Maryland Del. Joe Vogel (D-Dist. 17), who is Jewish, found antisemitic graffiti on the door of the lobby bathroom in his Gaithersburg apartment building, he said on social media Monday afternoon.
The incident comes as advocates describe increases in anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian incidents in the U.S. since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Vogel said this is at least the third time swastikas have been drawn in this location in the last few months. He said that these incidents are not happening in a vacuum.
“We’re seeing a surge in antisemitic hate crimes across the country and across the state,” Vogel said.
Anti-Jewish incidents in Maryland rose from 48 in 2021 to 77 in 2022, marking a 60.4% increase, according to the Maryland State Police’s 2022 Hate Bias Report.
Vogel is running for Maryland’s 6th congressional district in a hotly contested race for Rep. David Trone’s seat.
While Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Maryland State Police data show a spike in antisemitism in recent years, the Hamas attacks on Israel has created a whole new plethora of hate incidents.
Meredith Weisel, the regional director for ADL Washington, D.C., told MoCo360 that 91 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. were reported to the ADL between Oct. 7 and Oct. 15, with 40 being “Israel related.”
Weisel said there has been a 1,000% increase in non-specific threats against Jewish people and Israelis throughout the U.S. since the Hamas attacks started. These non-specific threats include people online calling Hamas “freedom fighters” and saying that it was OK for them to target Jewish and Israeli citizens.
Weisel said that she has specifically seen this in the DC area, including a synagogue being targeted in Washington D.C. and anti-Israel protests throughout the DMV region.
“In the D.C. region in the Jewish community, we have seen a lot of hurt and a lot of angst amongst people, because this impacts us here,” Weisel said. “We’ve started seeing this increase in protests and individuals being targeted and harassment online.”
Weisel also referenced global antisemitism, explaining that other countries are facing hate similar to the U.S.
“We specifically saw apartment buildings in Berlin, Germany where Jews live marked with Stars of David like what we saw back in the 1940s,” Weisel said.
In addition to increases in antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric, Vogel said that “We’re also seeing a rise in Islamophobia, and we have to call that out.”
Zainab Chaudry, the Maryland director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told MoCo360 on Tuesday that there has been an increase in anti-Palestine and anti-Muslim hate bias incidents in the county and state since the war in Israel started.
From Oct. 9 to Oct. 14, CAIR’s Maryland office received 46 calls for assistance, 21 of which were in Montgomery County, Chaudry said.
“We’ve definitely seen an uptick in the bias and harassment of Muslim and Arab community members not just throughout the state but throughout the country,” Chaudry said.
Chaudry provided MoCo360 with multiple examples of these incidents. She said that two students at John Hopkins University were standing at a bus stop when someone drove by and yelling slurs at them and calling them terrorists.
In another instance, at least one student was walking on a campus in Montgomery County, who Chaudry describes as visibly Muslim, was told by someone that they would get what was coming to them.
In Chicago, a 6-year-old Palestinian boy was fatally stabbed, and his mother was injured, in an attack driven by anti-Palestinian hate, authorities alleged.
“I am horrified by the murder of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume,” Vogel posted on social media Monday. “My prayers are with his family, the Palestinian-American community, and all Muslims who are facing a devastating rise in Islamophobia right now. We must stand together across faiths, to reject violence and hate.”
Chaudry said that elected officials are partly to blame for this spike in hate.
“This is a direct consequence of the very one-sided narrative in a political discourse within our country from the top highest levels of the government down to the local government and not just elected officials,” Chaudry said. “We need our elected leaders to speak out and to express solidarity with all people who are suffering injustices.”
Chaudry said that she understands that they are showing their support for Israel but said they also need to show their support for Palestinians as well.
Weisel said that from her perspective, the best way to reduce these hate incidents is to work harder to differentiate between Hamas and Palestinians. However, she said people are not making that distinction enough.
“If you claim to support a free Palestine, then you should be unequivocally rejecting Hamas,” Weisel said. “We know Hamas has no regard for life, whether it is Palestinians, Jewish people or anybody else in that region.”
She went on to say that: “These are disgusting acts of cowardice and brutality, but this should not be blamed on Palestinian people, Israelis or the Jewish community.”