Hate and Hate Speech

My partner gets pulled off the dance floor this week by a close friend of hers who opines that my t-shirt and hat are examples of the hate that she’s certain lies within me and is the sole driver of my activism. This close friend is a social worker and recognizes hate. Did I mention that she’s also Jewish?

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Hate%20Speech.jpg

A neighbor begs for help from Ann Arbor City Council members from the hate speech she encounters walking past my house and looking at the small imprint in the sidewalk which says, “Stop US Aid to Israel 2008”. This person is not Jewish, but most likely has been instructed since birth that Jews are eternal victims and need her support.

A Diversion

Typing in “hate speech” into Google can get one mired for weeks trying to nail this glob of jelly to the wall in an attempt to tease out the definition of this term. Is there a legal definition? Why do people throw it around other than to tarnish a message they don’t like? If nothing else, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends’ ten-year-old vigil stakes the claim that our actions certainly do not fall into the legal category of hate speech. Otherwise the clever lawyers inside the brick walls of Beth Israel Congregation would long ago have had us prosecuted for violating this chimera called hate speech.

One observes that Israel has committed atrocities against the Palestinian people for over 65 years; he observes that this Jewish state, using its emissaries in the US government, synagogues, media and think tanks, works feverishly to maintain the fiction of coinciding national interests when none exist; he observes outright murder of US citizens by this Jewish state and the US government is bribed or bullied into embarrassing silence by the Jewish Lobby from prosecuting these murders; he observes that Zionism – the invasion of European Jews into the Middle East to create a Jewish supremacist state – is primarily responsible for these atrocities and is convinced that the general public, armed with similar information, will no longer support a Jewish state.

And after considering these observations and convictions he initiates actions, holds political protests at powerful Zionist synagogues and churches, and wears clothing with phrases designed to provoke thought and conversation. But he doesn’t learn that pointing these things out and acting on them are examples of hate speech, according to some gate keepers on the political left.

Is it 1984 yet?

Michigan Weather

A steady 38-degree rain fell on a foot of already-fallen snow, producing hazardous conditions for standing still and holding signs at our last vigil. This writer called a few of our senior citizens and leaders and encouraged them to stay home and sit this one out. Three veteran vigilers and one rookie showed up.

Four vigilers
No Hate
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
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