During a Washington State Human Rights Commission meeting, Commissioner Luc fils Jasmin, a Spokane pastor appointed by then-Gov. Jay Inslee in June 2023, accused Jews of complaining excessively about antisemitism and asserted that Jews were “killing millions” of Palestinians.

The remarks were made during a commission meeting on March 27, 2025. Although meeting minutes were posted shortly afterward, video of the meeting was not uploaded to the commission’s YouTube channel until Wednesday, more than a year later.

As commissioners debated a proposed resolution condemning antisemitism, Jasmin, whose term on the commission ends in June 2028, questioned why the commission was considering the measure.

“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?”

He added 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.”

“We are under duress,” he said.

Commissioner Han Tran, who also serves on the Northshore School District Board of Directors and has a history of anti-Israel social media activity, pushed back on the characterization.

“We’re not under duress or anything like that,” Tran said.

She added that she had consulted with “local Jewish scholars to provide input on how they frame antisemitism” and said commissioners wanted to ensure they understood “what antisemitism really means.”

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

Han, whose term on the commission ends on June 17, noted that the commission had previously adopted a resolution condemning anti-Arab discrimination, to which Jasmin replied, “The Arabs was really being attacked and that was the right resolution, but the Jewish are attacking people and that’s different.”

Tran said Jasmin’s comments illustrated why a definition of antisemitism is important.

“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.”

Commission Chair Jeff Sbaih, an attorney whose term expired in June 2025, said antisemitism “has never gone away” and warned that anti-Jewish hatred was increasing.

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

Created by the Washington State Legislature in 1949, the commission is responsible for enforcing the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

On April 17, 2025, the commission unanimously adopted a resolution condemning antisemitism, defining it as discrimination against Jews, but also stating that “criticism of Israeli policies, opposition to Zionism or advocacy for Palestinian human rights do not inherently constitute antisemitism.”

JNS sought comment from the commission and from Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson.