President Joe Biden issued a blistering condemnation of the recent rise in antisemitic incidents across the country and globally amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“The recent attacks on the Jewish community are despicable, and they must stop,” Biden wrote on Twitter Monday morning.
“I condemn this hateful behavior at home and abroad — it’s up to all of us to give hate no safe harbor,” the president added.
The Anti-Defamation League said that it had received 193 reports of possible antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in the week after the fighting between Israel and Hamas began, up from 131 the week prior, and an ADL analysis of Twitter found more than 17,000 posts with variations on the phrase “Hitler was right” between May 7 and May 14.
Police in Los Angeles announced Saturday the arrest of a suspect in an alleged attack by a pro-Palestinian group on Jewish men outside a restaurant earlier in the week. The violence, recorded on video, occurred when a car caravan flying Palestinian flags stopped near a restaurant where diners were eating at outdoor tables.
In New York last week, the same day a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced, police said five to six men approached a 29-year-old man, knocking him to the ground and assaulting him while making anti-Semitic statements. The next day, police announced they arrested a 23-year-old in connection with the attack and charged him with a hate crime, noting they are looking for several other individuals.
New York Gov. Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio strongly condemned the attacks.
In Florida, a man yelled antisemitic remarks at a rabbi in front of a South Florida synagogue before later returning and dumping a bag of human feces in front of the building. He dumped the bag in front of the synagogue and yelled, “Jews should die," according to a police report. He also spat at a menorah near a sidewalk, according to the police.
Incidents have also been reported abroad in recent days. Police in Germany say they are investigating a Jewish man’s report of being punched in the face and abused with antisemitic language while walking home in Berlin early Saturday. In the U.K., British police arrested four people over videos posted on social media that appeared to show violent antisemitic language being shouted from a convoy of cars driving through London.
Israel also accused China’s state TV of what it called “blatant antisemitism” after a host questioned whether U.S. support for Israel was truly based on shared democratic values, saying “some people believe that U.S. pro-Israeli policy is traceable to the influence of wealthy Jews in the U.S. and the Jewish lobby on U.S. foreign policy makers.”
“Jews dominate finance and and internet sectors,” Zheng said, speaking in English. “So do they have the powerful lobbies some say? Possible.”
The host also accused the U.S. of using Israel as a “beachhead” in the Middle East and a as proxy in its campaign to defeat pan-Arabism.
There was no immediate comment from state broadcaster CCTV and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said he was “not aware of the situation.”
The ADL, along with other groups, sent Biden a letter on Friday, which also noted attacks against synagogues in Tucson, Arizona, and Skokie, Illinois.
“We fear that the way the conflict has been used to amplify antisemitic rhetoric, embolden dangerous actors and attack Jews and Jewish communities will have ramifications far beyond these past two weeks,” the letter, signed by the ADL, American Jewish Committee, Hadassah, Jewish Federation of North America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, read.
The groups encouraged Biden to use his platform to speak out against antisemitism, reestablish the position of White House Jewish Liaison, which went unfilled in the Trump administration, appoint an Ambassador to monitor and combat antisemitism and convene a conversation at the White House about antisemitism.
The ADL thanked Biden on Twitter for his "leadership and commitment to the safety of the American Jewish community” in the wake of his condemnation, adding: “We look forward to working with you and continuing to find new ways to combat this despicable rise in antisemitism.”
"Voices of leadership are crucial in this moment, the ADL's CEO Jonathan Greenblatt added. "Thank you President Biden for using yours and adding this strong condemnation of antisemitism and hate targeting the Jewish community."
On CNN Sunday, White House adviser Cedric Richmond said that the Biden Administration has been focused on the rise in hate since the beginning of the president’s tenure, “whether it's AAPI hate that came from Covid-19 and the dangerous rhetoric that we heard, or whether it's antisemitic violence.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.