Shai Navot

All the things that this article mentions - and to be fair it is a good comprehensive article - are happening in NZ too (with the obvious and very important exception of the Bondi attack). The last week has seen a real and frightening escalation in inflammatory rhetoric and threats against the Jewish community in NZ, which is why the police put out its statement yesterday and the Race Relations Commissioner one today. And here are some of the things that “progressives” do when we raise these issues: - hold us collectively responsible for what they imagine (yes, imagine in their deluded minds) Israel to be doing with the logical fallacy of “well people have it worse in Gaza” - pass off blatant Jewhatred as “criticism of Israel/Zionism” (such as celebrating October 7 or smearing Jewish community members in NZ with classic tropes) - by extension tell you they know better what Jewhatred is and isn’t and suggest that our accusations are made in bad faith - take delight in gaslighting, trolling and baiting us - expect us to “turn out our pockets” ie. subject ourselves to their purity tests and cross examinations, upon which our participation in public life and increasingly our safety is conditioned. They would never do any of these things to any other minority seeking to raise awareness of the hatred they are enduring. So in short, when we raise our concerns after we have considered very hard whether to even do so, we then prepare ourselves for at least a lack of sympathy and solidarity and often even more hostility. And it’s coming from church leaders, senior journalists, academics, teachers, artists, politicians, activists, unionists and many others in different facets of life. But as always I am very grateful for the support we get, when even showing it is increasingly an act of courage.