What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Looks Like |
Enough with the careful language. Enough with the solemn statements, the emergency meetings, the polished condemnations written by people who will sleep just fine tonight. Jewish families in Europe are being shown, on walls and with knives, what all those speeches have failed to stop.
In Prenzlauer Berg, one of Berlin’s richest and most self-consciously progressive neighborhoods, someone walked through the night and spray-painted “Kill All Jews” on the wall of a residential building. People live behind those walls. Children pass that corner. Families come home there after work, after school, after ordinary days in a city that tells itself it has learned from history.
Then it happened again. Same street, same message, roughly two weeks later.
The response from the neighborhood was moving. Children drew hearts on the pavement. Residents painted over the hate. Phrases like “No place for hate” and “Love is louder” appeared where someone else had tried to plant fear. It was beautiful in the way decent human reactions often are, and painful for the same reason. No child should have to answer a call for Jewish murder with sidewalk chalk.
Then came........