OPINION:
Two recent stories expose a dangerous reality we Americans can no longer ignore. What the world has taken to calling “pro-Palestinian activists” are not merely out to kill Israelis; they are genuine acolytes of the Third Reich. Today, America has the opportunity to prove itself better than 1930s Germany by rejecting a conference promoting hate, but it must now pass that test.
First, consider Ahed Tamimi, a “symbol of Palestinian resistance.” She went viral in 2017 by attacking Israeli soldiers with her bare hands, plus a few kicks for good measure. Shortly after the Hamas terrorist attacks on peaceful communities around the Gaza Strip, she took her “resistance” to Instagram by promising to the Jews of Judea and Samaria: “We will slaughter you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke. … We will drink your blood and eat your skulls.”
Lest one think she meant only Israelis, she settled that last month by saying: “Judaism means occupation. … Judaism [should] be presented to the children of Palestine … as occupation, and that we are fighting the Jews, not Zionism.” To her thinking, American Jews are legitimate targets of her murderous “resistance” as well.
Her calls to complete Adolf Hitler’s mission have not harmed her popularity because, despite continuous public relations campaigns to obfuscate evil, Ms. Tamimi’s barbarism is by no means off script for the Palestinian cause. Arab mobs butchered Jews in Hebron in 1929 as they did in communities across Gaza two years ago. Israel’s peaceful founding in 1948 was met with “a war of extermination and momentous massacre” by surrounding Arab armies.
The Palestine Liberation Organization was not created to seek independence from Jordan but to eradicate Israel. Hamas called for genocide in its founding charter, and its leaders promised quite recently to repeat the Oct. 7, 2023, massacres until that goal is achieved. Hassan Nasrallah, the late leader of Hezbollah, said Jews’ gathering in Israel saved his terrorist minions the trouble of hunting them down around the globe. Hezbollah, like the PLO, remains responsible for attacks on Jewish civilians far from Israel.
In America, Students for Justice in Palestine does not celebrate thinkers or peace activists but rather those who kill Jews. It commemorates George Habash, mastermind of the Black September airplane hijackings, in which terrorists divided Jews from non-Jews like a selektion at Auschwitz. It lionizes Dalal Mughrabi, who was killed as she and fellow terrorists murdered 38 people, including 13 children. It honors Rasmea Odeh, who killed two Jewish college students and later lied about it when applying for a U.S. visa.
This is the history behind the “People’s Conference for Palestine” planned in Detroit. The State Department is reviewing visa requests because of the sheer number of terrorists and their advocates applying to enter the country. Yes, those invited to address the conference are familiar promoters of genocide.
These include Hussam Shaheen, who spent 27 years in prison for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Mosab Abu Toha spread antisemitic lies blaming Israel for jihadi terrorism and claimed that although Emily Damari was shot twice, abducted from her home and held by Hamas, she should not be called a hostage. Then there is Omar Assaf, a past member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, best known for the Ma’alot massacre of 25 schoolchildren and their teachers.
For every Jewish American and every American who still cherishes life, liberty and equality, this is deeply personal. When Ms. Tamimi says there is no difference between Jews and Zionists, she tells us what we should already have known. When Messrs. Habash, Mughrabi, Odeh, Shaheen and Assaf committed their crimes, they were not seeking Israelis but rather Jews.
They were seeking me, my family, every Jew sitting in synagogue on Shabbat morning, and every Jewish student who walks onto a college campus. These are the people invited to address the “People’s Conference for Palestine.”
America has no obligation to open its doors to strangers who spread the venom of hate. The State Department denies visas every year to criminals and extremists, and those seeking to poison American civilization with antisemitic bigotry should be treated no differently. To the contrary, although U.S. citizens have the First Amendment right to attend a conference supporting barbarism, the sponsors should be investigated for their vocal and, quite possibly, material support for foreign terrorist organizations.
In Europe and the Islamic world, the rhetoric of this “People’s Conference” led to pogroms, expulsions and the Holocaust. It has already fueled attacks in American towns and cities.
Ultimately, the Jewish nation is given a divine guarantee of survival, but America is not. History proves that there are few better ways to destroy a civilization than to nurse Jew hatred. The visas must be denied, and the “People’s Conference” deserves the people’s revulsion.
• Rabbi Yaakov Menken serves as executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values.
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