The Target on Your Head

Firearms enthusiasts – and those who watch crime/law enforcement themed TV shows and films — know that by the time you see that red dot projected on your body from a distance, the bullet is on its way.

If you are Jewish and are in Massachusetts, that metaphoric little red dot is right between your eyes right about now, and before long every Jewish person and institution throughout America may be similarly “painted.”

The enhanced and immediate threat to Jews and others is a result of a collective of anonymous Jew-haters who have created a sinister new internet-based anti-Jewish “mapping project” that directly and indirectly serves as a call to action against Jews and others – publishing names, addresses and other details of individuals, organizations, institutions, businesses and other entities. The rantings on the website indicates that each and all of these entities are responsible for “colonization” of “Palestine” and a host of other “oppressive” actions against others.

Given the current climate of violence sweeping America, this Massachusetts mapping project is a clear and present danger that is just one easily triggered perpetrator away from massive bloodshed and casualties.

Those responsible for the website and associated threats describe themselves as “a multi-generational collective of activists and organizers; we are unpaid and don’t report to any donors.” The bulk of the rhetoric is Leftist although given the odd bedfellows of Jew-hatred, they could include haters from other corners.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies and governments must investigate the website and its creators to prevent attacks.

Attacks against Jews in America are worsening and growing in number – and becoming more acceptable – largely due to anti-Jewish/anti-Israel/anti-Zionist propaganda and rhetoric. Many of the attacks have been “random”: Though attacked because they are Jewish, the individual or institution is selected typically they are in proximity to a Jew-hating or deranged attacker.

Now, individuals and organizations who are committed to strike the Jewish People have literally mapped out who and where the Jewish and Jewish-connected “targets” are.

Furthermore, while Jews and institutions have been targeted because of religion or stereotypes, this new project specifically demonizes Jews over ideology and due to support for Israel — whether actively or passively, directly or indirectly. It also demonizes non-Jews who may have even a peripheral or secondary relationship to Israel, Zionism or Jewry. Hundreds of these entities are today identified on their map.

The collective’s website has both a static map plus an interactive map with a large quantity of data and a sophisticated set up that draws links to and from the various entities. It also includes manifestos laced with false claims, outright lies and distortions of history – and conspiracy theories galore about Jews, the US military, corporations, universities and others.

“Intersectionality” at work

To be clear, whoever is behind this project has a list of grievances in addition to those they state against Zionism and Israel. But like nearly all who engage in “Intersectionality,” Jews, Zionists and Israel are at the top of their pyramid of “oppressors,” and Jews, Zionism and Israel are the nexus that unites a diverse group of self-designated “victims” to concentrate their combined efforts against. Like many others who have preceded them for thousands of years, they claim Jews are to blame for all that they perceive is wrong with the county, society or the world.

Jew-hatred is exacerbated by technology/mass-communication. Rampant and pervasive anti-Israel and anti-Zionist lies, propaganda and false accusations in the news media and on social media; on campuses from educators, student organizations and guest speakers; from elected officials at local, state and federal levels; from international agencies and NGOs; and from activists across the political spectrum representing a host of special interests spread it and have motivated criminal attacks.

Many disparate groups and individuals united through intersectionality have expressed a desire to eliminate Israel and eradicate Zionism. It is ironic since Zionism is merely the Jewish People’s liberation movement. Zionism is the noble movement for Jewish self-determination and independence in the historic and legal Jewish homeland, a k a: Israel. Zionism is a pillar of the Jewish religion. Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People. It is where the largest Jewish community on planet Earth calls home.

Those who oppose Israel’s existence have twisted the perception of Zionism Into something evil, and accused Jews of carrying out that evil via Israel’s actions.

While anecdotally or via surveys some members of the Jewish community say they are unaware of or believe they are not endangered by the anti-Israel/anti-Zionist animus – and some actually participate in anti-Israel and anti-Zionist groups and activities – this mapping project essentially makes any and every Jewish person vulnerable to attack. For example, an anti-Zionist Jewish person might be benefiting from the services of a Jewish agency and might find himself or herself at the wrong place at the wrong time – when someone triggered by the website’s incitement goes on a rampage at the site. 

Gasoline on a smoldering fire

This collective pours gasoline onto a smoldering fire.

While in their diatribes they do not use the words “Jew” or “Jewish,” many of their targets are clearly identifiable as Jewish. Like all of those who participate in the Palestinian-Arab created BDS Movement, they are clever enough to claim to be acting solely on behalf of an “oppressed” people – a people that happens to be waging a war of annihilation against the Jewish People.

“BDS” – shorthand for boycott, divest and sanction – is a tactic employed by Jew-haters and would-be “social justice warriors” to meet an objective that exceeds the surface claim of intending to apply economic pressure against the Jewish state of Israel to force it to change policies. Those at the helm of BDS have made it known that their true purpose is the destruction of Israel.

As goes Israel, so goes the Jewish People.

The BDS tactics have mostly been unleashed in corporate board rooms, campuses, city council meetings and elsewhere.

While a relative handful have pushed back against BDS with varying degrees of success, the BDSers have not been stopped or even slowed. They are relentless and creatively destructive.

Which brings us back to those laser-targeting dots and the map of Massachusetts.

This collective of unidentified individuals and/or groups taken those dots and placed them onto a map of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. These dots – nearly 500 in all — each represent an entity. Many pinpoint the addresses of individual Jews, Jewish institutions, Jewish organizations and others (corporate, governmental, educational, cultural) that they claim have some connection to Jews, Israel or Zionism — or are friends or allies of Jews and Israel.

Many of the dots on the map represent entities that have no discernible connection to Jewry such as police departments in far-flung cities – yet the collective has connected each to one another to create a sort of “guilt-by-association” network that heightens the danger/threat.

The overwhelming majority of these entities are in and around Boston. Like many major US cities, Boston and its suburbs have long been a hub of anti-Jewish activities cloaked in anti-Israel/anti-Zionist vernacular. It is likely that similar maps and targeting of Jews for other states and localities will follow.

The lie-filled anti-Jewish rhetoric throughout the website is already widespread.

Some examples from the Massachusetts-centric website:

Some examples from the Massachusetts-centric website:

“… [We] wanted to develop a deeper understanding of local institutional support for the colonization of Palestine and harms that we see as linked, such as policing, US imperialism, and displacement/ethnic cleansing. Our work is grounded in the realization that oppressors share tactics and institutions – and that our liberation struggles are connected. We wanted to visualize these connections in order to see where our struggles intersect and to strategically grow our local organizing capacities.”

. . . 

“Our interactive map illustrates some ways in which institutional support for the colonization of Palestine is structurally tied to policing and systemic white supremacy here where we live, and to US imperialist projects in other countries. Our map also shows the connections between harms such as privatization and medical apartheid, which are often facilitated by universities and their corporate partners. Since local universities engage in these multiple forms of oppression and produce much of the ruling class, and because they are major land holders in our area, we’ve emphasized the university as a central nexus that ties together many of the harms traced on the map.”

In an article/diatribe on their website dated June 3, 2022, with the subject line “Zionism, Policing and Empire: A Dispatch from the Mapping Project,” the collective writes: “In Massachusetts as in the rest of the US, police have built large militarized forces, are extensively networked for sharing resources and information, and use their military and surveillance power to enforce the intersecting systems of white supremacy and capitalism. Our work in the Mapping Project reveals the local extent of their networking with each other, as well as their networking with universities, weapons companies and certain NGOs. The Department of Homeland Security, with its use of “counterterrorism” as a catch-all for programs of surveillance and militarization, has played a central role in organizing and funding these networks, often using Israel as a point of reference for ideology, policy, technology and organization.”

They go on: “We recognize that the role of police in capitalist societies is primarily to protect property and those who have property from those who don’t. In colonial-settler states, police focus overwhelmingly on colonized people, placing them under a regime of surveillance, denial of freedom of movement, mass imprisonment and lethal violence.”

After a long passage of condemning legitimate law-enforcement efforts to combat crime and terrorism, the collective pins what they view as oppressive police and Department of Homeland Security practices on the Jews:

“As all levels of policing have been drawn more deeply into the DHS sponsored restructuring as ‘counterterrorism,’ Israel has become a consistent point of reference. As the state that has long identified its entire apparatus of colonialism and war under the claim of fighting ‘terrorism,’ Israel markets itself as the world’s foremost expert on ‘counterterrorism.’ It’s notable in this context that Israel calls ‘terrorist’ any opposition to its regimes of expansion and racist domination, from armed resistance against soldiers and settlers to protest and critical reporting.”

They cite numerous examples of Israeli officials conveying their wisdom and experiences preventing and fighting terrorism and crime to benefit the people of Massachusetts – although the collective views this as a series of negatives rather than as beneficial.

They conclude one of their manifesto as follows:

“We see our map and associated database as a resource for gathering intelligence on the agents of oppression; their intersections offer possibilities for us to organize and connect our struggles. They study us and are networked with each other; we need to study them and form our own networks of resistance.

“We have shown physical addresses, named officers and leaders, and mapped connections. These entities exist in the physical world and can be disrupted in the physical world. We hope people will use our map to help figure out how to push back effectively.

“We view US police on all levels as white-supremacist, colonial institutions that have no role in our communities; we support non-cooperation, community self-defense, and resistance in all its forms.”

Titles of other diatribes/manifestos on their website include: “Charity is Theft: The Gann Foundation and Boston’s Zionist NGO circuit,” “Massachusetts’ Imperialist Landscape” and “Boston’s Colonial Universities Grab Land for Profit, War, and Medical Apartheid.”

In their twisted, hate-inspired view of the world, the Jewish People play a hand in or are responsible for all of the above.

Elsewhere on the website are more anti-Jewish claims, conspiracy theories and invective such as this: “Boston’s Zionist leaders and powerhouse NGOs, which buy legitimacy and support from universities, use their influence to enable a range of oppressive agendas: supporting the Israeli army and Israeli settlements in Palestine; criminalizing Palestine liberation activists on college campuses; funding US police departments and cop unions; extracting wealth from colonized Puerto Rico; and advancing the privatization of US public schools.”

A clear and present danger

But it is the map that makes the diatribes  the clear and present danger.

The interactive map https://mapliberation.org/dev/map_js/ lists 13 clickable “harm categories.” Among these are “colonialism,” “ecological harm,” “policing,” “US imperialism” – and “Zionism.” Each category has entities represented by dots on the map that pinpoint locations, and most include names of employees. They claim there are 162 Zionist entities, or entities that foster Zionism in Massachusetts. The label with the most targets/entities is “surveillance,” with 347 entities.

Were such a map to be created and published by neo-Nazis – and placed in home mailboxes or on windshields – law enforcement would already be mobilized to investigate and pursue those responsible. That this likely has been created by Leftist Jew-haters must not diminish the pursuit nor mute the outcry.

One dot on the map represents the home of a couple (identified by name and home address) who the anti-Jewish collective claims are “Complicit in: Colonialism, Propaganda/Normalization, Zionism.” They target the couple for “financially support[ing] several Boston area Zionist organizations and initiatives as well as Boston area educational, media, and medical organizations and institutions.”

They claim that the couple “have made large donations to Boston area organizations and initiatives which support and normalize Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland and theft of Palestinian resources.” The couple, the website claims: “For decades, [they] have provided consistent support to Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and in recent years increased focus on their investment in Israel, and in the Jewish future.” The collective’s followers know what to do; what they want them to do.

Using the map’s keyword search tool, more than 40 entities are identified when the word “Jewish” is entered – including local offices of national Jewish organizations.

Few Jewish entities in Massachusetts are spared culpability by the collective. One of the entities they target is the New England branch of what the collective writes is “a national organization for Jewish individuals with disabilities and their families. [Organization name] encourages the individuals it engages to attend a variant of ‘Birthright Israel’ called ‘Israel Free Spirit,’ which is specifically targeted toward individuals with disabilities. Per Israel Free Spirit’s website, ‘This journey offers a fabulous tour to Israel for young adults with disabilities. Through its dedicated and experienced staff and tour guides, great activities, and state-of-the-art specialized bus, the trip is designed for participants to have a comfortable and incredible journey.’ [Organization name] maintains partnerships with local Zionist organizations, including Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Ruderman Family Foundation, and JewishBoston.”

What will be done? What must be done!

The question now is: What will Jewish leaders, Jewish communal groups and individual Jews do about the new development now that we see the “red dots” and know the “bullets” could be on their way?

What will law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels do to protect Jews, Jewish institutions and others given the map and strong suggestions to attack the targets?

Who are the anti-Jewish activists who are involved in this campaign? Who is helping them? Who is funding them? Their identities must be revealed – before there is violence and they then go into hiding.

For as long as Jew-haters can remain nameless and faceless, there is nothing to deter them from their diabolical activities. While their right to rant and rave is sacrosanct in America, activities that endanger minorities, institutions that serve minorities and places where minorities gather are not. Jews remain one of the smallest minorities in America and also among the most preyed upon minorities.

Neither Jewish communal leaders nor law enforcement should brush these people off as cranks. The ir effort reveals their determination to harm. They must not be minimized.

Opposing activists must spare no legal or ethical efforts to expose them and thwart them. Law enforcement must use every available tool including the RICO statute. We must demand this now rather than after an incident.

There will always be Jew-haters, those who incite Jew-hatred and those who act out based upon the hatred and incitement. Higher walls and more security systems for Jews and Jewish institutions are not a sufficient answer. They are expensive and they turn Jewish enclaves, synagogues, schools and centers into unwelcome environments rather than the warm and inviting places they were meant to be.

Law enforcement’s role in preventing attacks and incitement to attack must be paramount as the true preventor of violence. Jews and our friends and allies must combat the root causes of Jew-hatred, expose hater’s lies and aggressively and widely disseminate the true facts and history of Israel and Zionism as an essential component of prevention — or many will pay the highest price for failures to act.