“I’m Around Palestinians and I’m Fine” Is Not the Profound Point Some Think

There’s a certain genre of social media video right now that has become incredibly predictable: an anti-Zionist Jewish creator stands in a Palestinian neighborhood, at a protest, or around Palestinian activists and basically says, “Look. I’m Jewish and nothing bad is happening to me.”

And every time I see one of these videos, I have the same reaction: congratulations on completely missing the point.

Most Jews who say they feel increasingly unsafe are not claiming that every Palestinian is dangerous. They are not saying Jews and Palestinians cannot coexist. They are not saying they are terrified to physically stand next to Arabs in public. That framing is dishonest from the start.

What many Jews are actually talking about is the growing social hostility surrounding Jewish identity whenever Israel enters the conversation. They are talking about the way “Zionist” is now casually used online as shorthand for “evil Jew.” They are talking about harassment, ideological litmus tests, vandalism, conspiracy theories, campus hostility, and the expectation that Jews must publicly denounce Israel in exactly the correct way to be accepted socially.

That is a very different conversation than “I walked through a Palestinian street fair and survived.”

And honestly, what makes these videos frustrating is the smugness behind them. The implication is always something like: “See? I’m one of the good Jews. I’m not paranoid like those other Jews.” It becomes less about coexistence and more about publicly distancing themselves from fellow Jews in order to gain approval from a political crowd.

There is also something deeply uncomfortable about Jews essentially being told they only deserve empathy or safety if they pass an ideological purity test. You can see this in comments constantly now: “Well, as long as Jews don’t support genocide, they’re safe.” Think about how insane that actually sounds when stripped of internet activist language.

Who decides what counts as supporting genocide? Increasingly, online, the answer seems to be: any Jew who believes Israel should continue existing in some form at all. That includes liberal Zionists, peace activists, two-state solution supporters, and ordinary Jews with family in Israel. The label gets stretched wider and wider until almost any Jewish attachment to Israel becomes morally disqualifying.

And once that happens, many Jews stop feeling like they are being judged as individuals. Instead, they feel collectively placed on trial.

You can absolutely criticize the Israeli government. You can oppose the war. You can advocate passionately for Palestinians. None of that is inherently antisemitic. But dismissing Jewish fear by turning it into a sarcastic social media performance helps nobody.

It is entirely possible for Palestinians to experience real suffering while antisemitism is also rising globally. Those realities are not mutually exclusive. Mature people should be capable of holding both ideas in their heads at once.

What social media rewards, unfortunately, is something much simpler: outrage, tribalism, and public moral performance. That is why these videos go viral. Not because they add nuance, but because they reassure one side that Jewish discomfort is fake, exaggerated, or deserved.

And for a lot of Jews watching, that is exactly the problem.