Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel/Wikimedia Commons On February 26th, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Brown University hosted an event featuring speakers who discussed Palestinian activism. Unsurprisingly, it was an exercise in antisemitic rhetoric and argumentation, including hateful tropes such as, “These attacks on capital, on money are what scares them [Israelis,...
The IHRA Definition of Antisemitism and the Meaning of Zionism
Photo: John Marino/Wikimedia Commons Syracuse University’s Student Association (SA) claims that it is “false” and “dangerous” to associate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. This is simply untrue, because support for Zionism is support for the Jewish people’s right to self-determine in their ancestral homeland. Nevertheless, in a recent legislative session, the Syracuse SA...
The False Comparison of Zionism and Colonialism
Anti-Zionists, especially BDS activists, have been quite successful in creating and spreading many false claims, exaggerations and misperceptions about Israel. I have been working with the campus CAMERA team on the launch of a social-media campaign called #ApartheidWeekExposed. Its goal is to shed light on how the actions of those involved...
The Holocaust Happened Outside of Europe Too
Photo: Wikipedia user Valley2city/Wikimedia Commons Once a year in Israel, a piercing siren is sounded for two minutes. On every road, street and corner of the country, life is temporarily suspended. People stop in the middle of walking, driving or working, to stand in silence, and commemorate the suffering of...
To Avoid Future Scandals Like Karega, Oberlin Should Adopt the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
Photo: Wikimedia Commons At the end of January it was reported that Oberlin College Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo would be stepping down from that role at the end of the semester, and last Friday it was announced that she had left her post six weeks ahead...
Zooming Into Israel Apartheid Week
Photo: Cantavestrella/Wikimedia Commons On Wednesday 17th March, I attended a public Zoom event hosted by SOAS Palestine Society as part of their Israel Apartheid Week 2021 series. The discussion was chaired by Youth Against Settlements (YAS), a Palestinian activist group based in the city of Hebron, situated in the southern section of the...
Campus Group Urges Rejection of IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
Photo: Philafrenzy/Wikimedia Commons The Palestine Society (SOASPS) at SOAS University of London released an open letter earlier this year demanding that the university’s academic board reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism that the British government has asked universities to accept. Co-signed by a coalition of 50-plus SOAS...
Ha’aretz Op-Ed Misleads to Defend SNL “Joke”
Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense/Wikimedia Commons Satire is meant to be funny. Many popular, long-running comedy shows relentlessly caricature and mock almost every imaginable group. But there’s a difference between playing on a stereotype—as characters in “The Simpsons” do, for example—and accusing people of murder. Saturday Night Live (SNL) comedian...