OUR COMMUNITY

I

f you have supported Israel 
on your social media chan-
nels by posting an Israeli 
flag in your profile picture only 
to receive a barrage of unsolic-
ited hateful messages in your 
Facebook inbox or Twitter feed, 
or if you have been ousted or 
silenced in online professional 
forum groups after offering 
counterpoints to anti-Israel or 
antisemitic posts, you are not 
alone. 
Following the 11-day conflict 
between Israel and Hamas, acts 
of hatred toward American 
Jews — mainly online but also 
with physical attacks — have 
risen globally by 438%, accord-
ing to the British Jewish agency 
Community Security Trust.
The Anti-Defamation League 
in May documented “disturbing 
antisemitism” on multiple social 
media platforms, including 
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter 
and TikTok. The group said its 
analysis of Twitter posts from 
May 7-14 found more than 
17,000 tweets used variations 
of the phrase, “Hitler was 
right.
” The ADL responded 
to the hatred by launching 
its #ActAgainstAntiSemitism 
online campaign and held an 

online rally May 27 to provide 
the public with information. 
Carolyn Normandin, director 
of ADL Michigan region, said 
in the 10 days of the 11-day 
conflict, 14 incidents of hatred 
against Jews were filed to her 
local office. They include: 
• At a May 22 anti-Israel 
protest in Flint, a demonstrator 
held a sign demonizing Zionists 
that read, in part, “being pro-Zi-
onist makes you pro-genocide 
& pro-apartheid.
”
• At a May 18 anti-Israel 
protest in Dearborn, a protester 
at a rally held a sign reading, 
“Zionists r modern-day Nazis.
”
• Restaurateur Jeremy Sasson 
was targeted by pro-Palestinian 

activists who flooded Yelp with 
negative reviews. (See the story 
in the June 3 issue of the JN).
Normandin said it is the 
ADL
’s position to support Israel 
and a two-state solution. She 
labels as “extremely disturbing” 
the calls she’s receiving about 
Jewish people being blamed 
for the actions of the Israeli 
government and making state-
ments like “Hitler was right” as 
a rationale to call for the end 
of the existence of the Jewish 
state. She urges anyone who 
has received or viewed hateful 
online messages about Jews or 
any minority group to contact 
the ADL and file a report. 
“It’s this vicious kind of ubiq-

uitous blame that right now is 
troubling,
” Normandin said. 
“We have seen tremendous 
blame of Jews for all Israel’s 
policies. They are getting violent 
responses because they posted a 
statement in support of Israel or 
have been asked to leave online 
groups because they are Jewish.
”
Locally, Jews say they have 
seen an increase of anti-Is-
rael and anti-Jewish posts 
on Facebook, Instagram and 
TikTok. The hateful rhetoric 
against Jews and Israel support-
ers lately has inundated every 
facet of life and is impacting all 
generations. 

ANTI-ISRAEL ACTION 
IN ANN ARBOR
At the University of Michigan, 
student Ben Moss of Bloomfield 
Hills serves on the 
Michigan Hillel 
governing board 
as communica-
tions officer and 
is charged with 
coordinating pro-
gramming between 
Hillel and other student organi-
zations across campus. 
On May 11, the U-M Central 
Student Government released a 

Fighting 
Back

continued on page 16

Benjamin 
Moss

14 | JUNE 10 • 2021 

How to combat misinformation 
about the Israel-Hamas confl
 ict 
on social media.

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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