SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 3.4.2024
The People should stand up and shout out against the worldwide growth of antisemitism. Which has grown exponentially in the wake of of the State of Israel’s ferocious deadly reaction to the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel last October 7.
Israel’s five months long carnage has leveled Gaza and resulted in the deaths of 30,000 people by the Israeli military with weapons supplied by America.
In condemning The State of Israel with increasing antisemitism a dangerous bright line has been crossed.
People need to differentiate between Jewish people and the State of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). These are all State actors. Condemning Jewish people as a group is a dangerous activity which only breeds further hate and mistrust.
It’s the philosophy which bred Nazism, led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, his ascension to power in Germany in 1933 and the subsequent holocaust which took the lives of six million people.
It is one thing to support the people of Palestine and demand a halt to the carnage being imposed by the State of Israel. It is quite another matter to engage in blatant antisemitism.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.3.2024
“Can you hear me?” Sheryl Sandberg, former chief operating officer of Facebook parent Meta, asked the crowd at San Francisco City Hall before launching into a story about her gradual decision to speak out publicly against antisemitism.
Describing how she initially asked her son to stop wearing his Star of David necklace out of concern for his safety, Sandberg, who is Jewish, said the months after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel had taught her the importance of reaching out to friends for support. Despite mounting fears for her family’s well-being, Sandberg said she had started wearing her own Star of David necklace in an effort to create a world in which the symbol can be worn “safely and proudly.”
Thousands of Jewish demonstrators and their supporters braved the rain Sunday afternoon at San Francisco’s City Hall to condemn antisemitism, especially in schools and on college campuses across the Bay Area.
Addressing crowds huddled beneath umbrellas as rain clouds intermittently doused the event, speakers including California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Mayor London Breed and state Sen. Scott Wiener described escalating anti-Jewish rhetoric amid a stark rise in hate crimes against the Jewish community.
“It’s been shocking to watch how divided we have become,” Mayor London Breed told the assembled crowd.
The mayor said one-third of the city’s hate crimes last year had been directed at Jewish people, a trend she called “terrifying.”
The demonstration, billed as a “unity march” against antisemitism, drew people from across the Bay Area. Many present told the Chronicle they chose to attend amid what they viewed as worrying trends playing out in the region’s schools and college campuses.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/unity-march-sf-18694057.php
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