The massacre committed almost a month ago in Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and the harsh retaliation that the Hebrew country launched against the terrorists in the Gaza Strip, from which thousands of civilians cannot escape, have fueled hatred thousands of kilometers from the conflict in the Middle East.
LOOK: Israel vs. Hamas: the humanitarian laws that are being ignored in the midst of war
Islamophobic and anti-Semitic incidents and attacks are gaining strength in several countries, especially against the Jewish community. Not in vain did the Israeli authorities ask their citizens on Friday to reconsider any international travel and avoid displaying their Jewish and Israeli identities if they are already abroad.
Since the escalation began on October 7, anti-Semitic incidents in countries such as the US, Great Britain, France, Germany and South Africa have multiplied several times compared to the same period last year, indicates the Reuters agency. The death of thousands of Palestinians due to Israeli bombing is the main justification invoked for anger.
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This is what the Jabalia refugee camp looked like this week after an Israeli airstrike. (Reuters).
In the US, Cornell University, upstate New York, canceled classes on Friday following the arrest of Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old student who called on the Internet to kill Jews and bomb a kosher and multicultural dining hall in the campus, which is next to a Center for Jewish Life.
The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism recorded 312 anti-Semitic incidents – including harassment, vandalism and assault – between October 7 and 23 in the US, representing a 388% increase compared to the same period last year. 2022.
In France, stars of David have been seen on the facades of Jewish homes or businesses in Paris. The French country, which has the largest community of Jews and Muslims in Europe, has recorded 857 anti-Semitic acts, with 425 arrested, since the beginning of the conflict.
The anti-Semitic incident that caused the most impact was the assault on an airport in the Russian region of Dagestan, with a Muslim majority, by an angry crowd looking for Jews to attack after the arrival of a flight from Tel Aviv.
As for Islamophobia, threats and attacks against Muslims were especially visible shortly after the war began, following the horrors of Hamas in Israel.
Wadea Al Fayoum, a 6-year-old boy of Palestinian origin, was stabbed 26 times on October 18 in his home in Illinois by a septuagenarian who rented a home to his family and who claimed that “all Muslims must die.”
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The boy Wadea Al Fayum, of Palestinian origin, died as a result of a hate crime in the United States. (Photo: AP)
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations received 774 reports of Islamophobic speech or acts between October 7 and 24, a number that increased from August, when 63 incidents were reported.
No end in sight
Threats of harassment and violence against Muslims in Europe and the US have had several spikes in recent years. Islamophobia was visibly accentuated by the Islamic State and lone wolf attacks. The current situation is so critical that US President Joe Biden promised in recent days a national strategy to counter Islamophobia.
In the case of anti-Semitism, it is not a new phenomenon either. Enrique Banús, director of the Institute of European Studies at the University of Piura, highlights that rejection of Jews was latent in several countries before the escalation, but the conflict has made it grow much more.
For the expert, the breaking point was the attack on the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza, which occurred on October 17. “Hamas quickly deployed a campaign blaming Israel for the explosion and the death of 500 civilians. However, the secret services of the United Kingdom, the United States and France believe that it was an explosion caused by mistake by Islamic Jihad. But the impact of the first reports is irreversible in the eyes of public opinion,” he tells El Comercio.
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The UN has suggested that Israeli attacks on Gaza could constitute war crimes.
Anti-Israel agitation grows as the conflict progresses and international condemnation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza increases. The situation has caused Western governments to warn about the consequences of committing acts of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate.
The problem now is that hate only seems to spread through social media and misinformation. Reporting to Congress that threats against Jews and Muslims in the US have intensified, and that anti-Semitic threats have reached “historic levels,” FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that this anger could be a breeding ground for cultivation for terrorist threats on US soil.
“Protests against Israel will continue to grow. There have also been some isolated anti-Semitic attacks on citizens and it is possible that they will continue,” says Banús.
Regarding the impact of hate speech in the war, experts highlight that at this point in the conflict it is the Hebrew country that is most affected in public opinion. “The force of anti-Semitism harms Israel because Israel needs international support. Now, we must not forget that if there were no extremist parties involved in the Israeli Government, it would be easier for Israel to present an image that would make these attacks more difficult,” adds Román Ortiz, expert analyst in international security.
INTERVIEW
“When it comes to assessing the conflict, the burden is against Israel”
Roman Ortiz
Expert analyst in international security
- How did the anti-Semitism we see today come about?
What we are seeing has been present for a long time and has very deep roots in sectors of the extreme right and the extreme left against Jewish communities. The conflict in the Middle East has been used to give a veneer of modernity to a hatred that is very old and that has two important political contents in the current context: hatred of ethnic diversity and rejection of liberal democracy. There is permanent anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias packaged in a new format.
- How are protests against the Israeli offensive related to anti-Semitism?
Although Jewish communities and the State of Israel are different, when it comes to anti-Israel messages in general, what is done is packaging anti-Semitic messages. It is important to say that when the impact of the Israeli bombings is evaluated, it is never mentioned that the target has been military installations. Furthermore, the figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health are cited as indisputable, without mentioning that it is controlled by Hamas. This does not mean that there are no things to criticize on the Israeli side, no collateral damage or errors in Israeli policies, but when it comes to assessing the conflict the burden is always against Israel.
- What consequences would there be in the long term? Can anti-Semitic violence escalate?
There is a growing risk of terrorist attacks in Europe, the US and other countries against targets in the Jewish community. And, in general, we are going to see more discrimination and persecution.
- Do you see similarities between this and the Islamophobia that has been seen in recent years?
The most obvious similarity is that both are based on hatred of those who are different, on the rejection of ethnic, cultural and religious difference. But there is an important difference and that is that while the integration of Muslim communities in Europe has generated friction because there are important religious cultural differences, in the Jewish case these types of problems do not exist and, however, Jewish communities are the object of persecution .
