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You’re Not Antisemitic? Sure?
Amelia ‘Amy’ Fuller at a pro-Hamas rally in New York City. Photo: Screenshot
JNS.org – Amid the current debate over whether a new front will open up in Israel’s war against Hamas and its regional allies, it might be observed that this is already happening.
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel, war has been waged on four main fronts. Israel’s campaign of bombing and infantry incursions in the Gaza Strip, and to a lesser extent the West Bank, is the first; Hamas firing volleys of rockets at Israeli population centers is the second; missile attacks from and skirmishes with Hezbollah terrorists on the northern border is the third; the explosion of antisemitic attacks against Jews living outside of Israel’s borders represents the fourth.
This last front is the most vulnerable and unpredictable. Israel’s military might cannot defend Diaspora Jews from vandalism, physical assaults or terrorist attacks. In diplomatic terms, Israel can appeal to foreign governments to intensify efforts to protect their Jewish communities, but not much more. In short, when it comes to Jews in the Diaspora, the Jewish state is more powerless than in any other dimension of this war.
Alongside these outrages is a corresponding political offensive that seeks to delegitimize Jewish fears of antisemitism, recasting them as a sledgehammer response to claims that the Palestinians suffer from apartheid and genocidal policies at the hands of the Israeli government. Central to this strategy is the aim of debunking the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by dozens of governments and hundreds of civic associations around the globe.
As anyone who has followed this dispute in the decade since IHRA adopted the definition knows only too well, its main offense is its inclusion of popular anti-Zionist tropes—for example, that Jews do not constitute a nation and have no right of self-determination, that Israel is a “racist endeavor,” and that Jews are more loyal to Israel than the states of which they are citizens. According to the definition’s opponents, the inclusion of these clauses amounts to blatant censorship of Palestinian rights discourse, since its key terms—racism, apartheid, genocide and so forth—are deemed “anti-Semitic” from the get-go.
An article in the latest issue of the left-wing journal The Nation regurgitates many of the arguments leveled against the IHRA definition by anti-Zionists in the context of the present conflict in Gaza, citing its “weaponization” for the purpose of “McCarthyistic campaigns to silence human-rights advocacy in public and on college campuses.” But rather than counter this set of arguments, which I’ve done a few times before, I want to try a different approach.
Opponents of the IHRA definition often point out they don’t object to the first four examples mentioned in the definition, which relate to classical antisemitism, but to the last seven, which deal with antisemitism in the context of Israel and Zionism. They don’t object to the first four, they say, because they do not dispute that these are examples of genuine Jew-hatred, as opposed to what they allude to as the seven politically manipulative, slyly pro-Israel examples that follow immediately after.
There’s just one problem though: All of those four examples, which ostensibly have nothing to do with Zionism, anti-Zionism or Israel’s existence, are painfully visible in the signs, symbols and slogans of the pro-Hamas protest movement that has mobilized millions of demonstrators in cities around the world.
Example one classifies as antisemitic “[C]alling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.” Most people would think immediately of the Nazis in interpreting this point, but the horrors of Oct. 7, rooted in Islamist hatred of the Jews, are no less pertinent. Hamas murdered more than 1,000 Jews (as well as many non-Jews whose crime was to live or work in the Jewish state) in the worst single burst of antisemitic violence since World War II and the Holocaust.
Of course, Hamas supporters in the West will say that these victims were targeted not as Jews but as “settlers.” The absurdity of this position is revealed by the only conclusion that it can possibly reach: that the SS officer who raped a Jewish woman in Ukraine before shooting her in the back of the head engaged in a criminal, antisemitic act, but the Hamas terrorist who raped a woman in the sands of the Negev before shooting her in the back of the head engaged in an act of “exhilarating” liberation (or, in the minds of Hamas’s more nuanced apologists, a misguided yet historically understandable act of violence.)
Example two says it’s antisemitic to make “mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective—such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.” I’ve lost count, frankly, of the number of social-media posts and TV soundbites over the last 10 weeks that have endorsed precisely this myth for the purpose of explaining why Western countries have failed to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Example three says it’s antisemitic to accuse “Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.” Yet how many synagogues, Jewish schools, kosher restaurants and community centers have been daubed with “Free Palestine” graffiti since Oct. 7? And is that not an example of assigning Jews collective guilt for Israel’s military response? And yes, while the vast majority of Jews support Israel and make no apology for doing so, legally and morally it is an enormous stretch to say they are responsible for the deaths in Gaza. To target Jews because you object to what Israel does is antisemitic in exactly the same way that gunning down Palestinian Americans because of Hamas’s crimes is racist and Islamophobic.
Example four says that it’s antisemitic to deny “the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).” Yet Palestinian leaders—not just Hamas, but even more notoriously Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas—do exactly that, repeatedly and with impunity. Their cruder supporters then go a step further by denying the first Holocaust while wishing for a second one.
The fact that supporters of anti-Zionist mythology can so easily and readily embrace those aspects of antisemitic ideology that predate the State of Israel’s existence underlines that there is no thick red line separating “progressive” anti-Zionism from “reactionary” antisemitism. The two are intimately related, sharing common obsessions about the nature of Jewish power and influence, the false claim of the Jews to be a nation (they are better understood as “parasites” or, if you prefer, “colonists”) and the irredeemably colonial nature of Israel as a state.
Moreover, in the Middle East, anti-Zionism—or “antizionism” as I prefer to dub it—doesn’t restrict itself to political debates about Zionism and Israeli sovereignty but manifests primarily through violence. Given this month’s Harris/Harvard University poll showing that two-thirds of Americans aged 18-24 regard Jews as “oppressors,’ we should be anticipating similar patterns here, too.
The post You’re Not Antisemitic? Sure? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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DC Police End ‘Dangerous Occupation’ of George Washington University by Pro-Hamas Mob
A projection is seen with a picture of US President Joe Biden along with text reading “Genocide Joe” on the wall of the George Washington University during a pro-Hamas protest on campus in Washington, DC, May 7, 2024. Photo: Probal Rashid via Reuters Connect
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of Washington, DC has dispersed an unauthorized demonstration at the George Washington University (GW) in which pro-Hamas protesters commandeered a section of campus and lived there for nearly three weeks.
“This morning, working closely with the GW administration and police, MPD moved to disperse the demonstrators from the GW campus and surrounding streets,” the Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement following the action. “MPD will continue to be supportive of universities and other private entities who need assistance.”
Numerous social media reports indicated that officers arrived on the scene early Wednesday morning, prompting a clash between them and the protesters, many of whom chose to assault the officers or otherwise resist their efforts rather than obey orders to evacuate the area. In response, officers deployed pepper spray and arrested 33 protesters. According to Metropolitan Police, charges have been filed for both assault of an officer and unlawful entry.
MPD’s involvement in restoring order came two days after GW president Ellen Granberg issued a public plea for help in which she explained that the pro-Hamas encampment had “grown into what can only be classified as an illegal and potentially dangerous occupation” of school property. Metropolitan Police had previously denied her request for help in quelling the demonstration, a decision that was excoriated by members of the US Congress and prompted the calling of a hearing on Capitol Hill — which has since been cancelled.
“When protesters overrun barriers established to protect the community, vandalize a university statue and flag, surround and intimidate GW students with antisemitic images and hateful rhetoric, chase people out of a public yard based on their perceived beliefs, and ignore, degrade, and push GW Police officers and university maintenance staff, the protest ceases to be peaceful and productive,” Granberg said. “Finally, it is clear that this is no longer a GW student demonstration. It has been co-opted by individuals who are largely unaffiliated with out community and do not have our community’s best interest in mind.”
Granberg’s fears that outsiders had infiltrated the encampment can be confirmed by The Algemeiner, which accompanied social media influencer and Jewish rights activist Lizzy Savetsky on a walk through it last Friday. Older men — many of whom wore masks to conceal their identities — with body tattoos, as well as other older adults who appeared to be under the influence of drugs, idled inside the encampment. Students there appeared unbathed, and no sanitary facilities were immediately visible.
The group of students and non-students signaled their potentially violent intentions just hours before the police arrived on Wednesday. A crush of them marched to Granberg’s home shouting, “Granberg, we’re at your door, complicity no more.” Standing outside the property for nearly an hour, they clamored for a face-to-face meeting with Granberg, who is Jewish, and demanded that she accept their terms for ending the encampment, which included GW’s adoption of the boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) movement against Israel. Chants of “Guillotine, Guillotine, Guillotine,” an apparent reference to the tens of thousands of people who were beheaded during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, have also been widely reported.
Aside from threats to physical safety, GW students have said that the encampment severely harmed the learning environment, upending the final weeks of the academic year, a time most students spend studying for final exams and writing end-of-term papers.
“Students have been unable to study for finals, and for those who have studied thus far, some professors decided to cancel exams due to the raucous,” senior Sabrina Soffer tweeted on Wednesday, noting that “academic standards are being lowered” because calming the campus “took far too long.”
Soffer continued, “Permission to violate university policies and the law demonstrates weakness — and the impression of weakness is provocative. The lesson learned is that swift and serious action must be taken from the onset to avoid escalation.”
Pro-Hamas demonstrators have tested George Washington University’s will since Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, an event which set off an explosion of antisemitism around the world.
Just weeks after the tragedy, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) projected a series of messages on the eastern perimeter of the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library. They said: “Free Palestine from the river to the sea,” “GW the blood of Palestinians is in your hands,” “Divest from Zionist genocide now,” and “Glory to our martyrs.” The scene attracted dozens of students, Jewish and Muslim, who spectated while the GW Police Department and a campus official negotiated terms for an end to the demonstration.
Students told The Algemeiner at the scene of the incident that the act was laden with symbolism. Before her death in 2009, Estelle Gelman was a GW board of trustees member and board member of the United States Holocaust Museum and other Jewish nonprofits. Her husband, Melvin, was an endowed chair in GW’s Judaic Studies Program.
In April, an SJP spinoff group staged an unprecedented protest of a talk by US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield that was held at the school’s Elliot School of International Affairs. In a pamphlet distributed to everyone who showed up to the event, the students accused Greenfield of being a “puppet,” alluding to the fact that she is a Black woman holding a distinguished presidential appointment. It also compared Greenfield to Black enslaved persons who had been assigned, against their will, to work as overseers of other enslaved persons on cotton plantations.
While the university has suspended SJP for its conduct, the group has continued to operate under new names.
GW has been one of several universities to be engulfed by a wave of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations over the past three weeks, with students and faculty members taking over sections of campuses by setting up “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” and refusing to leave unless administrators condemn and boycott Israel. Footage of the protests has shown demonstrators chanting in support of Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and even threatening to harm members of the Jewish community on campus.
“GW staff have cleared the yard,” the university said in a statement issued after the last of the encampment tents were cleared from University Yard on Wednesday. “During this time, given heightened safety concerns related to the recent illegal demonstrations as well as the ongoing exams, all activities, including activities of free expression on campus, will require reservation through the Division for Student Affairs. In addition, no sound amplification will be permitted for such events on campus.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post DC Police End ‘Dangerous Occupation’ of George Washington University by Pro-Hamas Mob first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Robert Kraft Foundation Has Message for Anti-Israel Campus Demonstrators With NBA Playoffs TV Ad: ‘Don’t Bring Hate’
Robert Kraft. Photo: New England Patriots/Wikimedia Commons
An advertisement purchased by Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) that aired on Tuesday night during an NBA playoff game urged students protesting the Israel-Hamas war on college and university campuses across the US to leave antisemitism out of their demonstrations.
“Scream until you’re red in the face. But don’t scream at the Jewish kid walking to class,” stated the 30-second ad that aired during the NBA game between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Threaten to change history, but don’t threaten your Jewish neighbor. Draw a line in the sand, but don’t draw a swastika. Because bringing more hate to anyone brings more hate to everyone.”
The ad also featured photos from various anti-Israel protests that began after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel. Images shown in the video included burnt Israeli flags and banners held by protesters that read “Hitler should have killed the Jews” and “stuff some into the oven,” a reference to the gas chambers used at Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. The video ended with the message “Don’t bring hate to the protests” and displayed the blue square emoji that is the icon for the foundation’s StandUpToJewishHate campaign.
Kraft, the Jewish owner of the New England Patriots, started the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in 2019. FCAS purchased a Super Bowl ad and an ad that aired during the Academy Awards this year to also highlight the rise in antisemitism.
Kraft was a graduate of Columbia University and a major donor to the New York school until April, when he announced that he would pull his funding over the treatment of Jewish students and faculty at the campus during pro-Hamas protests.
Kraft penned an op-ed for the New York Post in April in which he expressed profound disappointment for the situation taking place at Columbia and how Jewish students are being targeted by anti-Israel student protesters. “The Columbia I loved is no longer a place I know,” he said.
Kraft also wrote an open letter recently in which he condemned antisemitism taking place at universities and colleges across the US, and criticized faculty at those schools for not doing more to protect their Jewish student body. He also said people on campus who intimate and attack their Jewish peers need to be held accountable and “cannot be pardoned for what they have done.”
“The leadership and faculty of so many of our leading educational institutions have failed their students,” he wrote. “Shouting vile, hate filled labels at students while hiding behind masks is not free speech — it is cowardice. Instead of colleges and universities teaching the core principles of free speech and debate our country was founded on, they are emboldening hate that is tearing their campuses, and our youth apart.”
He concluded by saying: “I encourage our nation’s university leaders to act with courage and wisdom so that knowledge, not hate, is what is being produced on our nation’s campuses.” The open letter was also published as a full-page ad in several newspapers.
Watch the latest ad by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism below.
The post Robert Kraft Foundation Has Message for Anti-Israel Campus Demonstrators With NBA Playoffs TV Ad: ‘Don’t Bring Hate’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Ezra Shanken, the CEO of Vancouver’s Jewish Federation, explains why he skipped the provincial commemoration of Yom HaShoah
The heart of any community is its safety and security. The Jewish community is no different. If any one community lacks this most basic right, then no community can expect to thrive fully. As a Federation CEO, ensuring community safety and security, now and in the future, is at the core of what we do. […]
The post Ezra Shanken, the CEO of Vancouver’s Jewish Federation, explains why he skipped the provincial commemoration of Yom HaShoah appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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