Governor fired staff member for online posts. Why that was the right thing to do. | Opinion

Joel Hellmann ran for lieutenant governor in 2018 as a moderate and has been active in politics for 30 years.

Miguel Sanchez deserved to lose his job as a staff member of Gov. Dan McKee's constituent affairs office, not as he claimed for a political disagreement with the governor, but for using genocidal hate speech and bragging about it on social media.

I taught the history of anti-Semitism for two years. I have faced anti-Semitism since I was beaten up in the first grade because our teacher told the class that Jews killed Jesus.

Mr. Sanchez does not know the meaning of the word "genocide," which he bandies about often. Here is the textbook definition:

"Genocide: The deliberate killing or severe mistreatment of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group."

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Note the word "deliberate." If Israel were trying to commit genocide, then all the Palestinians would be dead long ago. Instead, the Palestinian population has more than doubled in 20 years. If Israel is genocidal, they are very bad at it.

The Israelis have the capacity to do so. They have been subject to plenty of provocation. Instead, Israel has tried to warn innocents away from danger for decades. There is no aim to destroy the Palestinians, never has been. Israel wants the terrorism to stop, and they have offered a two-state solution multiple times, but the Palestinians refused.

What IS genocide is Hamas and its charter calling for Palestine to be "free from the river to the sea," which they proudly state means the death to all Jews in Israel, and in fact everywhere. This chant was uttered at our State House last month, by the Democratic Socialists including Mr. Sanchez, who boasted about it repeatedly on social media, accusing Israel of what Hamas wants to do. That is hate speech.

The chant was a variation of Hitler's answer to the Jewish "problem." When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 he stated to his advisers “that Europe would be free of Jews from the Atlantic to the Baltic to the Mediterranean Sea.”

The state of Rhode Island should not tolerate hate speech in any employee calling for the death of a minority group. It incites violence and no one holding such views and spouting them should be tolerated in state government. And Governor McKee acted appropriately under the circumstances. I would imagine the governor would respond similarly to a white nationalist calling for the death of African Americans. I have worked for 20 organizations. If I ever wrote something supporting genocide I would expect to be fired immediately.

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As a Jew who has 20+ relatives who live between the river and the sea, I speak for many in this state who have family in Israel when I say that someone who boasts about and encourages genocide deserves to be fired. Mr. Sanchez called for the death of my family.

But Mr. Sanchez is ignorant of the history of anti-Semitism. That is not his fault. They don't teach it in schools. Why should they? It's not on the standardized tests. The Rhode Island Department of Education should look into this given what is going on.

Anti-Semitism is worse now than ever in my life. In the UK, MP Andy McDonald was suspended from the Labour Party for saying “free from the river to the sea,” exactly what Mr. Sanchez chanted and praised on the internet.

Governor McKee has no problem with different views, but somewhere the line must be drawn. Calling for genocide seems like a good place to draw it.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Governor McKee has no problem with different views, but somewhere the line must be drawn.