Editor's Letter
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Worsening Campus Ferment
First of two parts
A
escorted out under police protection because General Union
of Palestinian Students protestors had intervened and chant-
ed,"Death to the Jews" and "Hitler should finish the job."
That's beyond the pale on campuses that rely on public
support.
"One of the most egregious examples of this breakdown
in the basic values of the university:' Weinberg says, "is how
anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism prohibit civil discourse and
encourage a rising level of intolerance on campus."
merican universities are precious as centers of
higher education. Young people of all nationalities
study together. Most instructors are intellectually
honest and good scholars whose goal is the pursuit of knowl-
edge. Most students want to learn and
gain the tools to succeed in life.
But despite the good intentions
and positive mission of the univer-
Using Code
sity experience, a growing problem
Weinberg isn't saying that Jewish students can't stand up for
pulsates on many campuses: anti-
their civil rights or to legitimate criticism of Israeli policy.
Semitism and anti-Zionism masquer-
He is saying that the anti-Israel hype on our campuses slyly
ading as academic freedom and free
speech. Antagonism trumps intelligent recycles stereotypes about, and accusations against, Jews.
"Israel often serves as the proxy for a fury previously
conversation in this setting.
reserved for the idea of the Jew," he says. "Expressed under
So says Aryeh Weinberg. And he
the veneer of political criticism and human rights advocacy,
should know. He and his team of
Israel can sometimes become just another caricatured version
researchers have studied the politics
of the hated Jew."
and propaganda in American education since 2001. Their
That hate extends to diaspora Jews as well.
findings should shake every American.
Says Weinberg: "Along with Israel and its popu-
Weinberg is a fellow at the San Francisco-
lation, Jews outside of Israel are also implicated
based Institute for Jewish and Community
for their support, or presumed support, of the
Research, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think
Jewish state."
tank. He and Institute director Gary Tobin
It's important to understand this coded
co-authored the 2005 book The UnCivil
dynamic. By deriding Israelis, anti-Semites
University. The Institute gave key testimony
transform traditional bigotry into what
before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Weinberg calls "progressive political advocacy."
(CCR) in 2005 on the subject of campus inci-
With Israel hated far and wide, it's no secret
vility — a subversive state ripe for sowing
why Jew-haters have latched onto this ready
seeds of Jewish and Israel hatred.
filter for their prejudice.
"More and more says Weinberg, "instead
Take, for example, terrorist demonizing of
of reasoned debate on campus, we have shrill
the Jewish state via wild claims that Israel is
yelling and sloganeering. Learning based
Aryeh Weinbe rq
trying to expel or kill all Palestinians even
on facts is discarded in favor of politicized
as it eyes an apartheid system to ensure they
polemics. Open-minded discussion falls vic-
remain slave laborers.
tim to anger, accusations and vilification of those with whom
one disagrees:'
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Weinberg appeared with CCR staff director Kenneth Marcus
at a StandWithUs-Michigan community forum on March 26
at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. Co-sponsors included
local synagogues and schools as well as Jewish student groups
at Wayne State University.
WSU's Detroit campus has seen its share of Israel bashing,
be it calls for WSU to divest from multinational companies
doing business in Israel or cries that "Palestine will be free,
from the river to the sea: which would include the State of
Israel, not just Palestinian-occupied lands. Wayne State is not
alone in trying to promote ideas but also expose hate. It's a
national campus concern.
Weinberg's remarks were deflating at first, but they
morphed into a call for action that, if ignored, would sound a
daunting knell for all universities in America. Even those not
now afflicted by hate are susceptible given the potency of the
propagandist and apologist conditions elsewhere.
I'm still haunted by Weinberg's pronouncement that instead
of free speech, Jewish students who have tried to speak up
have been silenced by harassment, intimidation or even force.
At San Francisco State University on May 7, 2002, a pro-Israel
peace rally was interrupted and participants eventually were
The New 'Ism'
I thought Weinberg concisely defined the new marquee term,
"anti-Israelism." It's the "condemnation of terrorist attacks all
over the world, but legitimizing those against Israel citizens
as if Israeli lives are worth less than others." It's portraying
Israelis "as brutes without concern for life, as racist white
supremacists, as the new Nazis, as baby killers and as citizens
of the most repressive country in the world."
For campuses to overlook anti-Semitism or anti-Israelism
presumably to avoid censorship or infringement is a danger-
ous precedent. By default, it would validate stereotype, preju-
dice and demonizing as modes of acceptable critical thought.
I was taken by Weinberg's assertion that obsession with
Israel above and beyond all other countries is a sign and a
warning that something other than debate and honest criti-
cism is at work on campus.
Let there be no mistake: American universities cannot dis-
miss demands cloaked with Nazi images and seeking Israel's
destruction as normal in a taxpayer-funded educational envi-
ronment.
Aryeh Weinberg put it well: "If they do, they are being
untruthful with themselves."
Next: Assuring adequate mechanisms for student redress.
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April 12 • 2007
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