The Blogs: When Divestment Becomes Demonization

There was a time when “Never Again” was not a slogan. It was a moral commitment. Today, Jewish Americans are increasingly wondering whether that commitment still applies to them.

Across the United States and around the world, antisemitic attacks are rising at alarming levels. In 2025, physical assaults against Jews in America reached the highest level recorded in more than four decades, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Synagogues now require armed security. Jewish students increasingly report feeling unsafe on college campuses. Protest movements that claim to target the Israeli government too often spill into intimidation of Jewish people simply because they are Jewish.

And now, some political leaders are adding fuel to the fire.

One recent example came from a New York State Comptroller candidate who argued that New York pension funds should stop investing in Israel bonds because Israel is allegedly committing “genocide.” That word matters. It is not simply criticism of policy. It is among the most inflammatory accusations one nation can level against another. And when repeated recklessly and relentlessly, it does not merely criticize Israel. It delegitimizes the very existence of the Jewish State. For the surviving relatives of six million Holocaust victims, it feels vile and outrageous.

Criticism of any government, including Israel’s, is fair game in a democracy. Israelis themselves criticize their own government every day. But there is a profound difference between policy disagreement and language designed to portray the world’s only Jewish state as uniquely evil.

The genocide accusation is not only morally inflammatory. It is factually unsustainable.

If Israel were committing genocide against Palestinians, why are millions of Palestinians living in the West Bank under Palestinian civil governance? Why do Arab citizens of Israel vote, serve in parliament, sit on Israel’s Supreme Court, work in medicine, law, academia, journalism, and business, and enjoy protections unavailable in much of the Middle East? Why are Christians, Muslims, Druze, Jews, and Arabs all represented throughout Israeli civic life?

No nation at war is above criticism. Civilian suffering in Gaza is heartbreaking and real. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. But words matter. “Genocide” is not a political hashtag. It describes the deliberate extermination of a people.

To use that term against Israel while Hamas openly calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and glorifies the murder of Jews is not serious analysis. It is political theater.

Even more troubling is how quickly this rhetoric migrates from debate into social permission for antisemitism.

When protesters chant “globalize the intifada,” Jewish communities hear calls for violence. When synagogues are surrounded by mobs screaming that “Israel should not exist,” Jews do not experience that as nuanced foreign policy criticism. When Jewish-owned businesses are targeted, when Jewish students are harassed, when visibly Orthodox Jews are assaulted on city streets, the line between anti-Israel activism and anti-Jewish hatred becomes impossible to ignore.

What concerns many of us most is how rapidly misinformation hardens into accepted truth when repeated often enough online.

At People4Peace, we have focused heavily on educational outreach because many young people are encountering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict almost entirely through viral videos, slogans, influencers, and emotionally charged content stripped of historical context. Nuance disappears. Complexity is replaced by absolutes. Social media rewards outrage, not understanding.

That is why People4Peace was formed in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks: not to inflame tensions, but to counter propaganda with facts, historical context, digital storytelling, and educational content that encourages critical thinking rather than ideological conformity. Our work brings together voices from different backgrounds and disciplines to challenge disinformation, confront antisemitism, and encourage honest conversations rooted in humanity rather than hatred.

We believe peace is pursued through understanding, not intimidation. Through education, dialogue, and diverse perspectives, we seek to build bridges between communities while affirming Israel’s right to exist, defend itself, and pursue a future where both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and dignity.

This is not happening in isolation.

Across America and around the world, antisemitic incidents connected to Israel or Zionism remain dramatically higher than they were before October 7, 2023. Governments are now deploying specialized security units to protect Jewish communities amid rising threats. Jewish institutions are spending millions simply to keep congregants, students, and families safe.

And yet, instead of helping lower tensions, some politicians appear eager to exploit the anger.

Divestment campaigns against Israel may generate applause on social media or within ideological activist circles, but they solve nothing. They do not bring peace closer. They do not help Palestinians build democratic institutions, reduce extremism, or improve economic opportunity. They do not encourage coexistence.

What they do accomplish is reinforcing the dangerous notion that the Jewish state alone should be economically isolated, morally condemned, and treated as uniquely illegitimate among nations.

History has taught us where that road can lead.

The answer is not demonization. It is education, engagement, and moral clarity. It is rejecting antisemitism while also advocating dignity and opportunity for Palestinians. It is recognizing complexity instead of rewarding slogans designed to inflame rather than inform.

At People4Peace, we believe there is another path forward.

It is possible to care deeply about Palestinian civilians without demonizing Jews. It is possible to advocate for peace without calling for the economic isolation of the world’s only Jewish state. It is possible to disagree with Israeli policies without repeating rhetoric that emboldens extremists and fuels antisemitism around the globe.

Our work is rooted in a simple principle: facts matter, humanity matters, and peace requires people willing to reject hatred in all its forms.

Because history has taught us that when lies about Jews become normalized, the consequences rarely stop with the Jewish people.

And that is why now is the moment not for silence, but for moral clarity.