Would a "Death to the Jews" chant be considered protected by the First Amendment? ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, March 31, 2025

Would a "Death to the Jews" chant be considered protected by the First Amendment?

The First Amendment is quite broad, and a chant like "Death to the Jews!" would likely be protected under it unless it was shouted directly at Jews, or, say, outside a synagogue. If it was done in a crowd, away from Jews, in a style that does not appear to be a direct incitement to kill Jews right now, it would probably not be prosecutable.

The reason I bring this up is because I saw these two stories in American newspapers. The first was from October 1906, from Odessa, and it appears to pass the test of not being direct incitement.

The following wire service story (in the Montreal Gazette February 4, 1907) showed another case where an Odessa mob shouted the same chant - and this time they acted on it.

It sure sounds like the cumulative effect of hearing "Death to the Jews" for months and years prompts mobs to start acting on that desire.

The chants we hear at anti-Zionist rallies, like "There is only one solution, Intifada Revolution" and "We don't want no Zionists here" and "Resistance by any means necessary" literally brainwash people to want to attack Jews.

We have a pretty clear precedent in Odessa.

The chants might be legal. But they must be denounced, loudly and strongly, by every decent human being.