Anti-Semitic rhetoric was on display during the riots in Washington on Wednesday, including a man threatening an Israeli reporter and another wearing a shirt that said “Camp Auschwitz.”
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
Israeli television viewers got a blast of right-wing anti-Semitism Wednesday during the riots on Capital Hill when a pro-Trump protester barged into a live broadcast with the Washington correspondent for Israeli Channel 13 news, Gil Tamary.
The protester, named “Mark,” demanded veteran reporter Tamary tell him why Israel “continues to take American aid,” but the reporter barely gets to respond before the man launches into an anti-Semitic tirade.
Tamary tried to tell his producer to get him off the air, but the producer told him in Hebrew to keep going and find out what was on the protester’s mind.
At that point, the man then shouted, “I’m gonna get in your face now and I’ll tell you why, yid,” using a derogatory term for a Jew.
הטרלול שעבר גיל תמרי בשידור ישיר מוושינגטון, וההתמודדות המכובדת שלו: pic.twitter.com/kJpcHk1erY
— Ran Boker רן בוקר (@ranboker) January 6, 2021
“What is a goy?” he then asked. Tamary appeared surprised by the bizarre question and answered “I don’t know” to avoid getting drawn into an argument, after which the protester yelled at him, “Yes you do, you lying Israeli.”
He then accused Tamary of “playing the pilpul game,” a Talmudic term that refers to arguing fine points.
The word “goy” literally means “nation” in Hebrew and is also used to mean “gentile” or “non-Jew.” The term has become popular among neo-Nazis, who invoke it within the context of anti-Semitic conspiracies.
Tamary then explained to his viewers in Hebrew that the Trump supporter told him he wanted America to stop giving support to Israel and said he hated Jews.
“Absolutely despicable. A rioter was harassing an Israeli reporter with vicious, grotesque anti-Semitism. This is sadly not shocking considering the violence we saw from extremists at the Capitol,” the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tweeted.
In another incident on Wednesday at the Capitol, a man was spotted wearing a shirt emblazoned with “Camp Auschwitz.”
The man was visible in an ITV report and the phrase “work brings freedom” was printed below the reference to the Nazi concentration camp where close to a million Jews were killed.
At a rally before the Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, newly elected Congresswoman from Illinois Mary Miller told the crowd: “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, whoever has the youth has the future … Fill your children’s minds with what is true and right and noble, and then they can overcome evil with good because they can actually discern between what is evil and what is good.”
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker called Miller’s remarks “unfathomable and disgusting.”
“Let me be clear: Hitler got nothing right. This reprehensible rhetoric has no place in our politics. Illinois Republicans cannot allow this to stand, and must condemn this vile, evil streak in their party,” Priztker said at a press conference broadcast on social media.
“If representative Miller was the least bit interested in history, she would visit the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center to learn just how wrong Hitler really was.”