Member-only story
October’s Most Ironic Arrest
I’m only going to write briefly about what must be the most ridiculous, and most ironic arrest in Western Europe recently. Iris Hefets, an elderly Jewish-Israeli woman was arrested for anti-Semitism, in Berlin, by the Bundespolizei (German Police).
You read that right, a Jewish Israeli, was arrested by a German police officer, for anti-Semitism.
What was she up to? Attacking Jewish stores? Shouting anti-Semitic slogans? Inciting racial hatred against Jews? No. None of those. Iris was walking alone, holding a sign that called for an end to genocide in Gaza.
How does calling for an end to state and military-sanctioned mass, indiscriminate killing and ethnic cleansing equate to anti-Semitism? It doesn’t. But according to many, it does if the killing is being done by Israel.
How do we make sense of this?
For decades, Israel has tried to convince the whole world that any opposition to what they do is anti-Semitism. That is anti-Semitism defined as hatred of Jews. But Israel is founded on Zionism, and Zionism is not Judaism.
When opposition to Israel comes from actual Jews, Israel calls them self-hating Jews. When opposition comes from anybody else, Israel calls them terrorist sympathizers. When opposition comes from Muslims, Israel (and most of their Western sympathizers)…