As billions of Christians worldwide observed Easter on Sunday, anti-Israel activists seized the opportunity to hijack the celebrations. In New York City, an Easter service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral was interrupted by protesters holding a banner and shouting “Free Palestine.” Oregon Senator Jeff Markey took to X to post, “On this Easter, let’s ponder Netanyahu’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza,” drawing pushback for seeming to play off the historical antisemitic deicide trope, which has long incited violence against Jews. In the Spanish town of León, a “Kill Jews” cocktail was created to mark the holiday.

In the United States this week, a Philadelphia-area synagogue was vandalized with a swastika. In the predominately-Jewish Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, where the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue attack occurred, multiple “We Stand with Israel” lawn signs were defaced with painted bloody hands. In Teaneck, New Jersey, anti-Israel demonstrators targeted a synagogue hosting an event commemorating Israelis murdered by Hamas on October 7th. In California, a Berkeley City Council meeting discussion on a Holocaust Remembrance Day resolution was disrupted by anti-Israel protesters who heckled a Holocaust survivor, laughed at a mother complaining about antisemitism her young child faced at school, and referred to Jews as “Zionist pigs.”

In Israel, there were multiple Islamist-inspired terrorist attacks over the past week. Three Israelis were wounded when school buses and other cars were shot at near the town of al-Auja, north of Jericho. Three other Israelis were seriously injured in a terrorist stabbing spree at a mall in Gan Yavne. At the main Beersheba bus station, an IDF officer was lightly injured in a separate stabbing attack.

In Europe, a Dutch rabbi was assaulted as he left a Utrecht synagogue. In the United Kingdom, former Labour Party leader and current MP Jeremy Corbyn accused Israel of perpetrating genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Also, British and Irish grocery stores carrying Israeli goods were targeted by BDS supporters, who placed stickers saying “This Product Supports Genocide” on the items.

Across the globe, numerous ralliers were held by anti-Israel demonstrators to commemorate “Land Day,” with protests taking place in the United States, Brazil, Chile, United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, and New Zealand. 

This week’s Global Antisemitism Report highlights 140 new incidents, categorized as follows: 120 (85.7%) as anti-Israel or anti-Zionist manifestations of antisemitism, 11 (7.9%) as Islamist, 7 (5.0%) as classical antisemitism, 1 (0.7%) as Holocaust minimization and distortion, and 1 (0.7%) as unattributable.