“When I do feel that I’m right, I’m not much bothered by criticism,” she added. “Who has ever stood up against injustice without being criticized? If that’s all I have to endure, then it’s very little.”
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What Being a Zionist Student Leader at Clark University Has Taught Me
Illustrative: May 1, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; A flag is waved during a sit-in outside of a pro-Palestinian encampment at the campus of UCLA. Violence broke out early in the morning at the encampment, hours after the university declared that the camp “is unlawful and violates university policy.” Photo: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
During my four years as a student at Clark University, I have witnessed numerous episodes of blatant hostility and hatred towards Israel, both inside and outside of the classroom.
In response, my fellow Zionist students and I used our voices to combat this rhetoric, yet we found ourselves to be standing alone. This experience has shown me that being an active Zionist student leader has essentially functioned as a substitute for institutional responsibility, stepping in to challenge misinformation and misconduct in spaces where faculty and administrators either cannot or will not intervene.
When I first arrived on campus in the Fall of 2022, I knew that campus anti-Zionism was an issue across the country. Besides the occasional “Free Palestine” sticker on a student’s laptop, however, I was relieved to find that this was not a major issue at Clark.
That all changed after October 7, 2023. Israeli hostage flyers that my friends and I put up around campus were torn down, students chanted “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution” at a protest in the middle of campus, and hateful notes were written on a white board outside of a Jewish student’s dorm room.
The response from the University? A single statement condemning antisemitism and Islamophobia that emphasized a need for mutual respect and understanding, and a reminder about the school’s Bias Incident Reporting System that I have yet to observe produce any meaningful results.
Numerous on-campus events have reflected this sentiment. In late November 2023, Clark’s Middle Eastern and North African Students Association held a “Palestine Teach-In” with alumni who use their platform to deny the Jewish connection to Israel and recommend students follow pro-Palestine Instagram accounts that openly support Hamas. No attempts have been made by any University department or office to offer events with more diversity of thought.
Another consequential instance of administrative passivity occurred when a Clark Undergraduate Student Council referendum in support of BDS was approved by the student body in April of 2024. Our Hillel was the only organization seeking to educate students on why BDS is harmful. It was during this time of intense debate over the referendum that I was harassed by several members of the Scarlet, Clark’s student-run newspaper.
These student-journalists attacked me on the Scarlet’s official Discord, claiming I was “not that bright” for supporting Israel and calling me “hella Zionist,” all while advocating for other students to “keep bullying” me.
In response, I filed a bias report and met with the associate Dean of Students, who told me that the incident would be dealt with. Following the meeting, I never received any communication regarding the status of the incident. From that moment on, I realized that the only people actively challenging anti-Zionism on campus were us students.
These experiences reflect a broader institutional pattern of faculty abusing their professorial power to demonize Israel without consequences, perhaps most famously at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. It took the public resignation of the Center’s executive director for the University to even acknowledge the possibility that instances of intimidation and harassment had been taking place.
Even just last week, when I organized a tabling event of testimonies of October 7 survivors with 2025 Miss Israel winner Melanie Shiraz, we were met with numerous hateful comments and gestures, including being called Nazis on the anonymous social media app Fizz.
For the University to condemn this blatant Holocaust inversion would be the bare minimum, but after what I have seen over the past four years, I’m not getting my hopes up.
In response to this rhetoric, as vice president and later president of our Hillel, I used my platform to host numerous educational events on understanding contemporary antisemitism, the geopolitics of the Middle East, and how to effectively talk about Israel.
In spite of our efforts, these events simply do not have the same reach as ones sponsored by academic departments or the University itself. It almost feels as if the task of educating others has been placed on me, rather than on the institution whose mission is to “advance the frontiers of knowledge and understanding.”
As I prepare to graduate in the coming weeks, it fills me with disappointment that despite my efforts, Zionist students and staff remain the ones confronting unabashed hatred towards Israel due to the failure of administration. But I have already seen that my fellow students and I have inspired a new generation that is more willing to challenge misinformation, and more dedicated to holding those in positions of authority accountable.
Jacob Vetstein is a fourth-year Political Science major at Clark University and a 2025-2026 CAMERA Fellow. Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CAMERA.
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Sally Rooney to Publish Hebrew Translation of Latest Book With Pro-BDS Israeli Publisher
Author Sally Rooney in an interview with “PBS NewsHour.” Photo: Screenshot.
Award-winning Irish author Sally Rooney will publish a Hebrew translation of her latest novel, Intermezzo, through an independent Israeli publishing house that supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, it was announced on Tuesday.
According to its website, November Books aims to “promote the full realization of human rights … and in particular for Palestinians living under all forms of Israeli oppression including the military occupation.” The Israeli publishing house said it is also “committed to the idea, in line with Palestinian and democratic voices in Israel, that Israel should not be a Jewish state but rather a state of all its citizens and recognize the right of return as it was accepted by the UN. We strongly oppose any form of inequality and apartheid.”
November Books will publish the Hebrew translation of Intermezzo in collaboration with +972 Magazine and Local Call, two independent Israeli news outlets. Translated by Debbie Eylon and edited by Asaf Schurr, it will be published in June “in a way that honors the principles of the boycott and stands in solidarity with the Palestinian demand for freedom, equality, and justice,” +972 Magazine executive director Haggai Matar wrote on Tuesday in an op-ed announcing the news. The novel, published in 2024, focuses on two brothers following the death of their father, and it explores themes of grief, love, and family.
In 2021, Rooney announced she would only allow her third book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, to be translated to Hebrew through a publishing house that complies with the BDS movement’s “institutional boycott guidelines” against Israel. The 35-year-old author said she does not want to partner with an Israeli company “that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid and support the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people.”
At the time, Rooney had already published Hebrew translations of two of her novels — 2017’s Conversations With Friends and 2018’s Normal People – with the Israeli publishing house Modan, but refused to let them translate Beautiful World, Where Are You.
BDS seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. Leaders of the movement have repeatedly stated their goal is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.
Rooney spoke this week to The Guardian and attempted to explain her position.
“For me, the act of translation is in itself a beautiful ideal,” she said. “Though my refusal to work with complicit Israeli publishing houses made the contractual side of things more complex, I was, of course, never boycotting the Hebrew language or any language.”
Last year, Rooney said she would give proceeds from her books and BBC adaptations of them to support Palestine Action, an anti-Israel group designated as a terrorist organization in the United Kingdom.
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For Israel, the Accusation Itself Becomes Proof
People attend the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) rally in London, Britain, March 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
A dangerous shift happens when people stop feeling responsible for verifying what they believe. The accusation itself becomes enough. Once institutions repeat something with enough confidence, many decent people hand over their judgment completely. They assume somebody else has already checked the facts.
That is where real danger begins.
A case is being built against Israel in international courts, and much of the public discussion around it already feels emotionally settled long before most people have examined a single document, testimony, or legal standard for themselves.
The International Court of Justice has no meaningful conflict-of-interest mechanism comparable to what people would expect in many domestic legal systems. UN reports and secondary claims enter public discourse carrying the weight of institutional authority, even when the underlying sources were never cross-examined or independently verified in a courtroom setting.
At a certain point, the accusation itself becomes proof.
That pattern extends far beyond a courtroom. Perception gets taken over before a person realizes his or her thinking has been outsourced. Repetition creates familiarity. Familiarity creates emotional certainty. Eventually people stop asking where the information came from in the first place.
Jewish history carries enough experience with this pattern to recognize it early. A claim repeated often enough starts feeling like an established truth even before evidence exists to support it.
Once institutions absorb the accusation, the public no longer experiences skepticism as responsibility. Skepticism starts feeling like disobedience.
Artificial intelligence is about to accelerate this problem even further. AI systems absorb dominant narratives faster than human beings can examine them critically. Once a version of events becomes widely indexed, cited, repeated, and emotionally reinforced, it enters the system as background truth. The next generation encounters conclusions first and context later.
That matters because most people do not independently investigate history, legal claims, or war. They inherit understanding socially. Search engines shape it. Institutions shape it. Algorithms shape it. Repetition shapes it.
The responsibility for your own safety begins before the threat fully arrives. Physical self-defense taught me that years ago. Cognitive self-defense follows the same principle. A society that loses the ability to question emotionally satisfying accusations becomes vulnerable to manipulation at a scale far larger than any courtroom.
People once understood that serious accusations required serious proof. Today, institutional confidence often replaces evidence in the public mind. That shift should concern anyone who still believes good intentions alone are enough to protect people from participating in injustice.
Tsahi Shemesh is an Israeli-American IDF veteran and the founder of Krav Maga Experts in NYC. A father and educator, he writes about Jewish identity, resilience, moral courage, and the ethics of strength in a time of rising antisemitism.
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Fatah Turned 388 Terrorists Into Its Leaders at Its 8th General Conference
A meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council at the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank, July 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.
The Eighth Fatah Conference continued to glorify past Palestinian terrorist murderers while building the next generation of terrorist leadership.
PA and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas decided that all prisoners who were incarcerated for more than 20 years — meaning those who were guilty of murder or attempted murder — automatically would become part of the Palestinian leadership and thus were able to participate and vote at the conference, which took place this past weekend.
The consequence of this is that a total of 388 Palestinians, who as prisoners were presented as role models, just transitioned into becoming PA leaders.
A senior Fatah youth leader described the importance: “We have a great opportunity as Fatah youth … to learn from them.”
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has shown repeatedly exactly how the PA and Fatah, as policy, portray murderers of Jews as role models for all Palestinians, and especially youth:
Official PA TV newsreader: “The prisoners [i.e., terrorists] will also have prominent representation in the [Eighth Fatah] Conference, there will be participation of more than 388 prisoners who have served more than 20 years in the occupation’s [i.e., Israeli] prisons…”
Fatah Shabiba Youth Movement Secretariat member Tasami Ramadan: “The participation of the [released] prisoners this time in this conference… is a very qualitative addition... seeing this qualitative and special addition that our released prisoners will contribute, as they are not just released prisoners and we cannot summarize them only as such.
They are also [figures] of national stature and national pillars who have outlined the characteristics of Fatah’s path, and they are also spiritual and organizational pillars. We have a great opportunity as Fatah youth … to learn from them and to be their partners in building Fatah’s political decision.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV News, May 8, 2026]
A Fatah spokesman further legitimized the participation of released terrorists in Fatah’s leadership conference as they “precede everything” and are held “in highest regard:”
Fatah Spokesman and Eighth Fatah Conference preparatory committee member Iyad Abu Zneit: “The composition of the [Eighth Fatah] Conference is diverse and rich … Of course, the released prisoners [are also represented], as they precede everything.
I will emphasize that the leadership insisted on there being broad representation for the [released] prisoners at this conference… The group of prisoners that these ones represent from among those in the Fatah Movement also constitutes a significant number [of members], a large number, who have their own role, and we hold them in the highest regard. They have the right to be partners in Fatah, in the [Fatah] Revolutionary Council, in the leadership of the [Fatah] Central Committee, and in any place they can reach.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, May 6, 2026]
PMW exposed last week that among the Fatah members at the Eighth General Conference and those running for Fatah leadership positions are released prisoners responsible for the murder of 75 people while some of the most venerated figures at the conference included arch-terrorist murderers Abu Iyad, who planned the Munich Olympics massacre, and Abu Jihad, who was responsible for the murder of 125 people.
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.