Calling for the death of Jews: Danger and hatred in countries that Jews call home
History has shown that antisemitism begins with a disparaging remark, a slur, and then graduates to enough vilification that results in the societal exclusion of Jews. As bad as that sounds, it never ends there, because the spirit behind Jew-hatred is not satisfied until there is a call for death.
It has taken two years to reach that point, and that’s what’s being heard, most recently by a student from Oxford University, as reported by The Jerusalem Post: “Anti-Israel groups backed a slogan calling for the death of Zionists… culminating in the arrest of a student for leading a London protest chant calling to ‘put the Zios in the ground.’”
It doesn’t take much to figure out the meaning of the word “Zios.” This new pejorative for Jews has replaced “kike,” the old one, which was disparagingly used to refer to anyone who was part of the tribe. While “Zios” is simply a shortening of the word Zionists, the intent is to denigrate anyone Jewish, regardless of whether they are connected to Israel.
A series of antisemitic incidents
Of course, those participating in the Oxford chant were not directing it to Israelis, who live thousands of miles away from them and could not hear them. But imagine a Jew hearing it; they are the ones who would have felt most intimidated by the full chant, “Gaza, Gaza, make us proud, put the Zios in the ground.”
Oxford University, likewise, interpreted the words to pose a threat to local Jews, otherwise they wouldn’t have immediately put out the following statement: “Oxford University is unequivocal: There is no place for hatred, antisemitism or discrimination within our community, and we will always act to protect the safety and dignity of our students.”
But Oxford was not an anomaly. On the same day, a group from Leeds, called Direct Confrontation Media, joined by an influencer and Cardiff Students for Palestine, posted the same words on social media.
In a separate incident, thousands of miles away in Argentina, a soccer match between two teams of children, one a Jewish group, had to be interrupted when a player from the non-Jewish group shouted, “Jews must be killed.” In the end, the game was suspended, but that didn’t stop parents in the stands from expressing their own antisemitic sentiments, accusing Jews of being genocidal.
We’d all love to hear a parent explain how the Israeli military, defending its people from murdering terrorists, has any connection to genocide, let alone to group of Jewish kids playing soccer in South America.
Of course, who can forget the chant of British rapper, Bob Vylan, at the Glastonbury music festival in June, who, along with his rap band Kneecap, led the audience to repeat after them, “Death, Death to the IDF.”
Echoes of history
These incidents are not the first time that death threats have been heard publicly. During the Holocaust, that was a common outcry throughout Europe. Not long after Hamas’s barbaric massacre of October 7, it was reported that pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Sydney, Australia, had been heard chanting, “gas the Jews,” although the media denies such calls were heard. If so, why did the media report that the Australian government apologized for the incident?
Amid many death threats to Jewish groups and individuals, Nicholas Ray, a Texas resident, was arrested this week after a lengthy investigation took place following death threats to several Jewish, pro-Israel and conservative media commentators. They included journalist Laura Loomer, author Josh Hammer, and New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz.
Hardly a day goes by without similar death threats being reported in newspapers throughout the world, making it clear that Jews are not guaranteed the safety they once felt in their respective countries.
This unexpected phenomenon, which took off following Hamas’s bloody massacre in Israel, has clearly morphed into a desire expressed throughout the world to openly wish for the death of Jews – a concern that should trouble everyone. When calls for the death of any people are heard, it is time to reflect on a dreadful malady invading the collective society.
If a segment of the population can be blamed for bogus actions attributed to them, solely on the basis of their ethnicity, it is telltale of depravity that testifies to the accusers having seriously lost their way. It reveals a dark tendency that seems to emerge with each generation, indicating that important lessons have not been gleaned from the tragedies of our shared history.
The desire to kill off an entire group of people is about as perverse as it gets. These calls to kill Jews indicate that we are, once again, at a time when society has broken down and is desperately in need of profound soul-searching.
While we know that Israel’s obligation to protect its people is nothing different from what any other country would have done, the outcries of protest would have us believe otherwise. They forget that Israel is protecting all those who live here, and that includes Arabs, Druze, Christians, and other ethnicities.
Rockets have fallen on each of those groups. Tragically, 12 Druze children from Israel’s northern community of Majdal Shams died when a rocket hit the soccer field where they were innocently playing; an additional 42 were wounded.
The evil is deepened when non-Jews are included in the threatening calls for the death of those who live in Zion. It is the spirit of murder, destroying anyone who has an association with Jews. It really doesn’t get darker than that.
This article originally appeared on The Jerusalem Post and is reposted with permission.
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal who made Aliyah in 1993 and became a member of Kibbutz Reim but now lives in the center of the country with her husband. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the principles from the book of Proverbs - available on Amazon.
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