Exorcise false fears and false sympathy

May 26, 2025

Yes, challenging the behaviour of a sovereign nation requires “courage plus a belief that protecting human life is more important than respect for state sovereignty”. But we also need to challenge the consequences of inter-generational trauma, particularly re the Holocaust, and the false history re the establishment of Israel.

Jewish people’s fears existed long before 7 October 2023, as shown by various Jewish institutions adopting security practices decades before society more generally. That was largely based on past fears, not current threats at the time.

Ironically, now the IHRA definition of antisemitism actively promotes blurring the distinction between the activities of a nation state and the ethnicity/religion of its citizens and supporters making Jewish people less rather than more safe since 7 October 2023.

We need to challenge that inherited fear and the promoted false history that Israel is “people for a land for a land without people”. We should not be protecting objectively over-reactive Jewish sensibilities at the cost of free speech about genocide in Palestine. And we need to challenge the “Holocaust guilt” that has given the violent establishment of Israel and this genocide a free ride.