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Antisemitism in North America: Unmasking Hate in the Guise of Activism
Yale University students at the corner of Grove and College Streets in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., April 22, 2024. Photo: Melanie Stengel via Reuters Connect.
We are witnessing an alarming moral erosion across North America as antisemitism continues its steep and brazen ascent. This is not the subtle “dog whistle” antisemitism of past decades. It is overt. It is violent. It is organized. And it is often masquerading as “activism” under the guise of anti-Zionism or anti-Israel sentiment.
The growing chorus of hatred is not merely about Israel’s policies — it is about Jews, period.
In city streets, on college campuses, in media and political discourse, antisemitic rhetoric has become normalized and even celebrated. As a Jewish activist, journalist, and advisor working on the frontlines of Jewish advocacy, I can no longer temper my condemnation: our governments are failing us. Our cities are complicit through inaction. And too many voices of reason have been muted by fear or ignorance.
Anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, and anti-Jewish sentiments directed against our entire movement, people, and country are, in fact, antisemitism.
Being against Israeli policies, specific individuals, or specific actions is one thing. Being against an entire movement, country, or people is another thing.
Hate in the Streets, on Campuses, and in Political Discourse
Let us start with the public sphere, where antisemitism no longer hides.
Just last week, Washington, D.C., was rocked by a violent terror attack targeting a Jewish gathering and murdering two young people because they attended a Jewish gathering in a Jewish building. This followed a string of violent incidents in both the United States and Canada, from vandalism of synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses to death threats at “Israel Day” events in Toronto, Montreal, and New York City. It also followed murders and attempted murders that targeted Jews across America.
One unsettling battleground is the university campus, which reflects exactly what we are witnessing on city streets, as performative activism and “catchy” slogans are used to justify anti-Jewish racism, bigotry, and hatred.
According to a sweeping 2024 study conducted by Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League, 73% of Jewish college students have experienced or witnessed antisemitism since October 7, 2023. Even more disturbingly, 41% report concealing their Jewish identity due to safety concerns
At UCLA, Jewish students were blocked from entering campus spaces unless they denounced Israel’s right to exist. In 2024, a Federal court ruled in their favor, underscoring the university’s gross failure to uphold basic rights. At McGill University in Canada, protesters called for the destruction of Israel with chants of “Long live the intifada,” while intimidating Jewish students with hateful signage and harassment. The encampments are not peace protests — they are theaters of intimidation and hate.
The Digital Engine of Antisemitic Hate
This surge of hate is not organic. It is algorithmically amplified. The digital sphere — particularly social media platforms — has become the central artery through which antisemitic content spreads.
According to CyberWell’s analysis of the 2025 Canadian federal election, 72.1% of antisemitic content tracked was posted to X (formerly Twitter), often mixing Holocaust denial, dehumanizing slurs, and calls for violence with the language of political activism. Other platforms — TikTok, Instagram, YouTube — are also culpable. This is not free speech; this is the incitement and proliferation of hate speech, and it has very real offline consequences.
The Unholy Alliance: Islamism and the Far-Left
What is perhaps most insidious is the strategic manipulation of far-left ideologies by Islamist movements that are fundamentally opposed to liberal democracy. These Islamist entities have perfected the art of linguistic appropriation — using terms like “decolonization,” “social justice,” and “intersectionality” — to disguise antisemitism as a virtue. And too many progressive institutions, including our universities and civic spaces, have bought this lie.
The placard-waving crowds chanting for “liberation” are often parroting slogans that call for the elimination of Jews and Israel.
This is not solidarity — it is sinister exploitation. These ideologues weaponize moral language to deceive well-meaning, uninformed minds. What begins as ignorance metastasizes into hate. The results are playing out in real time, in both physical attacks and the chilling erasure of Jewish identity in public life.
The Path Forward: The Stakes for Everyone
Let me be clear: when Jews are targeted, the foundational values of the entire nation are under assault.
Antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine. History teaches us that societies that allow hatred against Jews to fester will eventually turn on themselves. If you want to protect the soul of America or Canada, you must protect your Jewish citizens.
What can be done? Everything. Everyone must act.
- For citizens: Speak out when you see hate. Do not allow bigotry to masquerade as activism in your community or workplace. Educate yourself beyond social media slogans.
- For politicians: Condemn antisemitism without conditions or “context.” Pass legislation that defines and prosecutes antisemitic hate crimes. Fund security for vulnerable communities.
- For universities: Enforce codes of conduct. Protect Jewish students. Restore academic integrity by removing ideologically extreme professors who promote hate under the banner of scholarship.
- For tech companies: Ban antisemitic content. Enforce your own policies. The digital space must not be a breeding ground for violent ideology.
A Final Word
I refuse to be silent as hatred spreads like wildfire. I refuse to downplay antisemitism as just another political opinion. It is not. It is the world’s oldest hatred, and it has been rebranded and repurposed in our modern era with terrifying efficiency.
As Jews, we carry the burden of survival — and the responsibility to fight forward, not back. As citizens of democratic nations, we all share the obligation to confront hate wherever it appears. This is not a Jewish problem; this is a North American crisis. And the time to act is now.
Yuval David is an Emmy Award–winning journalist, filmmaker, and actor, and an internationally recognized advocate for Jewish and LGBTQ rights. He serves as a strategic advisor to diplomatic missions, international NGOs, and multilateral organizations, focusing on human rights, pluralism, and cultural diplomacy. With extensive experience in global media and public engagement, Yuval contributes to leading international news outlets and frequently speaks at diplomatic forums, policy conferences, and intergovernmental gatherings. His work fosters cross-cultural understanding, combats antisemitism and hate, and promotes democratic values and inclusive societies. Instagram.com/Yuval_David_ X.com/YuvalDavid Facebook.com/YuvalDavid YouTube.com/YuvalDavid Tiktok.com/@yuval.david
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.