HOUSE RESOLUTION NO.304
Reps. Arbit and Steckloff offered the following resolution:
1 A resolution to condemn the recent rise in antisemitic
2 incidents.
3 Whereas, Hate, intimidation, discrimination, and violence
4 based on ethnicity or religion have no place in Michigan; and
5 Whereas, On October 7, 2023, in the deadliest attack on Jews
6 since the Holocaust, Hamas terrorists invaded peaceful Israeli
7 communities situated along the border of the Gaza Strip. The attack
8 was appalling, with terrorists massacring approximately 1,200
9 individuals, including more than 800 civilians; brutally raping
10 women; slaughtering babies and children and the elderly with
11 indiscriminate terror; and taking hostage hundreds more, simply
12 because they were citizens of the Jewish state; and
13 Whereas, Violence against Jews is not isolated to the Middle
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1 East; it has infected the United States, as well. October 27, 2024,
2 marks six years since the horrific shooting at the Tree of Life
3 Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This event tragically took
4 the lives of eleven worshippers and injured seven others, including
5 five responding officers who bravely attempted to defend the
6 victims. This is believed to be the deadliest antisemitic attack in
7 American history; and
8 Whereas, Since the massacre of innocent Israeli citizens by
9 the terrorist group Hamas on October 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents
10 of harassment, vandalism, and assault targeting Jews in the United
11 States have risen dramatically. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
12 recorded 5,204 antisemitic incidents between October 7 and the end
13 of 2023, which is more than the total number of incidents in all of
14 2022. The ADL identified 8,873 antisemitic incidents across the
15 United States in 2023, a nearly 140 percent increase from the 3,697
16 reported in 2022. Three years in a row – in 2021, 2022, and 2023 –
17 the ADL reported that a new record was set for the highest number
18 of antisemitic incidents since the organization began tracking
19 these incidents in 1979; and
20 Whereas, College and university campuses across Michigan and
21 the United States have become hotspots for antisemitic incidents,
22 threatening the physical safety and mental and emotional well-being
23 of Jewish students. Students are facing hostile environments where
24 antisemitic rhetoric, symbols, and actions are used to intimidate,
25 harass, marginalize, and even physically assault them as they
26 pursue a higher education. The degradation of free and open
27 discourse into base intimidation, threats, slurs, and hate speech
28 harms everyone in an academic community; and
29 Whereas, Antisemitism has unique characteristics, including
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1 the employment of conspiracy theories that blame the various
2 evolving ills of society on Jews and the Jewish people, or
3 attribute to individual Jews a variety of evil and harmful
4 characteristics, including a portrayal of Jews as maliciously all-
5 powerful or controlling and deserving of hatred and mistrust; and
6 Whereas, Antisemitism also exists when Jews are held
7 responsible, individually or collectively, for policies pursued by
8 the government of the State of Israel, or attacked, disparaged, or
9 demonized based on their real or perceived connection to,
10 affiliation with, or support for, the State of Israel as a Jewish
11 state; and
12 Whereas, Holocaust denial and distortion continue to be
13 prevalent in the United States and around the world. Holocaust
14 denial and distortion include intentional efforts to deny, justify,
15 excuse, or minimize the genocidal crimes of the Nazi regime and its
16 many collaborators against the Jewish people, as well as attempts
17 to downplay the impact of the Holocaust on the Jewish people, all
18 of which dishonor Holocaust victims and survivors. The continued
19 presence of these beliefs reinforces the need to advance accurate
20 and comprehensive Holocaust education globally. Protecting the
21 history of the Holocaust and recognizing and confronting Holocaust
22 denial and distortion are critical to preventing antisemitism; and
23 Whereas, Antisemitism is present across the political spectrum
24 in America. Antisemitic beliefs are found among right-wing
25 extremists who wax poetic with conspiracies about Jewish control
26 over the media, government, entertainment, and banking, as well as
27 those who harbor a profound racial hatred of Jews, who are
28 perceived to be an inferior and separate race. And they are found
29 among left-wing extremists who increasingly do not bother to
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1 attempt to thinly veil their deep-seated antisemitism within biased
2 arguments about Middle East politics or anti-capitalist critiques;
3 and
4 Whereas, Michigan is home to a vibrant Jewish community nearly
5 120,000 strong. There is a particularly significant Jewish presence
6 in the communities of West Bloomfield, Oak Park, Huntington Woods,
7 Southfield, and Bloomfield Hills, though the community has grown
8 and flourished across the state. Michiganders have long attempted
9 to provide resources to ensure that our state’s residents
10 understand the implications of targeted hate violence, including
11 the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills, and we have
12 recognized the importance of our Jewish citizens to our state.
13 Michigan’s Jewish community has had a profound impact on the
14 development and character of the state of Michigan; now, therefore,
15 be it
16 Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we condemn the
17 recent rise in antisemitic incidents.
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