In October 2018, Tonge faced calls to resign over a post she made on Facebook in the aftermath of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, in which she claimed that the Israeli government's actions towards Palestinians may have contributed to a rise in anti-Semitism. Tonge made a similar comment in January 2021 during a House of Lords debate concerning rising anti-Semitic incidents in universities, saying "The victims are innocent Jewish people—students, in this case. They are victims because of the illegal actions of the Israeli government."