By Hillel Fuld
I am very sad that I have to write an article like this, but here we are.
This morning, I went to a meeting in a town 20 minutes from Jerusalem. After the meeting, I drove to Hertzliya to continue my day, but on the road leaving the meeting, I saw at least four instances of this horrific sign.
Can you imagine a sign that says “No blacks allowed past this point. It endangers your life.”?
Oh, so it’s not about race. Ok. How about “No American citizens past this point. It endangers your life.”
Would a sign like that ever exist? Of course not. That’s called bigotry and discrimination.
But to have signs all over the roads telling me, a Jewish Israeli citizen, that I can’t go beyond this point is all good.
“But it’s Israeli law that we can’t enter Area A!”
Yes, it is and that makes it even sicker.
Telling a Jew that he can’t step foot somewhere is anti-Semitic, no matter how you want to twist it.
So, if we, the Jewish state, allow signs like this to exist, if we allow laws to be passed that we can’t step foot in the Temple Mount, which is the holiest place for Jews, why are we surprised when people like Kanye say the things he said?
Just like our neighbors in the Middle East who live to annihilate us smell our weakness, so do Jew haters worldwide.
I don’t think we’ve even begun to scratch the surface of the damage Mr. West has done to the Jewish people. There are already blatantly anti-Semitic signs being hung from bridges in America. Signs that say things like “Kanye was right. Jews are pigs.”
We’ve talked about this before.
I’ve always asked myself how the Jews in Europe didn’t run for their lives when the writing on the wall was so clear and obvious.
Anti-Semitic slurs. Violence against Jews. Jewish businesses being boycotted. Anti-Semites entering positions of power.
Now read that paragraph again and tell me, am I referring to Europe in 1940 or America in 2022?
When a cultural icon like Kanye says the things he said, he can apologize till he’s blue in the face, the damage is done and cannot be undone. If you think anti-Semitism had not gone fully mainstream until now, these past few weeks have brought it to a whole new level.
This sign that any Israeli has seen tens of times in his or her lifetime is fundamentally anti-Jewish and we just allow it.
Apartheid? Israel? Really? Because Arabs are doctors, lawyers, politicians, and live in this country with more rights than they’d have in any Muslim country in the region. They walk freely in our malls and our streets. But Jews? We can’t walk beyond that red sign. Why not? Because we will be lynched.
Oh. Ok. Cool. Yea, that’s normal.
Do we even hear ourselves? How did we come to terms with this reality that we are literally warning Jews that if they dare step foot somewhere, they are risking their lives?
Some people will hate this comparison, but I can’t help but think about segregation. If a black person dares sit in front of the bus, or sad to say, even today, if a woman goes to certain places dressed a certain way, well, we know what happens. How is this ok?
And how can we blame Kanye or AOC for hating on Jews when we ourselves don’t stand up for Jews?
Anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism. Whether its Palestinian signs warning Jews not to go somewhere or tweets threatening Jews because they control Hollywood, it’s all the same and while some of the brands who worked with Kanye are now breaking up with him, that’s not enough.
All I can say, and yes, I know I sound like a broken record, thank G-d for the state of Israel. Now all we need to do is elect leaders who don’t allow anti-Semitism to show its ugly face, even when it’s wearing a mask called anti-Zionism.
We need to stop acting like the weak Jews we used to be. Those days are gone.
Guys, it’s 2022!
How are we even having this conversation?
Hillel Fuld, named Israel’s top marketer and “The Man Helping Transform Startup Nation into Scale-Up Nation” by Forbes, is a tech journalist, startup marketer, and technology expert. Hillel’s work has been featured in CNBC, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, TechCrunch, The Next Web, and many other leading tech publications. Hillel was recently named the 7th most influential tech blogger on the Internet and among the top 100 most influential social media personalities across the globe. You can read more about Hillel’s work at hillelfuld.com.
