The latest blood libel has arrived.
It was reported, on April 21, that some 200 bodies were found in a mass grave outside a hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Hamas claimed that the Israeli Defense Forces killed and buried these individuals. As has been the case throughout this conflict, the world media jumped at the opportunity to implicate the Jewish State and the number has since doubled.
A platform X account entitled “Geo Confirmed” posted evidence of the IDF’s innocence the day after the story broke. Satellite images show that the bodies exhumed are in the same location where Palestinians themselves dug and buried their own in recent months. As usual, the media did no research before running the story. Hearing an account from a terrorist organization was enough for them. Despite this, the story is still being peddled and the United States is pressing for answers.
At the beginning of the war, as I approached a checkpoint outside of Jerusalem, I saw IDF soldiers carrying a body bag from the scene of a recent terror attack. My heart stopped. Although it was the first dead body I’d seen outside a cemetery, I didn’t know what I was looking at: Was it ours or theirs? I was overcome with emotion. I later learned that all the soldiers were safe and the bag contained the body of someone seeking to murder innocents. I gave a sigh of relief. But there are those who don’t view this as I do.
Many progressives subscribe to the doctrine of intersectionality, which holds, according to British journalist and author Douglas Murray, that because marginalized groups share similar circumstances, they also share solidarity in achieving emancipation from oppression. However, these people never consider Jews marginalized and rather lump them into the “oppressor” category.
For example, when it comes to this blood libel, if Israel were to allow the United Nations into Gaza to investigate these claims, could we dream of impartial treatment? The UN is an organization that in 2023, 14 out of 21 UN General Assembly resolutions that criticize countries – two-thirds – were directed at Israel. The bias toward Israel is undeniable.
More at stake than salvaging Israel's reputation
There is more at stake here than fair treatment of Israel and salvaging its reputation on the world stage.
The campus protests that have swept through colleges in America have revived a level of antisemitism unseen since the days of Nazi Germany. From harassment to physical assault, to barring Jewish students and professors from campus, the behavior has reached a fever pitch.
In combating this vile behavior, many, including professors, have pointed out the double standard applied to these protests. If anyone had substituted black or gay students in place of Jews, these protests would have been shut down before they even started.
Although this is a fair point, it misses the mark.
Khymani James, the leader of Columbia’s anti-Israel protest was quoted as saying, “Nazis, white supremacists, Zionists ... are all the same thing” and “I feel very comfortable calling for those people to die.”
His statement marks a serious turning point for the movement. We are no longer discussing hypocrisy. We are now in a realm of incitement that cannot be tolerated for any group on any level.
How can this individual equate Zionism, a movement to establish a state for the protection of the Jewish people, to Hitler, whose goal was world domination and the eradication of all Jews?
James’s philosophy is the logical conclusion of the libelous coverage Israel has received since October 7. Being fed the lie – on a daily basis – that Israel is slaughtering innocents and committing genocide leads the ignorant to this place. It’s time that all who oppose Israel’s defensive actions take serious stock of their own beliefs and realize that they’ve actually become the thing they hate the most – bigots themselves.
The writer is a rabbi, a wedding officiant, and a mohel who performs britot (ritual circumcisions) and conversions in Israel and worldwide. Based in Efrat, he is the founder of Magen HaBrit, an organization protecting the practice of brit milah and the children who undergo it.