After two long years of conflict and pain, the world finally witnessed a long-awaited moment last week: Twenty living hostages returned to Israel from Hamas captivity in Gaza, and a ceasefire took hold between Jerusalem and the terror group. For the anti-Israel movement that spent those same two years demanding a ceasefire, this should have been a moment of celebration and relief.
Instead, hatred has persisted and even intensified.
Jewish communities worldwide are experiencing record-breaking levels of antisemitic incidents. Violence against Jews and Israelis is continuing. The obsessive focus on demonizing and delegitimizing Israel persists, even as the war, the supposed reason for protest, has ended.
The evidence is undeniable. In Chile, businesses in the popular tourist destination of Pucón launched a “Genocide-Free Spaces” campaign on October 10, the day the ceasefire went into effect, posting signs declaring that Israelis and Zionists are not welcome.
On October 14, in Pennsylvania and British Columbia, hackers infiltrated the public information systems of several airports, broadcasting pro-Hamas and anti-Israel messages. The next day, thousands of rioters in Barcelona smashed storefronts, set fires, and marched through the streets with banners calling for Israel’s destruction.
The real goal
The reality is clear: For a great many who claimed their goal was a ceasefire, that was never their actual objective. That was the delegitimization and destruction of Israel.
In the United States, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism systematically documented this phenomenon. Even as ceasefire negotiations were underway, anti-Israel activists across the country didn’t call for peace; they glorified Hamas’s terror attack. In Seattle, protesters waved flags bearing former Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida’s image and held signs declaring, “Resistance is justified when people are occupied.”
Online, Philadelphia-based groups described October 7, when Jews and others were massacred, as a “glorious day” and proclaimed: “Long Live the Palestinian Armed Resistance.” In Boston, protests devolved into violence, injuring police officers and resulting in arrests.
Four interconnected dangers
These aren't isolated incidents solely taking place in the United States. This is a global movement that reveals four interconnected dangers:
First, the alarming normalization of antisemitism. What was once unthinkable – open celebration of terrorist attacks, displays of Hamas and Hezbollah flags in cities worldwide, pseudo-academic justifications of the horrors of October 7 – has become routine. Declarations that “Zionism” is a disease that has taken control over our global economic and political systems and must be eradicated by any means necessary have become commonplace.
The line between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism hasn’t just blurred; for many activists, it has been deliberately erased. Universities, media outlets, and civil society organizations have grown dangerously comfortable with rhetoric and actions that would be immediately and rightfully condemned if directed at any other minority group.
Second, this movement is dedicated to Israel’s elimination. When activists declare that Zionists aren’t welcome in public spaces, as they did at protests marking the October 7 anniversary, they’re not criticizing Israeli government policy.
They are rejecting the foundational principle that Jews have a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. They’re targeting and discriminating against the overwhelming majority of Jews worldwide who identify as Zionists and who feel connected to Israel as part of their Jewish identity. When Zionism is made illegitimate, it is no longer safe to be Jewish in public spaces.
Third, Palestinian suffering is being weaponized against Jews and Israelis. This movement purports to champion Palestinian dignity, but it exploits Palestinian pain as a justification for hatred of Jews. The response to the ceasefire reveals the truth: Palestinian welfare was never their top priority. That would be destroying Israel.
Fourth, this movement often presents a clear and present danger to Jews and Israelis worldwide. Four in five Jewish students around the world feel the need to hide their Jewish and/or Zionist identity. Jews around the world are hiding religious symbols out of fear.
Israelis traveling abroad have faced repeated harassment and violence simply for their nationality. When a movement claims to oppose a government’s actions but systematically targets an entire people, whether in Tel Aviv or Toronto, the antisemitic intent becomes undeniable.
Peace was never the goal
Here’s the question that demands an answer: If this movement opposed Israeli military action in Gaza, why do attacks on Diaspora Jews continue now that a ceasefire is in place?
The Jewish community needs allies who will call out this hypocrisy. We need people of conscience to recognize that activist groups presenting themselves as peace-loving and concerned about human rights for all are celebrating terrorism and targeting Jews and that they cannot be accepted as a legitimate voice for peace or justice. We cannot normalize activism that equates Palestinian rights with the targeting of Jewish people.
For those like myself, who do not believe Palestinian dignity and Israeli security are mutually exclusive, who believe both peoples deserve safety and self-determination, this moment demands moral clarity.
Twenty hostages returned home last week after more than two years in Hamas captivity in Gaza’s tunnels, yet the bodies of too many murdered hostages remain held there. Since the ceasefire took effect, Hamas terrorists have brutally executed the very people they claim to govern in Gaza’s streets.
Meanwhile, the movement that once claimed to care about both Palestinian and Israeli lives has remained largely silent, focusing instead on delegitimizing the state those hostages called home.
The ceasefire proved what many suspected but few wanted to say aloud: For a significant and vocal portion of this movement, peace was never the goal.
The writer is senior vice president of international affairs at the Anti-Defamation League.