Antisemitism in the Animal Rights Movement

“The world hates a Jew who hits back. The world loves us only when we are to be pitied.” – Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister (1969 – 1974)

Note: The introduction of this article was published in the Jewish Journal.

Introduction

If, before the 10/7 terrorist attack on Israel, someone told me that antisemitism would soon take root and spread in the animal rights movement, I would have scoffed. “Not a chance. Not in this community.” But having lived through 9/11, the COVID pandemic and the January 6 insurrection, I’m not sure why I’m still surprised when something unexpected – and terrible – happens.

I grew up in Miami Beach, Florida in the 1970s and 1980s. At the time, the city had a large and vibrant Jewish community, but it wasn’t immune to antisemitism. Several neighborhoods discouraged or prohibited residents from selling their homes to Jews, and at least four private clubs barred Jews from becoming members. I was perplexed by the discrimination, but, as a closeted 15-year-old boy living at a time when being gay was unacceptable, I had bigger worries.

Among the Jews living in Miami Beach during my youth were Holocaust survivors. Several decades had elapsed since the Allied forces liberated Jews, gays and other “undesirables” from Nazi concentration camps, but most survivors were still too traumatized to talk about what they endured. By the mid-1980s, however, many elderly survivors came forward because they knew the window to tell their stories was closing. “Never again,” they would say when speaking in the chapel at my childhood temple. I’m glad they’re not alive today to see that their beloved synagogue, which was open to the public when they were congregants, is now a fortress with a high fence and security guards.

Like most Jews I know, I have been shaken by the antisemitic violence in recent decades, such as the mass shootings and intifadas, but I regarded them as isolated incidents. I never considered the possibility that, in a matter of months, Jews around the world could be unsafe and the persecution of Jews could be normalized. Before October 7th, I had the luxury of not knowing that antisemitism is a light sleeper.

In the hours and days after Hamas broke the ceasefire and attacked Israel on 10/7 — raping, burning, mutilating, kidnapping and murdering their victims — I noticed that my peers in the animal rights movement were largely silent. Why weren’t they posting the typical expressions of support and compassion for the victims of tragedy? Something was amiss.

The antisemitism in the movement was subtle at first: depriving the victims and their families of the compassion afforded to others; citing “resistance” to justify acts of terror; and denying that the atrocities occurred at all. But it quickly became more odious, even before Israel launched a military operation in Gaza to retrieve the hostages and disarm Hamas to prevent future terrorist attacks.

Animal rights activists who had never posted about the Arab/Israeli conflict and, in some cases, privately admitted to knowing nothing about its history, joined Palestine affinity groups in accusing Israel of being a white colonizer state that has committed 75 years of genocide. They also mimicked the Jihadist calls to destroy Israel “from the river to the sea” and to rise up violently against Jews in a “global intifada.” Even after their Jewish peers explained why this rhetoric is hurtful and dangerous, many of the Free Palestine – or anti-Zionist – activists in the animal rights movement continued to use it.

Free Palestine activists are also attacking the estimated 95% of us who identify as Zionist — accusing us of being racists; publishing blacklists with our names; calling for boycotts of Jewish-owned vegan businesses and pressuring community leaders to publicly condemn us online and at animal rights events. They are also redefining Zionism as colonialism or racism and weaponizing the slur against Jews, using “Zionist” or “Zio” as a stand-in for “Jew.” They tokenize the small minority of Jews who do not identify as Zionist. Activists who normally criticize microaggressions against minority groups unabashedly attack their Jewish peers. Some couch their rhetoric in duplicitous language claiming to “love our Jewish brothers and sisters.” 

The Jewish animal rights activists who are sounding the alarm about the antisemitism are being targeted on our own social media pages, with some Free Palestine activists conflating our concerns about antisemitism with support of, and complicity in, “genocide” and a lack of compassion for the victims of war. If accusing us of being inhuman isn’t cruel enough, they are also charging us with misusing and weaponizing “antisemitism” in response to their hateful rhetoric, telling Jews what is and is not antisemitism—which is akin to telling people of color what constitutes racism.  

In addition to individual activists, global animal rights groups, which had never, to the best of my knowledge, taken a stand on geopolitical issues, made posts on Instagram accusing Israel of committing genocide. In the posts, they made no mention of the actual ethnic cleansing of Jews on 10/7 and of the textbook genocides taking place in other countries. Only Israel. These posts reached thousands of impressionable animal rights activists, many of whom assuredly accepted the narrative without researching it for themselves.

As predicted, the antisemitic rhetoric embraced by animal rights activists – and many others – has led to hateful acts and physical violence. Jewish people, homes, businesses, schools, temples and cemeteries are being attacked and vandalized every day. Posters reminding people of the hostages held captive by Hamas are being torn down or defaced. In particularly malicious acts, Amsterdam’s sacred statue of Anne Frank, the Dutch teenager who chronicled her life in hiding before being killed in a Nazi concentration camp, was twice desecrated with graffiti.

Attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions have increased so dramatically and with so few consequences that some Jewish community leaders are encouraging visibly Jewish constituents to disguise our identities by removing the mezuzahs from our doors, the Stars of David from our necks and the yarmulkes from our heads. They are, in essence, suggesting that we go into hiding.

Given the similarities between 1930s Germany and their own countries today, some Jews in North America, Europe and Australia have begun to ask their Jewish friends and neighbors the dreaded question, “Have you started to make a plan?” By “plan,” they are referring to moving to Israel, the only country that explicitly protects Jews from antisemitic persecution. Since 10/7, several thousand Jewish people in Europe and the United States have moved to Israel, despite the risks associated with the ongoing war.

To be sure, antisemitism is not unique to the animal rights movement. The scourge has spread within the LGBTQ+, reproductive rights, feminist and BLM movements too, leaving many progressive Jews feeling ostracized and excommunicated.

Fact-based criticism of Israeli’s prosecution of the war and/or its conduct in the West Bank is not antisemitic. Nor are well-intended calls for a dual ceasefire or a two-state solution. What is antisemitic, however, is the following:

Redefining Zionism and weaponizing it against Jews

Zionism is the belief that Jewish people, including indigenous Jews and Jewish refugees, have a right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland, which Jews have inhabited for over 3,000 years.

Redefining Zionism as colonialism or racism and weaponizing the slur against Jews is cruel and antisemitic.

An estimated 95% of Jews identify as Zionist. Most of us support the existence of Israel not only because it’s our ancestral homeland, but also because it’s home to approximately 45% of the world’s Jews, who have no place else to go, and because it’s the only country in the world that we can depend on to protect us from antisemitic persecution and violence.

Many Free Palestine activists assert that being anti-Zionist is not antisemitic. Most Jews, however, believe that depriving a small ethnic and religious group of the right to self determination – and safety – is antisemitic. If not Israel, where do they expect Jewish refugees to go?

Calling on Jews to publicly denounce Zionism is also antisemitic because it requires Jewish people to reject our connection to Israel, which is a core part of our Jewish identity.

Some anti-Zionist activists are using “Zionist” as a stand-in for “Jew” when attacking us. When anti-Zionists protest at Jewish temples, businesses and cultural events or in Jewish neighborhoods that have nothing to do with Israel, they know they are indiscriminately targeting Jews. And when they call us “Zios” – a derogatory bastardization of the word – in their online attacks, they know we are hearing “Jews.”

Hundreds of Free Palestine activists in the Animal Rights Movement shared and/or “liked” this anti-Zionist cartoon

When anti-Zionists tell Jews to “go back to Poland,” a country where almost three million were slaughtered during World War II, they are stating that we are not welcome where we live and remain deserving of such a fate. This type of antisemitic rhetoric and the violence that follows demonstrate why the existence of Israel – Zionism – is vital to the safety and survival of the Jewish people. Perhaps Golda Meir, Israeli’s fourth Prime Minister, described it best when she said, “Israel itself is the strongest guarantee against another Holocaust.”

Many anti-Zionist activists blame Zionism for geo-political strife around the world, as if Jewish people, who comprise just 0.2% of the population, wield influence and power over global affairs. One prominent activist with Direct Action Everywhere posted on X, “If Earth ends up in a nuclear war, we’ll know Zionism was the direct cause.” Throughout history, people have blamed Jews for society’s problems and have accused us of controlling the world. These age-old tropes enable people to use Jews as scapegoats. If Jews had the power ascribed to us, then why have we spent centuries fighting for our mere survival?

Two of dozens of “anti-Zionist” posts made by leaders of the global animal rights organization, Direct Action Everywhere (Names redacted)

Calling for the expulsion of “Zios” from the AR movement

Hundreds of animal rights activists have stated – or supported posts – stating that Zionists are, by definition, not vegan and that opposition to Israel should be a litmus test for whether or not someone should be welcomed into the movement. If an estimated 95% of Jews identify as Zionists, then isn’t calling for the expulsion of Zionists akin to calling for the expulsion of Jews? Would calling for the removal of Muslims, gay people or any other minority group from the movement be acceptable?

A spokesperson with the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere calls Zionists “racists” and calls for their expulsion from the animal rights movement

I have been an animal rights organizer for almost 20 years. In that time, I have run many successful campaigns and supported the work of many of my fellow activists. But, because I believe that Israel has a right to exist, some animal rights activists, including many who are not active, state that the movement should condemn and ostracize me. Many of these individuals were toddlers when I began fighting for animals. Calling for the expulsion of people who support the existence of Israel is antisemitic, and it is harming animals.

Hundreds of animal rights activists have stated – or supported posts – stating that Zionists cannot, by definition, be vegan

Making blacklists of Zionists

After 10/7, animal rights activists created Instagram accounts that list animal rights activists and vegan businesses that are – or might be – Zionist. Vegans4CollectiveLiberation posts “EXPOSED” memes that feature photos and bios. In the comments, supporters of the page post the names of other “Zios” – or people they believe to be Zionists – in the movement.

The online animal rights group Vegans4CollectiveLiberation is “exposing” and making a list of Zionists in the Animal Rights Movement.

Vegans for Palestine, an Instagram account with over 8,000 followers, lists vegan brands to boycott because they are “complicit in genocide.” And “Vegan Blockout,” which was removed from Instagram, made posts about “pro-genocide vegans.” Making blacklists of Jews and calling for boycotts of Jewish-owned vegan businesses are antisemitic tactics reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Online animal rights groups are calling for boycotts vegan businesses owned by “Zionists”

Demanding that Animal Rights organizations and community leaders condemn Zionists

Some Free Palestine activists in the movement are pressuring animal rights organizations and influencers to publicly condemn Zionism and Zionists on their social media pages and at their events.

Vegans4CollectiveLiberation sent an “open letter” to dozens of animal rights organizations urging them to publicly “address Israel’s genocide” and to “not support Zionist vegans.” In advance of National Animal Rights Day (NARD), some Free Palestine activists threatened to boycott or disrupt the annual vigil if local organizers didn’t condemn Zionists.

Anti-Zionist activists in the Animal RIghts Movement call for a boycott of National Animal Rights Day, an annual multi-city vigil organized by an Israeli American activist

Demanding that animal rights organizers use their social media platforms and events to demonize Zionism is antisemitic. And co-opting animal rights events for another purpose takes much-needed attention away from the animals.

In May, an animal rights organizer with a Jewish last name sent me the following message: “An activist wearing a kaffiyeh during my protest asked me twice if I’m a Zionist. I said that I don’t discuss politics at protests because I want to keep the focus on the animals. He then said, ‘I’m not going to support your events if you’re a Zionist. I need to know if you’re a Zionist.’ He really scared me.”

Asking organizers with Jewish last names if they’re Zionist and/or declaring that you won’t participate in animal rights protests organized by a Zionist is antisemitic. It is also driving Jewish organizers and activists out of the movement.

Calling for the destruction of Israel

Israel, a small country the size of New Jersey, is the only nation in the world in which the majority of its citizens are Jews. (49 countries are majority Muslim). Israel is also the only country to which most Jews in the diaspora can escape when fleeing persecution and violence. With Jewish people and institutions being attacked and vandalized in many countries around the world, Israel’s existence is more vital than ever to the survival of the Jewish people. That is why chanting or writing “from the river to the sea” after Jewish activists have said it’s Jihadi parlance for the destruction of Israel is antisemitic.

When the United Nations offered Jews and Arabs statehood in 1947, the Jews accepted, and the Arabs did not. On the day that Israel became a country in 1948, five Arab armies declared war on Israel and encouraged Arabs to leave the country until they defeated the Jews. The newly formed Israeli army fought back and won. Like all wars, it was violent. The Arabs who left Israel during the war became refugees; those who stayed became Israeli citizens.

While the Free Palestine and Zionist movements strongly disagree about what happened during and after the 1948 war, one thing is certain: Israel’s seven million Jews (along with non-Jewish Israelis) will continue to defend against their neighbors’ wars to destroy it because, as Golda Meir said, “We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.”

Approximately two million Arabs live in Israel and comprise over 20% of the population. While tensions between Arabs and Jews in Israel exist, Arab Israelis (and other non-Jewish Israelis) have the same rights as Jewish Israelis, including many rights that they would not have in Arab countries. They also hold positions in the highest levels of the Israeli economy and government. Ten Arab Israelis are members of parliament, and one is a Supreme Court judge. Arabs are members of the Israeli Olympic team. Road signs throughout Israel are written in both Hebrew and Arabic.

As the number of Arabs in Israel grows each year, Jewish communities in the Arab world have largely vanished — and not by choice, in many cases. Over the past 60 years, the number of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa dropped by 98.5% from approximately 1,000,000 to about 15,000. The majority of these Jewish refugees moved to Israel.

Calling for a violent global uprising against Jews

Intifada is the Arabic word for uprising, and it is most commonly used to describe two periods of violent Palestinian protest against Israel. The First and Second Intifadas, which took place in the late 1980s and early 2000s respectively, were marked by suicide bombings and bus bombings that killed approximately 1,400 Israelis.

To most Jewish people, calls to “Globalize the Intifada” are antisemitic because they promote violence against Jewish people and institutions around the world. Continuing to use this rhetoric after those being targeted explain its meaning and despite the surge in violent attacks against Jews is reckless and antisemitic.

The use of this rhetoric also begs the question of how Free Palestine activists reconcile their stated desire for peace with calls for violence against Jews and the destruction of Israel “By Any Means Necessary.”

Accusing Israel of genocide

Genocide is defined as the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. In its original charter and in public forums, Hamas has stated and reaffirmed its mission to kill Jews, who represent both a religious and ethnic group. The regime most recently demonstrated its genocidal intent by indiscriminately killing over 1,000 Jews on 10/7. Hamas is so determined to harm Jews that it intentionally maximizes civilian deaths in Gaza to foment antisemitism around the world. Why else would it launch rockets from its schools, hospitals, housing complexes and humanitarian zones? Laying the blame for war casualties in Gaza on Israel instead of Hamas ignores the reality laid bare by Golda Meir, that “peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”

Unlike Hamas, Israel attempts to minimize civilian casualties in war, though its attempts are compromised by Hamas’s intentional placement of military operations in civilian areas. If Israel intended to commit genocide, then why would it distribute millions of leaflets warning civilians of upcoming military operations? Why would it provide humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including those who celebrated the terror attack? And why has the population of Gaza grown from 268,000 in 1960 to almost two million today?

Before 10/7, Israel treated thousands of Palestinians in its hospitals and issued 18,000 permits for Gazans to work in Israel, where wages are higher. Genocidal regimes don’t do that.

Israel has the military capacity to commit genocide without even entering Gaza and jeopardizing the lives of its soldiers. Instead, it is engaging in risky urban warfare to eliminate Hamas and rescue the hostages.

Israel’s military response to Hamas’s terrorist attack and to previous invasions is not genocide; it’s war. Israel is defending itself against promised attacks by an actual genocidal regime. And it is fighting to retrieve the hostages. Accusing Israel of genocide and weaponizing the incendiary term against the victims of an actual genocide – the largest in human history – is antisemitic.

Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), The Save Movement and Generation Vegan, animal rights organizations that have never, to the best of my knowledge, addressed geopolitical issues, have used their social media platforms to perpetuate the genocide narrative. By falsely accusing Israel of committing an ethnic cleansing while willfully ignoring actual genocides in other countries, these groups are fomenting antisemitism, subjecting Jews to discrimination and driving Jewish animal rights activists out of the movement.

Generation Vegan, Direct Action Everywhere and The Save Movement use their animal rights platforms to accuse Israel of committing genocide

If animal rights organizations are going to stray from their mission to accuse Israel of genocide, then why don’t they at least acknowledge Hamas’s indiscriminate murder of Jews on 10/7 and its stated intention to ethnically cleanse Israel of Jews?

Accusing Zionists of supporting genocide and comparing Zionists to Nazis

Two things can be true at the same time. Zionists can believe that Israel has a right to exist, and we can have compassion for the victims of war. Accusing Jewish animal rights activists, who spend our lives advocating against violence, of supporting or being complicit in “genocide” because we are Zionist is antisemitic.

On 10/7, when a cease fire was in place, Hamas terrorists crossed the border into Israel with the intent to engage in the ethnic cleansing of Jews. Since then, Hamas spokespeople have publicly acknowledged their regime’s mission to kill Jews. Expressing genocidal intent and following through with it is neo-Nazism; conducting a military operation to prevent ethnic cleansing and retrieve hostages is not.

Also, invoking Nazism to criticize Jews defending themselves from terrorists who proudly embrace Nazism (i.e. Holocaust inversion) is antisemitic, as is weaponizing that particular slur against Jews.

Some Free Palestine activists in the animal rights movement are comparing Zionism to Nazism to criticize Jews defending themselves from terrorists who proudly embrace Nazism, and they are weaponizing the Nazi slur against Jews

Blaming Israel instead of Hamas for the plight of Palestinians in Gaza

Absent in the attacks against Israel by the Free Palestine activists have been expressions of anger about the corrupt and repressive Hamas regime and concern for its victims. Israel vacated Gaza in 2005, ceding power to the Palestinians, who elected Hamas. As part of its exit from Gaza, Israel forced Jewish residents of Gaza to leave behind their homes, businesses and lives. In the two decades that followed, Hamas leaders used billions of dollars in foreign aid to dig underground tunnels, amass weapons and enrich themselves instead of building civic infrastructure and improving the quality of life of its people. They also stripped Palestinians of basic human rights — subjugating women, outlawing homosexuality, curbing free speech and torturing dissenters.

If the Free Palestine activists are motivated by a desire to help Palestinians in Gaza, why aren’t they calling on Hamas to provide them with basic human rights? Why aren’t they demanding that Hamas protect civilians instead of using them as human shields? Why aren’t they calling on Hamas leaders to release the hostages and lay down their arms to end the war? Why aren’t they calling on world leaders to replace Hamas with a government that will build a nation instead of tearing a neighboring one down?

Demonizing Zionists as “white supremacists”

Approximately 70% of Israelis are people of color. They consist primarily of indigenous Jews, indigenous Arabs, and Jews who fled persecution in the Middle East, North Africa and Ethiopia. Only 30% of Israelis are Caucasian. Many are refugees or descendants of refugees who fled persecution and pogroms in Europe or survived the Holocaust.

Mischaracterizing Jewish Israelis as white supremacists is antisemitic, and it detracts from any potentially valid criticism of Israel. It’s also dangerous, as it has led to the same stereotyping of Jews around the world and has begun to erase the Jewish contributions to the Black civil rights movement.

Free Palestine activists in the Animal Rights Movement describe Zionists as white supremacists, racists and Nazis

During World War II, Adolf Hitler, the head of the Nazi party and architect of the Holocaust, set out to ethnically cleanse Europe of Jews in part because we weren’t white enough to live among the blond haired, blue-eyed Aryans of Northern Europe.

Throughout the millennia, people have persecuted Jews because we were too capitalist or too communist; too assimilated or too segregated; too powerful or too weak; too religious or too secular. Today, we are too white.

Believing Women – Unless They’re Jewish

Hamas terrorists entered Israel on 10/7 with the intent to commit sexual violence. At the Nova Music Festival and other locations in southern Israel, they raped women and engaged in other forms of sexual violence, according to the United Nations. In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack, the mainstream media aired video of 19-year-old Naama Levy being dragged through Gaza with bloody pajama bottoms as onlookers cheered and distributed candy. Over the next few days, the bodies of women with severed breasts and mutilated vaginas were documented and taken to morgues.

Sexual violence didn’t end on 10/7. In March 2024, the U.N. released a report revealing that it has “clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, has been committed against hostages.”

”Screams Before Silence,” a documentary film by Sheryl Sandberg about the sexual violence and the silence and denial that followed, includes explicit documentation and testimonials of victims and witnesses. Despite the ample evidence, some Free Palestine activists in the animal rights movement publicly deny that sexual violence occurred because “rape” disrupts the “resistance” narrative.

“Believing women” unless they are Jewish is cruel and antisemitic.

Demanding that Israel stop defending itself

Unlike the United States, which is bordered by allies in the north and south and oceans in the east and west, Israel is surrounded by terrorist groups and governments intent on destroying it. Indeed, they have waged seven wars on Israel since 1948. Calling on Israelis to stop defending themselves against these “neighbors” is akin to asking them to commit suicide.

Weary of war, Israelis would prefer to engage in diplomacy with its neighbors, but, as Golda Meir stated, “You cannot negotiate peace with somebody who has come to kill you.”

Imposing Double Standards

Israel is approximately 8,000 square miles and has a population of just nine million people. Despite its small size, it is perpetually scrutinized by the rest of the world and held to higher standards than other nations. What other country would be criticized for defending itself against attacks waged by neighboring governments and terrorist groups who have vowed to destroy it? What other country would be criticized for defending itself from gunfire while rescuing hostages? What other country would be expected to provide humanitarian aid to those who attack them? What other country would be asked to agree to a one-way ceasefire? What other country granted statehood by the U.N. is deemed illegitimate? What other country is the target of a boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) campaign despite not committing the human rights atrocities of countless other nations? And what other ethnic group would be asked to cede its only home to those who have vowed to kill them? Imposing double standards on the world’s only Jewish majority country is antisemitic.

Silencing Jewish voices

Since 10/7, some Free Palestine activists in the Animal Rights Movement have called on animal rights and vegan event organizers to disinvite speakers who are “Zionists.” They have also called on non-Jewish speakers to boycott the events organized by “Zionists.” Their demands have sowed chaos and confusion, divided the movement, and compromised events created to help animals.

Calls by Free Palestine activists to disinvite Zionist speakers and boycott events organized by Zionists

Concerned about the exodus of Jewish activists from the AR movement, one prominent community leader with a large following interviewed me and another Jewish activist about the antisemitism we’ve observed and experienced since 10/7. We were grateful that he wanted to give Jewish activists a platform to share our perspective, and we encouraged him to challenge us, which he did.

Within hours of conducting the interview, he informed us that he might not air it because he received resistance from his anti-Zionist colleagues. By not airing this podcast, which was recorded in May, this community leader silenced Jewish voices in favor of those who are harming us. More importantly, he failed to take a principled stand against antisemitism in the animal rights movement after leading us to believe that he would.

Invalidating and dismissing the concerns of Jewish activists

Under the guise of “Free Palestine,” people around the world are attacking Jews; vandalizing Jewish homes, schools and businesses; and desecrating Jewish monuments, cemeteries and temples. When Jewish animal rights activists have expressed sadness, fear and anger about these attacks and the antisemitic rhetoric in our own movement, Free Palestine activists have invalidated and dismissed our concerns. Some have even used our posts as a platform to accuse us of supporting or being complicit in genocide. If any other minority in the animal rights movement expressed feelings of discrimination on social media, the outpouring of support would be instant and unequivocal.

Jews are not the only victims of antisemitism in the animal rights movement. As Jewish activists spend our time responding to “anti-Zionist” attacks online or altogether withdraw from a community where we no longer feel welcome, the animals for whom we should be advocating continue to suffer. In fact, everyone loses when a group fomenting hate co-opts and compromises a social justice movement.