Death Wishes

An antisemitic death wish is an ultimate form of a threat or curse, by virtue of an explicit, implicit, violent or non-violent reference to the death or destruction of Jews or Israelis, with the possible target also being the State of Israel or Zionism. Threats and curses express the suggestion or wish that something detrimental will, or should, happen to Jews. While they can encompass a broad range of unfavourable circumstances or incidents, death wishes refer specifically to the extreme end of the spectrum. All three of these categories can express their meaning violently, meeting the criteria of affirming, calling for and desiring violence. However, non-violent death wishes, constructed through linguistic strategies such as allusions or humour, tend to be more socially tolerable or acceptable and not recognised as hate speech and therefore more likely to evade detection in mainstream discourses—by both moderators and other web users.