When Free Speech Becomes Violent

A Rubicon has been crossed.  As so often has happened to our people throughout our history, the hateful words that have been delivered in academia, in the media, and in town halls by certain politicians have resulted in violent atrocities on Jews in Boulder and in Washington.

Somehow, the words “From the River to the Sea, Palestine should be free” have become an acceptable part of one’s lexicon.

Does anyone even stop to understand the meaning of those words?

“Free” of whom? Of Jews. Of the entire state of Israel.

Mohamad Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian citizen, orchestrated a premeditated terrorist attack on a group of Jews peacefully protesting in support of the hostages remaining in Gaza for well over 604 days. What was going through his mind?  Twelve people were seriously burned from his arsenal of Molotov cocktails, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor.

This is the second violent attack in a few weeks, including the fatal attack on Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky of the Israeli Embassy, whose entire, young lives were in front of them. They were targeted as Jews, visiting a Jewish Museum.

When will this horrific abuse of our First Amendment Rights end? Do people not understand that on college campuses and throughout our kindergarten through 12^th grade educational institutions, one is not allowed to use incendiary rhetoric against people who are black, Hispanic, gay, transgender, or the handicapped?

Why are Jews, alone, fair game?

Are people in the United States aware of the incident involving Tzeela Gez, who was on her way to the hospital to deliver her son, when she was fatally attacked in an incident involving a Palestinian terrorist?  Doctors worked valiantly to try to save their young son’s life. Unfortunately, the baby, Ravid Chaim Gez, succumbed to his wounds and was buried last Thursday.

Does anyone reading the American press even recognize this name?

This is simply a version of the hate imbued genocidal intention that was very much a part of the Third Reich. As Professor Jeffrey Herf of the University of Maryland has painstakingly documented, the Nazis planned to extend their “Final Solution” throughout the Middle East.

As Professor Herf has written, “First, the distinctly genocidal and most dangerous aspect of Nazi Germany’s anti-Semitism did not lie in reprehensible racial biology that has understandably received so much attention. Rather it lay in its paranoid, political accusation that a historical actor called “international Jewry” had become the central driving force of modern history and Germany’s main enemy. Attacking and murdering the Jews everywhere was the absurdly logical corollary of this assumption.”

How different is this from the Iranian and Hamas instilled propaganda that has penetrated throughout the Middle East and is now so prevalent on Western college campuses? Why are other form of racism met with disgust, but the tenacity and resilience of antisemitism remains?

Just look at two of the 42 clauses of the Hamas Covenant, most of which is replete with anti-Zionist and antisemitic antipathy:

“Palestine is a land that was seized by a racist, anti-human and colonial Zionist project that was founded on a false promise (the Balfour Declaration), on recognition of a usurping entity and on imposing a fait accompli by force.

Palestine symbolizes the resistance that shall continue until liberation is accomplished, until the return is fulfilled and until a fully sovereign state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Iranian controlled Press TV promotes the conspiracy that a secretive, shadowy and powerful Jewish network, referred to as “the Zionist movement” acts behind the scenes to influence world affairs, which has always been a central tenet of antisemitic belief systems.

The selective outrage and silence surrounding antisemitism demand urgent attention. Included in this should be the immediate passage of the Antisemitism Awareness Act. It is not simply a question of moral inconsistency but also a reflection of deep ruptures within our society. The normalization of antisemitic rhetoric in certain quarters, whether through political propaganda or academic discourse, undermines the universal principles of equality and human dignity. This issue transcends cultural and national boundaries—it is a global malignancy that festers wherever prejudice is tolerated.

Moreover, the history of antisemitism teaches us the devastating consequences of unchecked hatred. From the pogroms of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the Iraqi Farhud of 1941 to the constant waves of incitement against Israel and Jews in the Arab and Iranian press, the world has witnessed the tragic outcomes of discrimination grounded in ignorance and fueled by radical, paranoid conspiracy theorists and ideological fervor.

Yet, these lessons seem perilously forgotten, particularly when antisemitic ideologies are cloaked in political dissent or masked as criticism of governmental policies.

Addressing this issue requires more than condemnation; it demands revamping our entire educational system, renewing a commitment to political advocacy, and a real and genuine commitment to eradicating hatred in all its forms, including antisemitism. Institutions must take active roles in fostering environments that reject antisemitism unequivocally, ensuring that this ancient hatred does not linger and metastasize in silence but is met with vehement opposition. Only then can we hope to create a society, at least here in the West, that values humanity above divisive ideologies.

Sarah N. Stern is Founder and President of EMET.