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After Oct. 7, hate-speech laws looked like the answer. Europe shows why they aren’t

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas carried out the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, recording the horrors and sharing them online. The attack triggered a bloody Israeli invasion of Gaza that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. It also had immediate consequences far beyond the region.

In Canada, Jewish communities experienced what Deborah Lyons, the former Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, called an “unprecedented wave” of antisemitism involving “harassment, intimidation, threats of violence” and a near tripling of hate crimes. In Europe, pro-Palestinian demonstrations were marred by antisemitic chants. In Berlin, a synagogue was attacked with firebombs while Stars of David were scrawled on apartments housing Jews, reminiscent of Nazi intimidation.

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