Cultural Diversity In New Jersey

The Daily Mail reports that "Jewish family targeted by anti-Semitic abuse in New Jersey's American Dream Mall over teen daughter's IDF jacket say 'dozens' of bystanders stood by just WATCHING as they were attacked." According to the article, "Adi Vaxman was with her husband and two of their children, ages 12 and 16, at the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, where the family hoped to play a round of mini-golf." Despite the large number of pro-Palestinian protests and demonstrations, one of the daughters "was wearing a jacket with the logo of the Israeli Defense Forces, which had been a gift from the girl's veteran grandfather." 

    'Our family is all IDF veterans, so we're very proud of it,' Vaxman said of the jacket her daughter was wearing, noting that her brother and cousin had both been called up from the IDF reserves in Israel's ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.

    'We are proud of standing up for who we are and what's important to us, and nobody will take that away from us. No one,' added the mom, who founded a non-profit dedicated to supporting IDF troops following the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

Suddenly, a young man and young woman started screaming obscenities at them about supporting Israel and genocide.  

    The video of the incident posted on X shows the confrontation already underway, with a young man and woman screaming at the family. 

    'Leave her alone, leave her alone!' the Jewish father is heard saying as he steps in between the Palestinian supporters and his family. 

    The Jewish mother, who appears to be filming the incident, is heard saying: 'You're attacking me, you attacked me and dropped my phone!'

    The female aggressor responds: 'You're recording me without my permission! It's free Palestine 'til I f***ing die b***h! Free Palestine 'til I f***ing die b***h! Free Palestine, you should be embarrassed you're supporting genocide!'

    The Jewish father is seen herding his family away from the abusive rant, and shouting back 'What genocide?' 

    'Leave her alone, leave her alone,' the dad is heard saying. 'Leave this s**t alone.'

    The Jewish mother chimes in: 'You're cursing my child! You're cursing my child!'

    'I'm cursing you,' says the male harasser. 'I'm cursing you and your bulls**t husband.' 

    The female harasser goes on to say she is also a minor. The confrontation devolves into a screaming match that is difficult to clearly hear, as the Jewish mother questions whether the harassers have ever been to the Palestinian territories.

    'There's no such thing as Palestine, it's a made up lie!' the Jewish mother is heard shouting before the video clip ends. 

The mother went on to complain:

    'Nobody has the right to tell me what to wear and what not to wear. Nobody needs to cause me to hide my Jewish identity,' she added. 'We don't just walk around attacking people who are wearing 'Free Palestine' shirts, but they're walking around attacking us.'

    'They have no right to attack anyone,' she said. 'Nobody's entitled to be violent. Nobody's entitled to go after other people's freedom.' 

And:

    'The crazy thing is that the mall was packed, and there were dozens of people kind of in a circle around us watching. Just watching. Nobody said anything. Nobody did anything. Nobody called security,' she added.

     A few thoughts:

• Yet another example of the problems with mass immigration, as I've noted before and George Washington warned about, that being that immigrants bring their problems and conflicts with them.
• The family complains that no one called security, but that begs the question of why they did not.
• You might be free to wear what clothing you want, but it may not be wise. For example, you probably wouldn't want to walk through Tel Aviv wearing an SS uniform.  
• Of course other people aren't going to get involved. First, the only "violence" or "attack" here was the mother having her cell phone knocked to the ground. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" applies everywhere, not just the school playground. Thus, there was no legal justification for someone to physically intercede. Second, there was no upside to anyone trying to intervene--people who intervene too often become victims or get arrested. (See, e.g., my 2017 post on "The Dangers of White Knighting").