A lesson of June’s fatal attack on pro-Israel marchers in Colorado is that Jew-hatred must be called out clearly and with moral clarity, according to Phil Weiser, the state’s attorney general.
“We can’t ever say, ‘Jews were killed, but … ’” Weiser said on Wednesday. “There is no ‘but.’ There is no justification.”
Weiser spoke during an online event held by the Jewish Democratic Council of America. Dana Nessel and Kris Mayes, the Michigan and Arizona attorneys general, respectively, also spoke during the event. Weiser and Nessel are Jewish.
Antisemitism increased in the United States and around the world after Oct. 7. A tenuous ceasefire remains in place.
The Colorado attorney general said that he knew people who attended the June 1 rally in Boulder to support the release of hostages in Gaza. A man attacked the protesters with Molotov cocktails and shouted, “Free Palestine.” Karen Diamond, 82, died days after she and 11 other demonstrators were injured. Mohamed Sabry Soliman was arrested and charged in the case.
“We have to be clear-eyed that attacks on Jews is a hate crime that has to be called out for what it is,” said Weiser, the son of Holocaust survivors. “This is to me the difference between a comma and a period. Attacks on Jews are wrong—period. Attacks on blacks are wrong—period. Attacks on gays are wrong—period.”
Nessel said antisemitism comes from both sides.
“It’s not just right-wing extremism against the Jewish community, but it is also extremists on the left,” she said.
Weiser also mentioned two other attacks earlier this year: the fire at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home in Harrisburg and the killing of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C. Both were carried out by anti-Israel people. He said there needed to be early warning systems, new protections against such attacks and alliances with other groups.
“Hate against any one of us has to be treated as if it was hate against all of us,” he said. “We have to acknowledge it. We’ve got to see it. We’ve got to bear witness. We’ve got to call it out.”
In Michigan, a hate crimes act was strengthened and law enforcement began addressing minor acts of vandalism before they became major attacks, Nessel said.
“If you can get intervention at an earlier time, that’s going to be helpful later on,” she said. “We have to be able to prosecute these cases so people don’t have to live in fear. If we do take them seriously, hopefully we can prevent more serious crimes from happening.”
