The words “I Want Jexit!” were spray-painted in front of two businesses in Washington, D.C. on Friday morning.
The aforementioned words were found in yellow spray-paint in front of Shalom Tire and Auto Repair in northeast D.C. as well as in front of a construction company that hasn’t been publicly identified as of publication time:
UPDATE/HATE CRIME: Wait…there’s more. I saw a total of three “I want jexit” anti-Semitic messages along Brentwood Rd. The second is outside of a co. that provides construction materials. (see previous tweet). #GetUpDC #DC #NE @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/ospcl7IcIW
— Mikea Turner NBC12 (@MikeaNBC12) January 18, 2019
A spokesperson’s for D.C.’s Fifth District Metropolitan Police Department, told the local D.C. news website Hillrag that the word “Jexit” has been appearing as graffiti at multiple locations in D.C.
“At this time, there is no consensus on what it means, or whether it is motivated by hate,” the spokesperson said.
One such prior instance occurred in December, when the same words were spray-painted in the same yellow paint on the American Federation for Teachers (AFT) headquarters in D.C.
“Defacing our community with hateful rhetoric is meant to intimidate, otherize and sow fear, and to divide our community and make people feel unsafe and unwelcome where they live and work,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement at the time. “But this type of hate crime does just the opposite: It mobilizes us to come together and unite around the common causes of tolerance and peace, and to continue fighting for a more inclusive, more just world.”
“Jexit” is frequently used on anti-Semitic websites as a slur; it’s an apparent shorthand for “Jew exit,” based on the term “Brexit.”
