(OPINION) Natalie Sanandaji, an American woman who escaped Hamas’ assault on an Israeli music festival on Oct. 7, recounted her harrowing experience to Fox News Digital and went on to say that although she’s back in the U.S. now, she does not feel safe seeing how easily “brainwashing” on social media is fueling antisemitism and anti-Israel demonstrations.
Sanandaji, a 28-year-old Jewish New Yorker born to Israeli and Iranian parents, said that growing up, she never understood how people could allow the Holocaust to happen, until she narrowly escaped Hamas’ deadly assault firsthand and personally realized that some of her fellow festival attendees hadn’t made it out alive, and then saw the antisemitic messaging that followed.
“A lot of people ask me if I feel safe now that I’m back in New York. I don’t,” Sanandaji said. “A lot of the things I’ve been hearing and seeing since getting back. A lot of the videos of the protests. These pro-Palestinian protests.
Something I would like to say about that is, whatever side you’re on in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all the power to you. But this is not about Israel-Palestine. This is about Hamas, a terrorist organization who is just as complicit in the deaths of these innocent Palestinians as they are in the deaths of innocent Israelis.”
“People need to understand that this is not about Israel vs. Palestine,” she reiterated. “This is about a terrorist organization attacking the Jews and killing innocent people, killing innocent people at a music festival, killing innocent grandmas who survived the Holocaust, just to be killed by Hamas, burning babies alive.”
“That’s not going to save Palestine,” she added. “That’s not going to free Palestine.” Following the Hamas attack in Israel, there have been a number of demonstrations and incidents around the world.
“The amount of antisemitism I’ve seen in videos since coming back to New York, antisemitism all over Europe and the United States, that scares me more than anything,” said Sanandaji.
“For so long, as a Jew growing up in America, you’re always taught about the Holocaust, and you’re taught about the way our people were treated and the way so many people just stood by and watched as the Holocaust happened.
And you’re taught to never forget. And my whole life, I tried to understand how could — how could the world stand by? How could the world stand by and let that happen? And it’s sad to say that I’m now starting to realize how. And I don’t feel safe.”
