28th of January 2021
by Beatriz Gomes
On January 27th it was celebrated the Holocaust Memorial Day, for the first time ever online.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the celebrations were held through a zoom meeting with people from all over the world.
2019 antisemitic rates had a record high of 1805 for the year, according to CST. Despite being a decrease, the 2020 report shows a total of 1668 antisemitic incidents, being the third-highest recorded. In terms of the nature of the incidents, 41 contained antisemitic disclosure and references to the pandemic. From conspiracy theories blaming Jewish people of creating and spreading the virus due to financial motives to wishing their death. In January, the month of Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz were celebrated, there were 45 incidents revolving Nazi and Hitler discourse and symbology.
Antisemitism discourse doesn’t happen only on the streets. With the digitalization of our world, some disadvantages come with it. The lack of regulations of hate speech in apps such as Twitter or Tik Tok, allows its users to write whatever they want.
“People are blunter online.” Says Macy Bar Lev “A lot of the conspiracy theories the internet love are antisemitic or rooted in antisemitism” the Jewish music student actively gets involved in Jewish places. It is in those spaces that she sees how much violence Jewish people still suffer from “I don’t wear anything that shows I’m Jewish which makes me a harder target.”.
Antisemitism can also be seen in politics, from both left and right wings. “Even though you wouldn’t expect it from more progressive spaces, both left and right wings have an antisemitism issue.” Says Macy. The war between Israeli and Palestine allowed both political sides to have antisemitic discourse “There’s a fine line between antisemitism and calling out the Israeli government’s behaviour and a lot of political figures on both sides cross that line quite often.”
Jewish people and stereotypes have been used as a prop for jokes for so long. Seth MacFarlane used Hitler as a joke point when talking about a movie made in Austria. These types of jokes reference to a traumatic period to Jewish communities and take away from the families and people affected by the violent acts of the Holocaust.
“People think that the holocaust is the definition of antisemitism, and we don’t have to worry because ‘it’s over now but it goes so much deeper than that. And the more we normalise this type of jokes the closer we get to people thinking that antisemitism isn’t something to worry about anymore. And it is.”
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