Yamhill County, OR. — A leftist political group in Yamhill County, Progressive Yamhill, is promoting a “Signwave for Palestine” event in Newberg. The visuals and framing raise substantive issues around linking support for Palestinians with rejection of “white supremacy,” a framing derived from post-colonial and critical theory frameworks. Both of which have deep connections to far-left ideology and pursue overtly political goals and amid a documented rise in antisemitism and violence against Jews in the United States and abroad.
The event was promoted by Progressive Yamhill. Promotional materials paired “Free Palestine” messaging with the phrase “Newberg Rejects White Supremacy,” without defining the term or distinguishing between Israeli government policy, Zionism, or Jewish identity.
Ideological framework
Post-colonial theory and critical theory analyze politics through what they classify as structures of domination and power, often using binaries such as colonizer/colonized or oppressor/oppressed. Seminal works include Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961) and Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978). Critical theory, associated with origins in the Frankfurt School, similarly emphasizes systemic power rather than individual intent.
In activist settings, these frameworks are frequently translated into simplified political language and used to position activists as members or allies of the oppressed with their political opposition as the oppressor. Within that lens, Israel is typically characterized as a “settler-colonial” or Western-aligned state, while Palestinians are framed as an indigenous or colonized population. The term “white supremacy” is often used broadly to denote global systems of “Western dominance”, rather than the ideology of racial extremism as defined in U.S. law enforcement contexts.
Jewish public opinion and Zionism
Survey research complicates the application of U.S. racial categories to Jewish identity. The Jewish People Policy Institute reports that roughly 70–80% of Jews surveyed identify as Zionist or express a positive connection to Zionism (JPPI, Voice of the Jewish People, 2024–2025). Scholars note that Zionism, for many Jews, denotes support for Jewish national self-determination rather than a racial ideology, and that equating Jews or Zionism with “white supremacy” risks collective attribution of guilt to a religious and ethno-cultural group. Sources grounded in Critical Theory themselves, like Brodkin and Alcoff‘s work, struggle with classifying Jews using their concept of whiteness. Psychologist and Senior Fellow at the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) Dr. Pamela Paresky discusses the Critical Theory framework and its approach to Jews, highlighting the moral inversion of accusing “Zionists”, Jews, of enacting “white supremacy”.
In the critical social justice paradigm, that is how Jews are viewed. Jews, who have never been seen as white by those for whom being white is a moral good, are now seen as white by those for whom whiteness is an unmitigated evil. This reflects the nature of antisemitism: No matter the grievance or the identity of the aggrieved, Jews are held responsible. Critical race theory does not merely make it easy to demonize Jews using the language of social justice; it makes it difficult not to.
Simply put, the ‘critical social justice’ movement, informed by critical theory, represents an assault not just on core concepts of liberal democracy, but also on the epistemology that undergirds it.
Critical social justice is not an extension of liberal or progressive politics, or even a critique of such politics. It is, as its more sophisticated proponents readily admit, a form of anti-liberalism.
Violence and intimidation linked to Gaza-related mobilization
The debate over language occurs alongside documented violent attacks and intimidation targeting Jews, some perpetrated by individuals citing Gaza or “Free Palestine” motivations:
- United States: Federal prosecutors have charged suspects in multiple antisemitic attacks and plots since October 2023 in which assailants referenced Gaza or acted at Jewish institutions amid protests. Law enforcement bulletins and court filings describe incidents ranging from assaults near demonstrations to threats against synagogues and Jewish community centers (U.S. DOJ filings; Reuters reporting 2023–2025).
- Europe and Canada: Authorities in France, Germany, the U.K., and Canada have reported arson attacks on synagogues, assaults on visibly Jewish individuals, and vandalism following Gaza protests, with suspects in several cases citing the conflict as justification (Reuters; national police statements).
- Campus and street violence: Independent monitoring organizations have documented cases where pro-Gaza demonstrations escalated into physical confrontations involving Jewish students or counter-protesters, alongside reports of intimidation and property damage (ADL; CST; university police reports).
While most Gaza-related demonstrations are non-violent, security agencies and researchers emphasize that a subset of incidents has involved explicit targeting of Jews as Jews, rather than criticism of Israeli policy.
Antisemitism in Oregon
Oregon data show a significant rise in antisemitic incidents. The Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic incidents in Oregon more than tripled from 2022 to 2023, consistent with national trends following October 7. Oregon Department of Justice bias-crime reporting similarly documents increased anti-Jewish bias incidents and hate crimes in the same period.
Scholars of antisemitism caution that rhetoric portraying Jews as agents of systemic or global oppression can act as a social signal that normalizes hostility, particularly in environments already experiencing elevated antisemitic activity (IHRA Working Definition, 2016; Fine & Spencer, 2017). The concern is not criticism of Israeli policy, political speech is protected from government interference by the first amendment, but language that collapses distinctions between a state, a political ideology, and Jewish identity.
Ongoing conflict context
The Newberg event also follows continued instability after ceasefire announcements in Gaza. Reuters has reported repeated claims and counterclaims of ceasefire violations by Israel and Hamas, with attribution often disputed and conditions changing rapidly. Analysts note that such volatility complicates absolutist protest messaging that treats the conflict as static or morally unidimensional.
Local implications
Progressive Yamhill has not publicly clarified how it defines “white supremacy” or its role in / connection to the event, the event organizers are not clearly identified, or how it distinguishes between Israeli government actions and Jewish identity. The episode reflects a broader pattern in which academic frameworks developed for scholarly analysis are condensed into activist slogans, sometimes producing real-world consequences in communities already facing rising antisemitism and documented acts of violence.
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