Violent Jew Hatred Is Thriving Across The West

That vile antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado last week was almost too gruesome to be believed. A peaceful vigil for the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas was violently disrupted when a man attacked the crowd of about 20 people with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails. Thankfully, no one was killed—but 12 people were injured, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor. 

The suspect has since been named as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, apparently an illegal immigrant from Egypt. Soliman had allegedly been planning the attack for more than a year and specifically targeted what he described as a “Zionist group.” It was reported that, as he carried out his assault on the innocent crowd, he yelled “Free Palestine.” He has now been charged with committing a federal hate crime and the FBI is treating it as an act of terrorism.

This was, very explicitly, no random act of violence. It was a deliberate attack on Jews for daring to show solidarity with the Israeli hostages. And it was made all the more disturbing by the fact that just a week earlier, two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead on the streets of Washington, D.C. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim—a young couple about to get engaged—were killed while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. The suspect, Elias Rodriguez, was said to have shot them both in the back, firing at them several more times while they lay injured on the ground. When Milgrim tried to crawl away, she was shot again. Rodriguez reportedly yelled “Free Palestine” as he was being hauled away by police. Court documents state he told officers he “did it for Gaza.” 

There is no ambiguity here. Lischinsky and Milgrim were killed because of their association with Israel. Just like the Jews who were set alight because they demanded the return of Israeli hostages. In both cases, the attackers invoked the cry of “Free Palestine” to explain and justify what they had done. That slogan, which has become so commonplace across protests in Western cities, on social media campaigns, and even at concerts, is being used to excuse antisemitic barbarism. 

This pattern of violence is under no circumstances confined to the U.S. Across Europe, too, we are seeing anti-Jewish hatred erupt out into the open. Just look at what can only be described as the pogrom in Amsterdam last November. Following a Europa League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch team Ajax, mobs of pro-Palestinian supporters launched coordinated attacks on Israeli football fans across the city. Jews were literally hunted down, in scenes reminiscent of 1930s Germany. In one widely circulated video, a group of men could be seen punching and kicking an Israeli fan while shouting: “That’s for Gaza, motherf***er … now you know how it feels.” Others were chased through the streets and forced to hide in hotels or even jump into the canal. Some were reportedly forced to chant “Free Palestine” under duress before their attackers would let them go. That such a display of coordinated antisemitism could unfold in the 21st century, in one of Europe’s supposedly most progressive cities, was beyond disgraceful. 

Or look to France, where Jewish places of worship have increasingly become targets of antisemitic violence. Take the attempted arson attack on a synagogue in La Grande-Motte in May last year. The perpetrator—suspected to be a 33-year-old Algerian man—was draped in the Palestinian flag when he tried to set fire to the Beth Yaacov synagogue. Upon his arrest, he told police he had acted to provoke a response from the Israeli authorities. He also apparently claimed not to want to kill any Jews, only to scare them — despite allegedly bringing a handgun to the synagogue that day. Mercifully, no one was killed, though a police officer did sustain non-life-threatening injuries. 

The story is the same all across the continent, where antisemitism is surging. In France, reported incidents have almost quadrupled in the aftermath of the 7th October 2023 massacre. As of 2024, Germany was experiencing an average of nearly 24 antisemitic acts every day. In the UK, antisemitic incidents rose by 147% in 2023. Visibly Jewish or Israeli people have been shouted at, spat on, and even attacked in public. Kosher restaurants are being vandalised. Holocaust survivors at a remembrance march at Auschwitz were heckled, in the name of the ‘pro-Palestinian’ cause. In Athens, an Israeli couple was reportedly attacked after passersby heard them speaking Hebrew. Synagogue after synagogue has been targeted. 

What we are witnessing here is not protest, but persecution. Across the West, Jews are being harassed, assaulted, even murdered under the banner of ‘freeing Palestine.’ Vicious antisemites seem to think those magic words give them a free pass to unleash their racist hatred as they please. If it wasn’t already clear that a large part of the ‘pro-Palestine’ movement has less to do with helping Palestinians and more to do with hating Jews, it should be absolutely crystal by now. 

Underpinning much of this hatred is a cultural and political climate in which Israel has been relentlessly demonised. Across the media, on university campuses, and in national parliaments, the Jewish State is routinely portrayed as a genocidal, colonialist, ‘white supremacist’ project. No wonder violent antisemites feel empowered to terrorise Jewish communities. They are constantly being told that Israel—and, by extension, the Jewish people—is uniquely evil. 

We are currently witnessing the mainstreaming of antisemitic violence in broad daylight. That Jewish people are being attacked in the street, burned at vigils, and gunned down outside museums is a reprehensible stain on the West’s conscience. From Washington to London to Paris, this should shame us all.