How Palestine solidarity is branded as antisemitism

Why is support for Palestine so often viewed as “anti-Semitism”? So why is “Islamophobia” mentioned so little?

Words have a unique power: to spread the truth or wildly distort it.

Take “Jew” for example. This word has subtly absorbed something sickeningly dark from history. When my sisters and I were children, Jewish musicians fleeing the Nazis were frequent guests of honor in our home. In this blessed way, we have been freed from the itching contradictions against the Jews that have poisoned the hearts of many Christians for centuries.

However, sour information leaked. When I was a little boy, I saw a strange change in the face of a man I admired when he referred to Bellevue Hill and Rose Bay, two wealthy suburbs of Sydney, as “Bellejew Hill and Nose Bay”. The sudden strangeness of his smile caused something inside me to twist sickly.

“Let’s pray for the traitor Jews” We would hear about it every Good Friday at the most solemn moment in the Christian calendar. Then the horror of the Jewish gang repeated throughout the Christian world, prophetic words: ‘May his blood be on us and our children.’

Aha! To see? Here it is, in black and white, an admission of guilt. And the punishment came upon themselves – forever.

So when I first heard the word “Yid” uttered condescendingly by a rich Catholic girl, I immediately knew what it meant. Centuries of hatred coalesced into an ugly, poisonous sound bullet.

Years later, I gained an insight into the hatred that destroyed the lives of countless Jews a generation ago. I have heard and seen poison transformed into a single short syllable that names a hated race.

An old woman sitting at the next table in a cafe in Vienna started a conversation. He was charming: friendly and intelligent, with warm blue eyes and a quick smile. His English was perfect. He invited me to sit next to him, asked for more coffee, and ordered a plate of delicious pastries. He then stepped back to talk about his beloved city.

I couldn’t quite believe my luck.

But soon the conversation began to veer towards a sensitive and uneasy topic. My friend started to remember her girlhood.

And… War.

“Ah,” he trembled, his laughter suddenly harsh and bright. “There were so many Jews back then. So many.”

A note of caution. My heart accelerated. “But no matter how kind a foreign visitor,” I stammered, “Oh… right?”

“Yes. Many Jews.” He shrugged. “Some Austrians even thought there were too many Jews.”

He secretly leaned towards me. I found my kindness subtly encouraging him. Despite the stimulating fluctuation in my stomach, an urgent desire seized me: to catch a glimpse of the inner writhings behind that well-bred, smiling face.

The woman needed little encouragement. I listened, swallowed, and responded with mock surprise. No, really? You don’t say! Thus, the hatred he had been harboring for all these years was revealed.

The Jews got what they deserved. Beautiful, honorable Austrians regained their pure nation centuries later, thanks to their national hero, Hitler.

So what was happening now? Can you believe this? Many of those who fled to the United States to save their skins returned as tourists, strutting around looking for their old haunts.

“This shows what kind of person they are.” he quipped. “Disgusting and insensitive. Ignorant and stubborn as a mule.”

He took a nice bite of a cake, then looked directly at me:

“Would you come back after what happened? I definitely wouldn’t.”

He approached with a strangely joyless ring of laughter:

“They’re actually pretending to be Americans. They think they can fool us. But… we know the truth. We can see through them. Do you know what they really are?”

He paused dramatically, then ever so slowly his face broke into a smile. Scary, cunning, crocodile smile. I was completely mesmerized, I couldn’t take my gaze off her eyes. I thought they were warm, but as I watched they hardened until they stood out like cold, empty stones. When he spoke again, I was shocked by the acidic, sugary, sarcastic sweetness of his voice.

What… are they… really… really? Do you want to know?

They’re nothing but very old Jeeewwwws.

“Wow.” Slow, persistent, bilious sibilant. Language that plays sarcastically with the word; his lips formed a small, malicious kiss.

When I hear that word again, hissing through time, the memories fill me with fear. And, oddly enough, with an insane sense of pity for the woman’s insane blindness. He had lived through the most horrific bloodbath in history, but he seemed to have learned nothing. How ugly and distorted his mouth looked as he said that word. All the evil that had been thrown at him for centuries seemed to be concentrated here.

‘Jewish’. I look at this word as I write and see it coming out of the Austrian woman’s tight, painted mouth. He looks and sounds like he’s been poisoned. It has absorbed so much hatred over the centuries that the three letters put together seem as if they have been eroded, eroded by hatred.

Oddly enough, it sounds more acceptably “polite” to say this. “He is Jewish” not including “He is a Jew”. By skillfully avoiding the baldness of that itchy, uncomfortable, loaded word.

Tragically, I even heard a Jewish friend stumble over this issue while confessing who he was. His incompetence shocked me. What did it say about the wounds inflicted on the Jewish soul by Christian society over long centuries?

Now the Gaza war. Although I am not Jewish, I am a regular supporter. Jewish Voice for PeacePassionate advocates of justice for Palestinians.

daily, their Zoom call announces: ‘Half Hour Power for Gaza: Channel grief and anger into action to stop genocide’:

…we are filled with sadness and anger, but we remain steadfast in our commitment to the liberation of Palestine.

There are no words to describe the devastating pain of the past year, when the Israeli army killed more than 70,000 – possibly more than 300,000 – Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 20,000 children. Many more will perish due to lack of medicine, medical treatment, food, water and shelter.

The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court declared that Israel must stop acts of genocide committed against the Palestinian people. But still, the US Government actively supports the Israeli army, which is bringing devastation to more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Join us as we take collective action to demand an arms embargo on Israel, an immediate end to the genocide, and an end to starvation in Gaza. Everyone is welcome. They are all needed.

But who knows how it will all turn out? So what awaits us after our world has completed this very human cycle of storm, tremor, and weeping? So… the next likely one?

Will history repeat itself? What will happen to these crazy people who have recently fled the Middle East to Europe and are desperate to save their lives? Unwanted, suspicious and resentful, will they be subject to familiar old fears as they have experienced before?

Years from now, will an Australian traveler once again meet a lovely woman in a Vienna café and find himself listening with chilling horror as soft words curl and freeze into iron?

We are returning as tourists. They wander around showing off looking at their old haunts. But… we know the truth. We can see these. Do you know what they really are?

They’re sooooo old Mew… nothing but thins.