New York — New York’s mayor marked the third anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel on Wednesday with a statement that has sparked backlash among some Jewish leaders.
In his statement, Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged the “horrific war crimes of October 7” while also accusing Israel of committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza.
The mayor was met with boos as he arrived at a vigil in remembrance of October 7 on Wednesday night in Union Square, video from CNN affiliate WABC showed. He is set to attend a meeting with Palestinian New Yorkers following the vigil, according to his public schedule.
“This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss,” Mamdani wrote in his statement.
So. The term anti-semitism was made up by anti-Jewish racist Germans in the 19th century. It was supposed to be a more “scientific-sounding” alternative to the older term, Judenhass (lit. “Jew-hatred”) that would be more palatable to the gentile German people. At the time (1870’s or so) few people in Europe were too much concerned with what was actually going on with Palestinians or Arabs in general.
This is why you see a lot of pro-Israel folks still use “anti-semitism” as shorthand for “anti-Jewish racism” today. The term, read literally, initially seems to include racism against all “Semitic” people as well (which is… what exactly? I truly don’t know, is it every ethnic group who speaks a Semitic language?). But the very term “anti-semitism” is just itself an old dog whistle for “jew-hatred” that is now becoming a cudgel that pro-Israeli folks use to bully folks into ignoring Israeli war crimes. Anyway
Yes but the word literally has an actual definition now that means the complete opposite of literally. Words and their definitions only hold so much water before people can just decide what they actually mean.
So I refuse to let zionists own the term and believe it should be used to point out their hypocrisy. Zionists are antisemitic, I’d argue they’re the most antisemitic group.
Also the whole concept of ethnic groups is unserious it’s made up grouping that I guess can be used to help specify what someone is talking about but overall it’s a group of languages and as far as I know the only ethnic group that derives their identity in this way which is extremely odd, to me at least.