A heavy metal clamp is tightening on the minds and mouths of people around the globe, but mostly in the USA, Canada, and several other countries. The clamp stifles criticism of Israeli actions and suppresses the name of Palestine. It targets journalists, academics, human rights activists, civil servants, parliamentarians, and others. This began decades ago, but the ongoing genocide in Gaza has sped it up, resulting in the deliberate assassination of journalists by Israeli forces in Gaza and Lebanon, 86 so far.

The path to where we are followed a clear path: equating Zionism with Judaism while disregarding the fact that Zionism was equated with Racism by the United Nations between the years 1975-1991;  declaring Israel as a Jewish state, or the State of the Jewish people;. declaring those supporting Palestinian human rights as terrorists.

Now put this mix in a blender and conflate. What do we get?

If you call out Zionism as a racist ideology, you are an antisemite. If you condemn Israel because of its obvious genocidal attack on the civilians in Gaza, or if you call for the protection of Palestinian civilians, you are a Hamas-loving, terrorist-supporting antisemite, bent on the destruction of the Jewish people!

None of the countries that defend the view of Israel as a Jewish state would accept a religious state within their borders. They would never condone occupation of any part of their lands, or that of their allays. Should that happen, they would call their population to “stand on guard”, and fight for the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” Ukraine and the almost instantaneous economic sanctioning of Russia is a stark example on this double standard. Meanwhile Palestinians’ right to fight against the dispossession of Palestine has always been declared terrorism. This has been the case since the British occupied Palestine in 1920 and opened it up for Zionist colonization.

It is obvious that there is a causal link between the tightening of the Clamp and the demonstrably emerging public awareness about, and support for, Palestine. Did the awareness cause it or is it a reaction to a long-suppressed truth about Palestine that could no longer be contained? Perhaps a bit of both, but the genocide in Gaza reopened the whole Palestinian tragedy, and this is a cause of great concern for Israel and its supporters.

Nikki Haley, US presidential aspirant, and a staunch defender of Israel, summed up the concern in her call to ban TikTok. She said: “We really do need to ban TikTok once and for all; and let me tell you why. For every thirty minutes that someone watches TikTok, every day, they become 17% more antisemitic, more pro Hamas based on doing that. we now know that 50% of adults 18-25, think that Hamas was warranted in what they did with Israel. That’s a problem.”

I don’t think Nikki Haley is worried either about antisemitism or Hamas. I think what keeps her up at night are those millions of people, worldwide, who aren’t Palestinian but are demonstrating each week chanting, “I stand for Palestine.” This is the real nightmare.