Marina Rosenberg is senior vice president of international affairs of the Anti-Defamation League. She’s a former Israeli ambassador to Chile.
Last month, New York police officers arrested over 200 anti-Israel protestors at Columbia University and City College. Then, the very next day, Colombian President Gustavo Petro — known for his anti-Israel tirades — announced his government would break diplomatic ties with Israel.
The alarming spike in antisemitism and anti-Israel prejudice that we’re witnessing today, from the Columbia campus to Colombia the country and beyond, epitomizes the global resurgence of anti-Jewish hate in the aftermath of Hamas’s brutal October attacks.
Moreover, what we’re seeing on many U.S. campuses isn’t peaceful protest. Rather, it’s a display of conduct that’s harassing, menacing and interfering with the operation of the universities, depriving students of their education and even posing physical harm. As New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated, nearly 50 percent of those arrested on the Columbia and City College campuses weren’t even students.
With chants of “we are Hamas” and “globalize the intifada” now echoing across some of the country’s most prestigious schools and being presented as calls for justice, it’s important we remember they’re ultimately advocating violence and the destruction of the Jewish state.
But these protests that erupted in the past weeks didn’t occur in a vacuum. They’re the result of months, and in some cases years, of relentless and mounting antisemitism on college campuses in the U.S. For example, in 2023, incidents on campuses spiked by 321 percent to reach 922, most of which took place after Oct. 7.
And while nowhere near the level observed on U.S. campuses, encampments have started popping up across universities in Europe and elsewhere as well. On May 1, students at three British institutions — the University of Bristol, University of Leeds and Newcastle University — set up tents as part of their protests. In Paris, students occupied multiple buildings at the prestigious Science Po campus. And at McGill University in Montreal, anti-Zionist activists were recorded shouting at counterprotesters, urging them to “Go back to Europe” and creating adoring portraits of Abu Obeida — the spokesperson of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades.
Though these protests command our immediate attention, however, they’re just one aspect of a broader resurgence, transcending borders and impacting Jewish communities worldwide. Whether on college campuses or in the streets of busy cities, today, antisemitism is reaching unprecedented levels.
At the Anti-Defamation League, our recent global antisemitism report in collaboration with Tel Aviv University underscored the scale of this all-encompassing crisis.
The report documents how numerous countries, including those with the largest Jewish diaspora communities, are facing a surge of antisemitism like what we’re witnessing in the U.S. Committed by both the far right and the far left, neither can be dismissed as negligible or fringe expressions any longer, given their significant numbers and intensity.
Out of the 20 countries mentioned in our report, every single one recorded an increase in antisemitic incidents in 2023 compared to 2022. And significant spikes were recorded in most countries with large Jewish communities, including the U.S., France, the U.K., Australia, Brazil and Mexico.
Recorded antisemitic incidents in the U.K. rose from 1,662 in 2022 to 4,103 in 2023, with physical assaults spiking from 136 to 266. Meanwhile, in France, these incidents increased from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, and in Argentina, they rose from 427 to 598. Germany marked a similarly horrifying 134 percent increase, with the number of incidents going from 2,639 to 3,614 within the same time frame, while Brazil’s incidents spiked from 432 to a staggering 1,774, amounting to a 310 percent increase.
The list goes on.
Interestingly, while there was a marked increase in such incidents following Hamas’s atrocities against Israel on Oct. 7, our report also documented a historic increase in antisemitic incidents prior to the attacks.
All this demands our full and immediate attention. Antisemitism isn’t a Jewish problem — it’s everyone’s problem. And more than ever, the support of our allies is crucial.
Standing up to antisemitism isn’t just about protecting Jewish communities, it’s about defending the core values of our democratic societies. And we must collectively call upon our leaders to use their voices and take on the responsibility of combating antisemitism and hate in their countries, cities and universities. Just as we wouldn’t tolerate such hatred directed at any other minority group, we should be firmly opposing it when it targets Jews.
No matter where in the world, we won’t accept it. And together, we have the power to stop hate from becoming the new norm.
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