Why ‘Justice for Palestine!’ Is Antisemitic

American leftists are becoming increasingly open about their antisemitism. On July 31, hundreds of “Pro-Palestine” demonstrators in Brooklyn stripped away all euphemisms with a call to “Globalize the Intifada.” A global intifada is a worldwide terror war against Jews. It’s also—by far—the most honest expression of what it would mean to achieve “Justice for Palestine.”

This tying anti-Jewish violence to the Palestinian cause is hardly new. Since Yasser Arafat launched his intifada in Jerusalem in late 2000, every outbreak of terrorism against Israel’s Jews has “motivated” simultaneous terror against Jews living elsewhere. Most recently, the war that Hamas launched this May grew to include attacks against Jews in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and elsewhere.

Worse, this notion that Israel’s alleged suppression of “the Palestinian nation” excuses antisemitic violence is hardly restricted to a radical fringe. Prominent voices on the left tend to distance themselves from the violence while conceding the claimed rationale behind it.

When the 2008 Mumbai terrorists attacked several high-profile tourist spots plus a Chabad house, an op-ed in the leftist Guardian explained that “because the single surviving terrorist noted that they chose Chabad House to avenge the suffering of the Palestinians ... the attack was anti-Israeli, though not necessarily antisemitic.”