The killings of Yaron and Sarah are what ‘globalise the intifada’ really means - The Jewish Chronicle

Every Jew I know – and I am sure the same is true for you - has dreaded a day like this. Dreaded it, but with a sense of foreboding that it was coming. That it was inevitable, and would be only the start.

The murder last night of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC was not an isolated event. It would be a horrific crime whatever the context and the circumstances, but it is important that it is seen for what it is: part of a pattern that has become ever more open and clear in the months after October 7, since open Jew-hate has been normalised.

Elias Rodriguez, the man allegedly responsible for the killings, is reported to have shouted, “I did this for Gaza. Free Palestine. There's only one solution. Intifada revolution” and there are videos online of him screaming the ubiquitous cry, “Free Palestine” as he was taken into custody. There appears to be little doubt about his motivation and what he represents. He is the murderous face of the Free Palestine mob. He is their harbinger.

Jews are under attack across the world. In the English speaking world – in the US, in Canada, in Australia and in South Africa it has become entirely normal for Jews to be attacked – not just verbally, with slogans and banners, but physically. That is true, of course, here in Britain.

It is imperative to understand the ground on which those attacks are built and the drivers which propel them. They are not just the logical extension of the hate marches which are now regular events on the streets of London and other cities. They are in every meaningful sense the same thing. They are fed by the same hate and fuelled by the same desire to go after the Jews. They deliberately, purposely and intentionally single out Israel and Jews for hate. When banners are carried on the marches supporting Hamas and Hezbollah, when the triangle icon is made with marchers’ hands, when the chants demand Judenrein From the River to the Sea and when hundreds of thousands assemble they do so for one reason: because they deem the Jews – the Israelis, as they couch it – to be a problem. When they call for globalising the intifada they are calling specifically and unambiguously for what happened in Washington DC last night: the murder of Jews. That is what globalising the intifada means, and all it can mean – as Rodriguez himself made clear.

The murder of two Israeli embassy staffers is thus not merely the logical extension of the hate marches; it is the DNA of the hate marches made flesh.

That is why we Jews knew this was coming. First, because they have been so very clear that it would come and that they demanded it came. You do not chant ‘globalise the intifada’ without seeking to globalise the intifada. You do not describe the massacre of 1200 Jews on October 7 as part of a liberation struggle without seeing the killing of Jews as part of a liberation struggle. In other words you see both as imperative. Both are an indicator of being on the right side of history.

And second, because we have been here so many times before. History tells us that once Jew hate is given its voice and allowed to flourish, it deepens and spreads. The hate marches are merely one large scale example. This week, for instance, saw a video on social media of a man forcing a mezuzah off someone's door frame. The message was clear: Jews should not feel safe even in their own homes. It is the message of the Jew haters across the millennia: the message of the pogroms, the message of the Kristallnacht and now the message of the keffiyeh crowd.

Today we think of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. May their memories be a blessing. But we also think of what today means – that what we knew was coming has now come. And it is not going away, because the truth is that for all the words about there being no place for antisemitism in Britain, there are many places in which antisemitism is not only tolerated but welcomed and encouraged.

Topics:

Antisemitism