Dr. Devorah Brim is a psychology professor who lives in Jerusalem with her family, and when provoked enough, comments on sociopolitical issues.
Before today, I had never heard of the English town of Glastonbury and knew nothing about its semi-annual hosting of the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. Apparently, this year’s festival has come under scrutiny due to its featuring an “artist”, rabid antisemite rapper Bob Villian (misspelled intentionally by the writer), who led an audience of more than 200,000 strong in chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF”. He also rapped a reframe cursing Jews for their desire to return to their homeland.
Well, too little, too late, Bob. We are here, G-d willing, to stay.
Footage of this incitement-to-violence against Jews and the IDF was aired by the unbiased truth tellers at the BBC who sponsored and broadcasted this hate-fest-ival and have subsequently been called out by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, as reported by the BBC. On-line voices are beginning to comment on this scandalous performance that featured racism, bigotry, and hate-chanting, and there are talks of a criminal investigation, but waiting for the public push-back against antisemitism is not enough.
As the mother of an IDF soldier, I’m taking this personally. Very personally. As should you. No one calls for the death (Challila) of my son or of any of our brave and beautiful sons, who sacrifice all and stand steadfastly between the seven million Jews in Israel and the 1.3 billion barbarians at the sadly ineffective chain gate. Let us be very clear: “Death to the IDF” is not a political statement; for Jews in Israel and everywhere, it is an existential threat, and it must not be allowed. It would not be allowed for any other ethnic group. Ever.
And, so, I’m reaching out to families of the IDF as well as legal professionals, the IDF, and the Israeli government to take up legal and political arms to discourage this anti-Israel Jew hatred from continuing to spread across Western culture over mainstream media platforms. The rising tide of antisemitism across a post-modern western civilization that purports to embrace a zeitgeist of tolerance, inclusion and equity has revealed time and again that antisemitism has become part and parcel of leftist, liberal ideology, that it is not really about protecting the marginalized. On the contrary, it is about intimidating those voices of dissent from moral relativism and the corrupt designation of oppressed and oppressor, in which Israel is firmly placed in the latter category.
This event highlights yet again that the “Free Palestine” movement is inextricably tied to a death- to-the-Jews ideology. It is always the same individuals who chant “From the river”, who wave Palestinian flags, demand globalization of the intifada, and yell “Death to the Jews” and “Death to the IDF”. It is clear, and has been so all along, that this is an antisemitic movement that has been mainstreamed, and it must be eradicated.
We cannot be silent. Silence has rarely ended well for us.
Jews in England, Israel, and across the world must raise their voices in prayer to the One Above, but they must also demand recourse on earth for the safety and security of Jews in the face of this terrible trend.