Door-to-door antisemitism

It’s no wonder that social media is filled with hatred and vilification directed at Israel and Jews, because it easily and effectively reaches the masses. But not everyone is as addicted to clips, podcasts and articles, so how can those people be reached? Just go door to door with your message.

And that’s exactly what a UK group called, “The Brighton and Hove Apartheid Free Zone” has done. Their “grassroots campaign to boycott Israeli goods aims to pressure Israel,” which they refer to as a racist and genocidal state, to end its illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land.” ‘

In their dedicated and fervent effort to harm the Jewish state, eight teams of volunteers, each made up of two or three people,” have been knocking on the doors of their neighbors, hoping to persuade them to look upon Israel as a despised and loathsome pariah state, unworthy of their support.

But one coastal citizen is not having it.  Local resident Vicky Bhogal, founder of the Brighton-based organization named, “Jewish and Proud,” is doing something about it.  Hoping to expose this intimidation campaign, Bhogal has followed these individuals, who she says have “systematically gone from household to household with a clipboard and checklist of addresses, asking if people would commit to boycotting Israel.”

Bhogal is right to refer to their actions as intimidation, because, in many cases, the pressure to comply exceeds the courage needed to go against the tide and be willing to stand up to support Israel and the Jewish people. 

A great part of these Brighton and Hove devotees to BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) is also to document which neighbors are pro-Zionist and which are not. In essence, these individuals are prying into the personal business of their fellow residents, demanding that they take a position one way or the other.

If that doesn’t encroach into the realm of one’s freedom to think as they wish, without having to divulge their sincerely held opinions, then what does? No one should have the right to browbeat or bully anyone into revealing their thoughts or positions, because those are private, meant to be the sole property of one’s God-given conscience. 

The unmitigated nerve, required to go from door to door, with a list, specifying the political and moral leanings of each resident, is not only unconscionable but should be viewed as a violation of the rights of each individual. This is certainly worthy of investigation by local authorities to examine whether such a practice is illegal.

Because what happens if someone’s house gets vandalized or other forms of threats result, once the information is made known? Connecting the crime to a group with one destructive goal would not be so far-fetched!

But they are not only interested to know the positions of their neighbors. Also moving on to established local businesses, they expect owners to support their boycott of Israeli goods. Let’s play that out.

What happens when such a business refuses to go along with them?  Will that be made public to others? And how will that affect the bottom line of that proprietor? In many ways, this has to be looked upon as a punitive measure, meant to hurt anyone unwilling to back the hateful politics of this group.

And that bolsters the assertion that this is, indeed, a campaign designed to intimidate.  Unlike a private conversation between two individuals, where each expresses a different political opinion, this type of verbal exchange is, instead, a purposeful intrusion, meant to let others know that their independent thinking will not be tolerated. 

In that respect, it is no less invasive than forced conversion or any other form of coercion which has been used throughout millennia, in an effort to garner a base of support which would otherwise not happen without the threat of reprisals. This is what makes it so insidious! 

A new campaign, designed to foster Jew hatred is following a long line of others, intended to isolate, vilify, repudiate and renounce the collective Jewish people along with their homeland. As the saying goes, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

There are an estimated 3-4,000 Jews residing in the towns of Brighton and Hove, who must certainly share the sentiments Vicky Bhogal stated, “It makes me feel sick to my stomach, because I feel that it’s a targeted campaign to turn the people of Brighton against Jews who support Israel. They know they can get away with this. They know they can go door to door, eliciting support. Any campaign against Israel is a campaign against British Jews.   You can’t separate it. The way I see it, is that the modern face of antisemitism is anti-Zionism.”

Has anyone asked what happens when one of these BDS extremists knocks on the door of a Jewish family? Will they be tolerated if they agree to curtail their purchases of Israeli products or will they automatically be registered as an appendage of the enemy state? This, too, is worth exploring.

If their Jewish-sounding name appears on the door or some other identifying symbol, such as a mezuza nailed to their doorpost, will they appear on yet another list? How far does this type of “selection” go? Because that’s tantamount to what it is.  

This campaign has all the earmarks of pre-Holocaust tactics, where a well-coordinated operation also took place – one which eventually led to the yellow Jewish star being visibly worn in order to alert others to the presence of a Jew. In this case, it’s just a different life form, but with the same eerie effect. 

The notion that someone can hold Israel with contempt, but not their Jewish neighbors, is laughable, because the moment they opt to travel to visit the homeland, that, too, can be viewed as support for the hated nation. 

In the end, the only way to satisfy these anti-Zionist radicals would be to create a Jew-free zone in Hove, Brighton and all of the UK, but isn’t that already the direction it’s taking?