The Antizionist Movement Is a Hate Movement: It’s Time to Say So
History repeats itself. Last week, hatred against Jews once again turned deadly.
During a Chanukah celebration for Australia’s Bondi Beach community, Jews who gathered openly were targeted in a brutal attack. At least fifteen people were murdered, including a twelve-year-old child, and more than forty others were injured.
This mass violence, directed at the Jewish community, did not happen in a vacuum. This atrocity was the predictable outcome of an antizionist movement that demonizes “Zionists” as uniquely illegitimate, casts them as “oppressors,” and claims that they are undeserving not only of a sovereign nation, but of dignity, inclusion, and safety.
After October 7, the pretense fell apart. What had long been defended as criticism of Israeli politics and policies revealed itself as something much more sinister: a hate movement that replaces “Jew” with “Zionist,” but retains every classic antisemitic trope, libel, and conspiracy theory. Today, antizionism acts as a vehicle for Jew-hatred—fueling marginalization, exclusion, and increasingly, violence against Jews worldwide.
The Southern Poverty Law Center defines antisemitic hate groups as those that attack Jews as a people and spread conspiracy theories about Jewish power and control. By that standard, today’s antizionist movement fits. Across social media, college campuses, and public protests, antisemitic conspiracy rhetoric is widespread, and “Zionist” is used as a slur. Jews are accused of genocide, compared to Nazis, and confronted with swastikas drawn on buildings. Antizionist chants call for the death of “Zionists,” with no ambiguity about who they mean. When antizionists chant “globalize the intifada” or celebrate the murder of “Zionists,” they are actively participating in a hate movement that targets Jews.
When such hateful rhetoric, marginalization, harassment, and even violence against Jews is rampant on college campuses—places designed to promote education and civic responsibility—it serves as a stark reminder that no environment is safe from the spread of a hate movement.
At Northwestern, a student threatened to “start punching Zionists in the head.”
At Columbia, a student livestreamed a disciplinary hearing and declared, “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” adding, “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
At UCLA, activists shouted “Death to the Jews,” pepper-sprayed the child of a Holocaust survivor, and kicked a Jewish student in the head until she lost consciousness.
Jewish students at Northwestern were spat on, assaulted, and told to “go back to Germany and get gassed.” Others proclaimed, “We don’t want any rats here”—a centuries-old antisemitic trope meant to dehumanize Jews.
This is not activism.
This is hate and incitement to violence.
University and government antisemitism task forces have reached the same conclusion: the terms Zionist and “Zio” are regularly used to target Jews—not to express political views.
That distinction is important because Zionism is an important part of Jewish identity. The connection to Eretz Yisrael is ancient and spiritual, embedded in Jewish prayer, language, history, and ritual. Not all Jews feel this connection equally, but individual differences do not negate this collective identity. For example, not every Jew observes Shabbat, but Shabbat remains vital to Jewish continuity. As the saying goes, more than the Jewish people have kept Shabbat—Shabbat has kept the Jewish people. Similarly, the bond to the land of Israel has supported Jewish survival through centuries of exile and persecution.
Antizionism deliberately targets that bond and therefore, Jewish peoplehood. When a movement insists that “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” celebrates murdered Jews, depicts Jews as vermin, and culminates in attacks on Jewish places of worship, community buildings, and now, holiday celebrations, the debate is over. This movement is focused on dehumanization, hatred, and violence.
Naming it is not rhetorical excess—it is a moral duty. Clarity breaks normalization. Truth fosters accountability.
We must clearly state what is now undeniable: the antizionist movement is a hate movement. It’s time to say so.
