diverse
and ancient tribe in human history.
That's a beautiful thing
and that's something that we can all find comfort in.
- So while we always might have to stand up
against antisemitism, let's not let that hatred define us.
Just because an activist group excludes, a celebrity tweets
or a professor criticizes doesn't mean that they're right.
We have to find our own answers.
We can't let a hashtag, a meme
or a TikTok condemnation define what it means to be a Jew.
That's our job, and that's up to us.