A video that surfaced Wednesday, more than a year after a meeting of the Washington State Human Rights Commission, made a splash when a human rights commissioner complained about Jews.

Commissioner Luc fils Jasmin, a pastor from Spokane who had been appointed by then-governor Jay Inslee, questioned the need to define antisemitism.

“This word antisemitism has been around since the Jews got trampled by Hitler, and it seems like the Jewish people keep on crying, and crying, and crying and crying, always crying over the antisemitism,” Jasmin said. “Today, there are many other groups who are subject to mistreatment, or even subject to mistreatment by the Jewish, and they’re not crying so much. Why is antisemitism carrying on until the century 2000, and everybody’s folding down to that?”

“Wherever I’ve been throughout my life, it’s Jewish always crying, and now they’re trying to get the Human Rights Commission to write special conditions for them,” he added, repeatedly using the word “Jewish” as a noun rather than an adjective.

“We are under duress,” he declared dramatically.

His comments were so egregious that another commissioner, known for her anti-Israel activity on social media, pushed back hard.

“We’re not under duress or anything like that,” Commissioner Han Tran fired back. She then explained that the commission had consulted with “local Jewish scholars to provide input on how they frame antisemitism” to ensure the commissioners understood “what antisemitism really means.”

Jasmin had a problem with that, saying he wanted a resolution for “these people the Jewish are killing by the millions over there, the Palestinians and the Arabs.”

When Tran pointed out that the commission had already adopted a resolution against anti-Arab violence, Jasmin said, “The Arabs was really being attacked and that was the right resolution, but the Jewish are attacking people and that’s different.”

Tran said that Jasmin’s comments showed why the need to define antisemitism is important, and she warned him not to conflate all Jewish people with the Israeli government.

“People need to understand that it is the Israeli government that is attacking,” she said. “I think it would be false to say that Jewish people are attacking.”

The previous chair of the commission, Jeff Sbaih, cautioned that antisemitism is rising.

“It’s getting worse,” he said. “We are entrusted with enforcing the discrimination law, to investigate the discrimination and to root it out.”

Ultimately, the commission adopted a resolution defining antisemitism in April 2025, defining it as discrimination against Jews but adding that criticism of the Israeli government does not constitute antisemitism.