A Jewish journalist who I like to follow made a simple, to-the-point tweet last week that got me thinking.

The younger generations who are today so active in “social justice” movements are at the same time attention-challenged to the extent that comprehensive arguments are of no avail. They form their opinions based almost exclusively on sound bites and click-bait headlines.

So let’s use words they might understand.

Racial hate is bad. The Jews are a race (as well as a religion – that combination didn’t used to be uncommon in the ancient world). And denying Jewish history is an act of racial hate.

Full credit to Hen Mazzig for saying exactly what needed to be said:

Jews are indigenous to modern day Israel.

Jews were violently expelled by those who hate us, but many of us never left.

So much of Jewish culture is based around our desire to return home.

Denying our history is an act of hate.

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) May 20, 2022

That Jews are indigenous to the Holy Land is by now so well documented that only liars or the purposely ignorant would still claim otherwise. Unfortunately, we have not a few of those in our midst.

We won’t go into any kind of comprehensive look at this matter (there are plentiful resources for doing so for the objective-minded), but for the secular observer suffice it to take a look at that big arch in the center of Rome. The Romans built it after crushing a Jewish revolt in Jerusalem, and it depicts their soldiers carrying away Jewish treasures like a giant menorah. Documented evidence that Jews were in Jerusalem and the Holy Land 2,000 years ago.

For those who do accept the veracity of the Bible, the entire thing is about Jews (earlier referred to as “Israelites”) and their history in this land. In addition to being the holy book to billions of people the world over, the Bible is an extensive historical document detailing thousands of years of Jewish culture and faith right here in the Middle East.

Even for Christian this must be obvious. The New Testament is explicit in referring to this region as Judea and its inhabitants as Jews, as well as repeatedly highlighting Jesus’ own Jewish background.

That Jews were violently expelled from the Holy Land is again documented by many sources, but we need look no further than that same Arch of Titus referenced above. The Jews depicted it in are being carried off into slavery or to be otherwise dispersed across the Empire.

And from that moment up until the mid-20th century it is undeniable that much of Jewish culture was centered on an unquenchable desire to return. Jewish literature, music and prayers stretching across the centuries attest to this. Most recognizable to Gentiles perhaps is the prayer that concludes every Passover meal with “Next year in Jerusalem.”

Jews have been saying that for 2,000 years. It wasn’t invented with the onset of the modern Israeli-Arab conflict. Why would they be saying that for so long if they didn’t belong to this land, and this land to them?

Jewish history in and the connection to this Land is a foundational component of Jewish identity. And attacking, delegitimizing or denying that history and that connection is an act of racial hatred.

Which is also why anti-Zionism should and is being equated with antisemitism by a growing number of governments. Zionism is the modern outworking of the Jewish people’s deepest hopes and dreams, fueled by their ancient history and faith.

To hate Israel’s rebirth is to hate the Jewish people, no matter how much you couch it in the social justice expletives of our time.