Last week, a federal judge weighed in on whether an alleged assault involving an Israeli flag was antisemitic. The case stemmed from an incident in November 2024, at a CodePink demonstration outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., when a pro-Palestinian protester, Janine Ali, a then-73-year-old Palestinian-American grandmother, allegedly grabbed the Israeli flag that a pro-Israel counterprotester, Kimmara Sumrall, was wearing tied around her neck as a cape. Ali was found not guilty of assault in a criminal trial in May, so Sumrall, with the support of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, then filed a complaint in federal court alleging antisemitic discrimination under civil rights law. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, noted that lawyers for Ali argued that “the Israeli flag represents the state of Israel rather than the Jewish race, so her action is merely anti-Israel, not antisemitic.” McFadden, however, rejected the argument that the Israeli flag did not represent Jewish identity, writing, “The Star of David, emblazoned upon the Israeli flag, symbolizes the Jewish race.”
The six-pointed star, called the “Star of David” (Magen David in Hebrew, literally “shield of David”), has been a Jewish symbol since long before the establishment of the State of Israel. It first became widely used as a distinctive Jewish symbol by European Jews in the 19th century. It came to represent Judaism in the same way that the cross represents Christianity. To this day, just as many Christians wear necklaces with a cross, many Jews wear a Star of David on necklaces as a symbol of their Jewish identity. Some Jews even have tattoos of it (disregarding the fact that Jewish law prohibits getting a tattoo).
The Zionist movement adopted the Star of David at the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 because it had become a popular Jewish symbol by then, and for the mostly secular early Zionists, it had the merit of not being seen solely as a religious symbol (as the late Israeli Jewish scholar Gershon Scholem noted in a 1949 essay in Commentary magazine titled, “The Curious History of the Six-Pointed Star: How the ‘Magen David’ Became the Jewish Symbol”). It was subsequently incorporated into the flag of the State of Israel a few months after Israel’s founding in 1948.
When the Star of David is emblazoned in blue between two horizontal blue stripes on the flag of Israel, it ceases to be just a Jewish symbol. The Israeli flag symbolizes the State of Israel. It has a Jewish symbol on it, but the flag itself is not a Jewish symbol.
More than a dozen Muslim-majority countries have the Islamic crescent on their flags, but that does not make these flags Islamic symbols. For example, Pakistan, officially named the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has a national flag with a white crescent moon – the symbol associated with Islam – on a dark green background, which is the color associated with Islam. If someone burned that flag at a demonstration against Pakistan, it would surely be offensive to Pakistanis, but it would not be Islamophobic. The same logic applies to the Israeli flag. Both Israel and Pakistan, as well as many other countries, have appropriated religious symbols for nationalist purposes.
Thus, wearing an Israeli flag at a demonstration is not the same as wearing a Magen David necklace. Grabbing an Israeli flag worn as a cape during a demonstration may be considered an act of political violence, but it is not an act of antisemitic violence or discrimination. It is not the same as grabbing a Magen David necklace or knocking a kippa off someone’s head – actions that are equivalent to pulling a hijab off a Muslim woman or a turban off the head of a Sikh man.
Although Israel’s flag is prominently displayed in many synagogues outside Israel, this does not make the flag itself a religious object (nor does the presence of an Israeli flag in a synagogue, typically alongside an American flag, make the synagogue an Israeli institution). To characterize the flag of Israel as a Jewish object because it has a Star of David on it conflates Judaism with Zionism and the Jewish people with the Israeli state.
Unfortunately, such conflation has become all too common. This is one reason, though it is of course not the only reason, why Jews are harassed and attacked by people who hate Israel. In some people’s minds, Jews are proxies for Israel; therefore, they hate Jews because they hate Israel, and they attack Jews because they cannot attack Israel. This is antisemitic and morally reprehensible because innocent people are being collectively blamed and harmed for the actions of a state. The same is true when all Muslims or Arabs are blamed for the actions of terrorist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda, which happened frequently in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It is bigoted to hold all Muslims or Arabs accountable for the behavior of terrorist groups, and it is equally bigoted to hold all Jews accountable for Israel’s behavior.
However, it is important to acknowledge that prejudice is not the only factor at play here. Another factor is that people mistakenly believe that Muslims support Jihadist groups and that Jews support Israel. Some do, but many do not. Although the Islamic State claims to act on behalf of all Muslims, surveys show that most Muslims do not support the Islamic State terrorist group. Similarly, Israel claims to act on behalf of all Jews, but surveys show that most American Jews do not support the actions and policies of the Israeli government and army, particularly towards Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (to be clear, I am not equating these actions with those of the Islamic State). For example, in a 2025 Washington Post survey, 61% of American Jews said that Israel committed war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, and 40% thought that Israel had committed genocide.
What complicates matters in the case of Jews and Israel is that most American Jews have an emotional attachment to Israel (around six in 10 in surveys express such an attachment), and this attachment is a product of their Jewish identity. They care about Israel, which, it must be stressed, is not the same as supporting everything it does. Moreover, major Jewish organizations and mainstream institutions frequently publicly emphasize this attachment, and they increasingly insist that supporting Israel or being a Zionist is an integral, core element of Jewish identity. This effectively encourages non-Jews to believe that all, or at least the overwhelming majority of, Jews support what Israel does and identify as Zionists. However, surveys indicate that this is not the case. For example, in a June 2026 national survey of Jewish Americans, only 36% said that “supporting Israel” is important to their Jewish identity (whereas 73% said that “remembering the Holocaust” was, and 43% said “celebrating Jewish holidays”). In another survey of American Jews conducted in March 2026, 87% believed in “Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish homeland,” but only a third (34%) actually considered themselves Zionists, while nearly half (48%) said they were not Zionists and another 17% were unsure (Orthodox Jews and Republicans were most likely to call themselves Zionists, whereas Reform Jews, Democrats, and younger Jews were most likely to say they were not Zionists).
It can be easy for people to conflate Jews with Israel, and this conflation has led some people to harass, attack, or discriminate against Jews. Such actions are undoubtedly antisemitic and deplorable, but they are increasingly happening nowadays because so many people are appalled by what Israel has done in Gaza and what it is doing in the West Bank. To acknowledge this obvious fact is not to excuse or justify antisemitic behavior or blame it solely on Israel, let alone on the victims of this behavior. The people engaging in antisemitic behavior are morally responsible for their behavior. However, we cannot prevent this kind of antisemitic behavior if we do not understand what can cause it. Israel is becoming a global pariah, so associating all Jews with Israel can make Jews pariahs and potential targets for those who hate Israel. Whether this association is made by the Israeli state, Jewish organizations, or antisemites, the effect is essentially the same: Jews are conflated with Israel, and the outcome of this conflation is harmful and dangerous for Jews.
I am not advocating, as Hasan Piker recently did, that Jews living outside Israel should disassociate themselves from Israel in order to be safe. Jews are entitled to have an attachment to Israel. What I am advocating is the need to draw distinctions between Jews and Israel and between Judaism and Zionism. Blurring these distinctions, as Judge McFadden did in his recent ruling and as Jewish establishment organizations and the Israeli state do, does not protect Jews; it endangers them.
Dov Waxman is the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Israel Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also an honorary research fellow at the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism.
This piece is being cross-published on Dov’s Substack. Subscribe to Dov Waxman on Substack for more of his writing.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Zeteo.
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Good piece, but in the last paragraph, the writer makes a distinction between his idea and Hasan's Piker's recent remarks..but the link he gives shows that Hasan Piker's comment is very similar to what he says.
Waxman writes: "What I am advocating is the need to draw distinctions between Jews and Israel and between Judaism and Zionism. Blurring these distinctions...does not protect Jews; it endangers them."
this is nearly exactly what Has Piker says: "..this connection between Israel and Zionism that is expressed over and over again through a lot of those Jewish institutions...is teach people that Jews are monolithic. And this is ..a very dangerous mode of propaganda".
They are both saying something very similar. The difference is Waxman is putting the responsibility to differentiate on others, while Piker is focusing on the Jewish community. They both have a point.
Waxman really doesn't address at all that the 'conflation' of Jewish identity with Zionism and Israel is very often (I would argue, most often) pushed by those who support Israel's actions, and who then use this conflation to label anyone who criticizes Israel or Zionism as antisemitic.
Of course there are plenty in the US who are not at all Jewish but vehemently support Israel and call themselves Zionists, and there are many critics of Israel's actions that are Jewish, as Waxman points out. But his argument lacks the point that there are indeed many self-identified 'Jewish institutions' that are strongly pro-Israel and pro-Zionism, and use that conflation to attack any critics. AIPAC, the modern ADL. the AJC, and the Jewish Federations of North America are just a few examples.
To be clear, none of that should suggest violence against anyone is justified by any association. But I don't think the writer is so far apart of Piker as he claims..the 'conflation' he writes of is constantly weaponized by Israel's defenders, to the detriment of the Jewish people, and even more to the victims of Israel's violence. That was Piker's point.
Good grief! What a lot of confused double speak-- this but also that, this but not that-- and the final return to the self serving canard: Jews' "attachment" to Israel is just fine and dandy! WHY???? Hasan Piker is correct: Jewish people everywhere MUST disavow allegiance to Israel which has UNAMBIGUOUSLY revealed itself to be a genocidal apartheid CRIMINAL state! Why should anyone be allowed to feel any allegiance to outright evil? Thats plain crazy