I’m Palestinian. And that fact alone is increasingly treated as a provocation.
In recent months, I have watched anti-Semitism – a real and deadly form of hatred with a long and horrifying history – stripped of its meaning and weaponized to silence Palestinians, criminalize solidarity with us, and hold Israel accountable for its genocide in Gaza. This is not about protecting Jews. It’s about protecting power.
This pattern can no longer be ignored.
Ms Rachel, a children’s educator whose entire public work is built around care, learning and empathy, has been branded ‘anti-Semite of the year’, not for participating in any form of hate speech, but for expressing concern for Palestinian children. For acknowledging that children in Gaza are being bombed, starved, and traumatized. To express compassion.
As a Palestinian, I heard that message loud and clear. Even empathy for children is dangerous.
Additionally, there is the Palestinian Action movement, which targets arms manufacturers that supply the Israeli military. Instead of being discussed, challenged, and even criticized within a democratic framework, it is banned as a “terrorist” organization and casually equated with ISIL (ISIS), the group responsible for mass executions, sexual slavery, and genocidal violence.
This comparison is not just salacious; That’s intentional. It completely disrupts the meaning of “terrorism” and political dissent becomes extremism by definition. Resistance becomes pathology. Protests amount to “terrorism.” And the Palestinians are once again being positioned not as an occupied people but as a permanent threat.
Language itself is now being criminalized. Phrases like “globalizing the intifada” are banned without any serious engagement with history or meaning. The intifada (a word that literally means “to shake off”) has been torn from its political context as an uprising against military occupation and reduced to vilification. Palestinians are even denied the right to state the names of their resistance groups.
At the same time, the dismantling of international law is actively underway.
International Criminal Court officials and judges have been sanctioned and threatened for daring to investigate Israeli war crimes. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, is not only sanctioned but also relentlessly vilified for her use of the language of international law to describe occupation, apartheid and genocide.
When international law is applied to African leaders, it is celebrated.
When applied to Israel, it is treated as a hostile act.
This brings us to Australia, and one of the most revealing moments of all.
After the horrific Bondi Beach attack that shocked and horrified people across Australia, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Australian government of encouraging anti-Semitism. This was not because of incitement or inflammatory rhetoric, but because Australia was moving towards recognizing Palestine as a state.
Please read it again.
Diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state, long considered essential to peace and based on international law, has been presented as a moral flaw and even as a contributor to anti-Semitic violence. The very existence of the Palestinian people is being questioned.
What makes this moment so alarming is not only that Prime Minister Netanyahu made this claim, but that so many in power went along with it without challenging it.
Instead of forcefully rejecting the idea that recognizing Palestinian rights could “encourage anti-Semitism,” governments, institutions, and commentators allowed that premise to stand. Some people openly affirmed this. Others remained silent. Few faced the dangerous logic at its core: that Palestinian political perceptions are inherently destabilizing, provocative, or threatening.
This is how moral collapse happens – not by thunder, but by acquiescence.
The result is not the safety of Jews, but the annihilation of Palestinians.
As a Palestinian, I find this shocking.
It means that my identity is not just contested, but criminalized. My grief is not just ignored, it is politicized. My demands for justice are not discussed. It is pathologized as hatred.
Anti-Semitism is real. We must face it seriously without hesitation. Jews have the right to safety, dignity, and protection wherever they are. But when anti-Semitism extends to child educators, UN experts, international judges, protests, chants, language, and even diplomatic recognition of Palestine, this language no longer serves to protect Jews.
It protects the state from liability.
Worse, this weaponization imperils Jews by collapsing Jewish identity into governmental acts of mass atrocities. This document tells the world that Israel speaks for all Jews, and that anyone who opposes it must therefore be hostile to the Jews themselves. It’s not protection. It’s recklessness disguised as morality.
For Palestinians like me, the emotional burden is immeasurable.
I’m tired of having to preface every sentence with a disclaimer.
It pains me deeply to see our people go hungry while being lectured about tone.
I am angry that international law appears to only apply in certain politically expedient cases.
And I am saddened by the moral collapse that is occurring not only in Gaza, but around Gaza.
Opposing genocide is not anti-Semitism.
Solidarity is not “terrorism”.
Recognizing Palestine is not incitement.
Naming your suffering is not violence.
If the world wants to call me an anti-Semite for not accepting the annihilation of my own people, then what is being opposed is not anti-Semitism.
What is being justified is genocide.
And history will tell who helped make it possible.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
