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The New Anti-Antisemitism: The response to college protests against the war on Gaza exemplifies the darkness of the Trumpocene.

Cops and others attack protestors. 

MOST CAMPUS PROTESTERS AREN’T EXTREMISTS, BUT THE EXTREMISTS HAVE SEIZED THE NARRATIVE, THANKS TO THE MEDIA

  

 

 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/most-campus-protesters-arent-extremists-but-the-extremists-have-seized-the-narrative-thanks-to-the-media

 

MOST CAMPUS PROTESTERS AREN’T EXTREMISTS, BUT THE EXTREMISTS HAVE SEIZED THE NARRATIVE, THANKS TO THE MEDIA

 

By Peter Dreier

On our blog. 

 

It is hard to find an objective analysis of the ongoing student protests about Israel and Palestine – which so far have taken place on over 50 campuses and led to over 2,000 arrests --  or the wider war that has provoked the demonstrations. Here are some thoughts:  

 

1. Most of the student protesters want an end to the horrific violence and violations of basic human rights (housing, health care, food) that they see on TV and on social media every day. 

 

2. Most protesters don’t support Hamas (a theocratic, anti-women and anti-LGBTQ terrorist organization) or want to see  the mass murder or exile of Israeli Jews. Still, a small fraction of protesters do support Hamas.  For example, when the  national office of Students for Justice in Palestine called Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel "a historic win for the Palestinian resistance," and when 34 Harvard student organizations issued a joint statement saying they "hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence," that can reasonably be interpreted as support for Hamas.  These views are often what the media reports and what gets the headlines. Most news outlets, particularly TV, are suckers for extremism. 

 

3.  Most of the protesters want an end to the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and to Israel’s widespread discrimination against its Palestinian citizens. They want equality and peaceful co-existence between Jews and Palestinians. They want Netanyahu gone, but they don’t know enough about Israeli politics to know what kind of government might replace him and his government. They don’t have clear or well-reasoned thoughts on the end-game, such as what to do when the Gaza war is over. But neither do most well-informed experts. I favor a two-state solution and many of the protesters I’ve talked to share some vague idea that this would be a good idea, but they don’t understand much about Israel-Palestine history or the real options. They don't know about the Israeli peace movement or groups like Standing Together, founded by Israeli Jews and Palestinians to work toward mutual understand, justice, and peace. They don't understand the geo-politics of the Middle East and what it would take to forge a real peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians that would require pressure from other Arab governments, the US, the EU, and the UN to allow self-governance for both Jews and Palestinians. 

 

 

4.  I don’t deny the existence of campus anti-Semitism nor do I deny that it has been increasing.  Anti-Semitism is not the same as anti-Zionism, but sometimes the two overlap.  When Jewish students hear slogans like “intifada forever,”  “Zionists don’t belong here,” or  “Settlers, Settlers Go Back Home,  Palestine Is Ours Alone,”  they aren’t unreasonable to view them as attacks on Jews.  When protesters tell Jewish students to “go back to Poland,” when they see swastikas on campus buildings, or view the poster of UC-Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chermininsky that calls him a “Zionist” and depicts him with flood on his knife and folks “while Gaza starves,” they recognize it as anti-Jewish bigotry.  Such incidents  only have to happen once and they can be hard to forget. 

 

More: 

 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/most-campus-protesters-arent-extremists-but-the-extremists-have-seized-the-narrative-thanks-to-the-media

 

 

 

Who Created the Israel-Palestine Conflict?

Who Created the Israel-Palestine Conflict?: It wasn’t really Jews or Palestinians. It was the U.S. Congress, which closed American borders 100 years ago this month.

Its Hard to Write This e mail

 

This email is hard to write. Last weekend, my husband and I joined the anti-war encampment at Washington University in St. Louis to support students protesting their university’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. When the University called in armed police officers to violently break up what had been a very calm, even festive, gathering on the University lawn; my husband and I were both arrested.  In addition to the arrest, my husband, Steve Tamari, a 65-year old history professor, was also brutally beaten by four police officers for filming the arrests of students. Horrifying footage shows him slammed to the ground, then dragged away while his body remains limp, before officers callously drop him on his injured ribs with his hands tied behind his back. My husband returned home from the hospital yesterday with nine fractured ribs and a broken hand. One doctor told him he was lucky to be alive, as his lungs could have easily been punctured during the abuse, which would have killed him on the spot. Somehow, through it all, he issued this statement and reminder from his hospital room: “My ordeal…is a small price to pay for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, aided and abetted by the U.S. government, the military, the political elite of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and, most outrageously, institutions of higher education like Washington University(…)The students are our collective best hope for an end to wanton violence, a more humane future, and a free Palestine.” Take action now to support student protesters around the country. Use this tool to email 37 university presidents to support the student’s demands and tell administrators to be on the right side of history. We are at a historical crossroads where students are meeting this critical moment by taking their demands directly to their administrations and forcing them to the table.  The demand is simple: Divest from companies that are actively contributing to Israel’s genocide.  At Washington University, students are demanding that the university cut all financial and recruitment ties with the weapons manufacturer Boeing. Boeing, based in St. Louis, is responsible for munitions that have destroyed homes and killed families in Gaza.  Like many other administrators across the country, Washington University leaders instead chose violent repression rather than address students’ concerns about the school’s complicity in genocide. In addition to Steve and me, more than 100 students, faculty, and community members were arrested for participating in the Gaza solidarity encampment at Wash U. During the violent arrests, at least 21 protestors sustained injuries. The repression didn’t stop there. The university administration banned twenty-three students and six faculty from campus. The faculty members were placed on administrative leave, locked out of their work emails, and instructed not to communicate with any faculty, staff, or students at Washington University, even in an off-campus setting.  Washington University is of course just one example. In the last two weeks, over 2000 students have been arrested on college campuses during anti-war protests. Often, arrests have been accompanied by extreme police brutality like we just saw at UCLA, University of Texas, and Columbia. This is clearly a coordinated attack on the campus movements for Palestinian freedom. We stand wholeheartedly with the students across the nation and the globe demanding transparency and urging divestment from the war machine.  Students need all of our support right now. Here are three ways to help today:   5 MIN: Use this tool to email University administrators from around the country and support students’ demands and their right to protest safely.   15 MIN: Check this list to find out if a school you attended has an active Gaza solidarity encampment. If so, call and email the school administration to express your support as an alumni for student protesters and their demands. Then ask fellow alumni to do the same.   5 HOURS: Support students at your local college campus. Check the list above to find out if a school near you has an active Gaza solidarity encampment. Then, look for an online account on Instagram, Twitter, or Tiktok set up by the specific encampment, or look for your local chapter of Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP). Check these accounts to find out what kind of support students are asking for in your area.   We must all use the power at our disposal to grind this war machine to a halt. Sandra Tamari Executive Director Adalah Justice Project   P.S. If you want to contact Washington University administrators specifically to tell them to divest from Boeing, end their complicity, and stop violently repressing students & faculty, tag them on X (formerly Twitter) @wustland @WashUChancellor, or contact Chancellor Andrew D. Martin directly at admartin@wustl.edu and 1-314-935-5100. You can find the contact information for the other WashU administrators here.

Our mailing address is: Adalah Justice Project P.O. Box 541 Glen Carbon, Illinois 62034