Something has been bothering me all day. A good friend of mine, who is Jewish, noticed that a friend of hers had posted that Observer article about Israel and vaccination for Palestinians, whose headline was basically a version of the blood libel.

#Antisemitism

Another mutual friend of theirs, who is not Jewish, also noticed, and responded to the post with several well-reasoned points and links.

My Jewish friend was understandably upset about the post. The poster is someone who is extremely popular within their social circle and it's not the first time this has happened. In fact it has happened a lot for her as most of her friend set is left wing.

She commented on the post in an angry tone. Understandable, for someone who experiencing racism, especially from one of her friends.

But what happened next was that my Jewish friend got defriended, and the non-Jewish one didn't. Why?

Because the racism upset her, it gave her 'friend' the perfect excuse to cast her off, while the person who wasn't as strongly affected by the racism was 'kept', ostensibly because she didn't get angry.

This is how Jewish people become outcasts when we speak out about the hatred we face. Why should we have to be 'reasonable' about something that is deeply upsetting to us?

There is nothing OK about being cast out for losing our cool, but our feelings are used as an excuse against us by people pretending to be the reasonable ones.

We have every right to be upset when we face racism. We have every right to be angry.

Those who would have you think otherwise should be the outcasts, not us. Stand up for yourself.