| Revision as of 15:19, 25 March 2007 view sourceG-Dett (talk | contribs)6,192 edits The problem isn't that the quoted profs aren't "well-known," though in fact they are not. It's that the quotes are anecdotal and impressionistic, and fail to provide any overview. Read the talk page.← Previous edit | Revision as of 08:17, 26 March 2007 view source SlimVirgin (talk | contribs)172,064 edits I disagree; by all means find others that give an opposing viewNext edit → | ||
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| {{Antisemitism}} | {{Antisemitism}} | ||
| Antisemitic incidents on university campuses across North America, Europe, and Australia have increased markedly since 2000, according to a number of sources. Though the circumstances surrounding the reported incidents are disputed, many maintain that campus activism supportive of the Palestinians and critical of Israel has become a breeding ground for classical ] and ], creating an atmosphere of anti-Jewish intimidation that erupts periodically in hate speech and even violence. Others acknowledge that antisemitic incidents have occurred, but dispute the extent of them, and contend that commentators have conflated political anger with ethnic or religious hatred in an attempt to chill legitimate debate. {{fact}} | Antisemitic incidents on university campuses across North America, Europe, and Australia have increased markedly since 2000, according to a number of sources. Though the circumstances surrounding the reported incidents are disputed, many maintain that campus activism supportive of the Palestinians and critical of Israel has become a breeding ground for classical ] and ], creating an atmosphere of anti-Jewish intimidation that erupts periodically in hate speech and even violence. Others acknowledge that antisemitic incidents have occurred, but dispute the extent of them, and contend that commentators have conflated political anger with ethnic or religious hatred in an attempt to chill legitimate debate. {{fact}} | ||
| Laurie Zoloth, former director of Jewish Studies at ], has written of her distress at walking across campus past maps of the Middle East that do not include Israel, and posters equating Zionism with racism and Jews with Nazis, turning the campus into a "] with brownshirts you cannot control." <ref name=zoloth1/3>Zoloth, Laurie. "Fear and Loathing at San Francisco State" in Rosenbaum, Ron. ''Those who forget the past''. Random House, 2004, pp. 1-3.</ref> | |||
| ], professor of journalism and sociology at ], has written how two students of his wondered whether it was true that 4,000 Jews had failed to show up for work at the ] on September 11. "The worst crackpot notions that circulate around the Middle East are also roaming around America," he writes, "and if that wasn't bad enough, students are spreading the gibberish. Students!" <ref name=gitlin264>Gitlin, Todd. "The Rough Beast Returns" in Rosenbaum, Ron. ''Those who forget the past''. Random House, 2004, p. 264.</ref> | |||
| ==Australia== | ==Australia== | ||
Revision as of 08:17, 26 March 2007
Antisemitic incidents on university campuses across North America, Europe, and Australia have increased markedly since 2000, according to a number of sources. Though the circumstances surrounding the reported incidents are disputed, many maintain that campus activism supportive of the Palestinians and critical of Israel has become a breeding ground for classical antisemitism and new antisemitism, creating an atmosphere of anti-Jewish intimidation that erupts periodically in hate speech and even violence. Others acknowledge that antisemitic incidents have occurred, but dispute the extent of them, and contend that commentators have conflated political anger with ethnic or religious hatred in an attempt to chill legitimate debate.
Laurie Zoloth, former director of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University, has written of her distress at walking across campus past maps of the Middle East that do not include Israel, and posters equating Zionism with racism and Jews with Nazis, turning the campus into a "Weimar Republic with brownshirts you cannot control."
Todd Gitlin, professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University, has written how two students of his wondered whether it was true that 4,000 Jews had failed to show up for work at the World Trade Center on September 11. "The worst crackpot notions that circulate around the Middle East are also roaming around America," he writes, "and if that wasn't bad enough, students are spreading the gibberish. Students!"
Australia
In Australia, Daniel Wyner of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, says that the "vilification we feel as students on campus ... coming almost entirely from the left." Grahame Leonard, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry], says July 2006 had the most antisemitic incidents since records began in 1945, and that many of the incidents were on campus. In Sydney, some Jewish students have started to wear hats over their kippahs. Deon Kamien, Victorian president of the Union of Jewish Students, told The Age: "It's not something I can put in words. A lot of students who would feel very comfortable wearing a kippah or T-shirt with Hebrew words on it now feel they are being targeted as Jews — not supporters of Israel, but Jews. When they walk past socialist stalls (on campus) they are called f---ing Jews."
Canada
In September 2002, former Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was prevented from delivering a speech at Concordia University in Montreal after a student protest turned violent. Some protesters harassed the predominantly Jewish audience that had arrived for the speech, and there were reports of Holocaust survivors being assaulted. Figures such as World Jewish Congress secretary Avi Beker described the incident as indicative of an "anti-Semitic campaign" on North American campuses, and journalist Lysiane Gagnon accused the university's pro-Palestinian students union of "refus to blame those who broke windows, threw chairs around, spat at and shoved the Jewish students who wanted to hear Mr. Netanyahu". The student union's vice-president of communications refuted Gagnon's charge, saying that his organization had on many occasions "publicly condemned any acts of physical violence especially those acts that were anti-Semitic or anti-Arab in nature". Chadi Marouf, director of the Concordia's Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights organization, said that only a small minority of protesters had engaged in violent acts. Marouf also described Netanyahu as a "war criminal", and argued that the protest itself had been justified.
An advertisement in the Globe and Mail on December 17, 2002, signed by 100 people, said that Canadian Jewish students are traumatized by on-campus antisemitism and dare not speak out in support of Israel or Judaism. Signatories included Irving Abella, David Bercuson, Ramsay Cook, Michael Bliss, Margaret Atwood, Peter C. Newman, Neil Bissoondath, Francine Pelletier, and June Callwood.
Signatory Nora Gold, a sessional instructor at the University of Toronto's faculty of social work and a scholar of antisemitism in Canada, says that, ten years ago, her research into antisemitism was either dismissed or regarded as exaggerated, but people are now looking at it more closely. "The problem is there are nuts on both sides fighting for the downfall of the other. But there are also reasonable people on both sides. You look for balance, and there hasn’t been enough of that in the discussion."
During the debate triggered by the advertisement, Susan Bloch-Nevitte, communications director at the University of Toronto, acknowledged that there had been incidents there that could be viewed as antisemitic.
France
In France, Patrick Klugman, President of the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF), wrote in Le Figaro: "On some university campuses like Nanterre, Villetaneuse and Jussieu, the climate has become very difficult for Jews. In the name of the Palestinian cause, they are castigated as if they were Israeli soldiers! We hear 'death to the Jews' during demonstrations which are supposed to defend the Palestinian cause. Last April, our office was the target of a Molotov cocktail. As a condition for condemning this attack, the lecturers demanded that the UEJF declare a principled position against Israel!"
United Kingdom
In the UK, the "Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism" reported that the far-right British National Party says it is active on 15 British campuses.
The report also states that "when left wing or pro-Palestinian discourse is manipulated and used as a vehicle for anti-Jewish language and themes, the anti-Semitism is harder to recognize and define ..."
The inquiry heard that University College, London invited members of the Islamist party Hizb-ut-Tahrir to give presentations, although it has been banned from several countries because of its antisemitism. Hizb-ut-Tahrir has also been active at Queen Mary, University of London; Kingston University; and UCE Birmingham.
The report describes how "tensions and incidents on campus often peak around students' union votes concerning Israel and Zionism," listing by way of example several incidents precipitated by a 2002 University of Manchester students' union motion to declare that anti-Zionism was not antisemitism, and that Israeli goods should be boycotted. During the voting phase, according to the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, a leaflet from the General Union of Palestinian Students quoting a neo-Nazi forgery entitled "Prophecy of Benjamin Franklin in Regard of the Jewish Race," was handed out to students lining up to vote. The leaflet described Jews as vampires, and said that if they were not expelled from the United States, they would "enslave the country and destroy its economy." When the motion was defeated, a brick was thrown through the window of one Jewish student residence while a poster with the words "Slaughter the Jews" was stuck to its front door, and a knife was stuck in the door of another.
United States
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL)'s 2002 audit of "Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Events" on college campuses across the U.S. included accounts of violent incidents. An April 9, 2002, rally held by the Muslim Student Association at SFSU displayed posters bearing a picture of soup cans reading "Made in Israel" on the label, listing the contents as "Palestinian Children Meat," with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as the manufacturer, and the words "slaughtered according to Jewish Rites under American license."
A month later, according to Laurie Zoloth, director of the school's Jewish Studies Program, a pro-Israel rally saw pro-Palestinian students armed with whistles and bull horns corner Jewish students, spit on them, and shout: "Too bad Hitler didn't finish the job." This was adamantly denied by Palestinian activists present at the rally, who said the racism came from pro-Israel demonstrators calling the Arab students "sand niggers" and "terrorists." According to Leila Qutami of the SFSU's General Union of Palestine Students, "We were called 'Arab losers' and told to stick flags up our asses. And those are the things that are mentionable."
Supporters of David Duke have allegedly distributed flyers protesting "Israeli genocide" on the University of California at San Diego campus, and Holocaust denier Bradley R. Smith ran an opinion piece in the Berkeley student newspaper condemning Israel's "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians.
On Passover, in 2002, a cinder block was thrown through the glass doors of UC Berkeley's Hillel building. One week later two Orthodox Jews were badly beaten one block from the UC Berkeley campus, and anti-Zionist graffiti appeared on sidewalks and buildings near the school. During a vigil for Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 9, students reciting the Mourner's Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, were shouted down by protesters who said prayers in memory of suicide bombers.
The rash of incidents culminated on May 7 when approximately 30 Jewish students at SFSU, cleaning up after a peaceful, university-authorized, pro-Israel demonstration, were surrounded by at least twice as many pro-Palestinian students who screamed, "Hitler didn't finish the job," "Fuck the Jews," and "Die, racist pigs."
See also
Notes
- Zoloth, Laurie. "Fear and Loathing at San Francisco State" in Rosenbaum, Ron. Those who forget the past. Random House, 2004, pp. 1-3.
- Gitlin, Todd. "The Rough Beast Returns" in Rosenbaum, Ron. Those who forget the past. Random House, 2004, p. 264.
- Zwartz, Barney & Morton, Adam. "An unholy alliance", The Age, September 4, 2006.
- Graeme Hamilton, "Nazi-hunter criticizes actions of Concordia", National Post, 16 October 2002, A2.
- Anne Dawson, "Canada accused of failing to fight anti-Semitism", National Post, 19 November 2002, A9.
- Lysiane Gagnon, "Here's to you, Mr. Robinson", Globe and Mail, 2 December 2002, A19.
- Yves Engler, Letter, Globe and Mail, 5 December 2002, A26.
- Graeme Hamilton, "Nazi-hunter criticizes actions of Concordia", National Post, 16 October 2002, A2.
- ^ Gerstenfeld, Manfred. "The Academic Boycott Against Israel", Jewish Political Studies Review 15:3-4 (Fall 2003).
- ^ Farr, Moira. "When cultures collide on campus. Defending free speech at university in tense times", University Affairs, May 2003.
- Template:PDFlink, September 2006, p.38.
- ^ Template:PDFlink, September 2006, p.39.
- ^ Template:PDFlink, September 2006, p.40.
- Anti-Defamation League, "Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Events on Campus", May 14, 2002, accessed January 9, 2006.
- Letter from SFSU President Robert A. Corrigan to California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed, SFSU website, July 25, 2002, accessed January 9, 2006.
- Richman, Josh. "ADL: Antisemitic Incidents Soar in N. California", The Forward, April 4, 2003, accessed January 9, 2006.
- Featherstone, Liz. "The MidEast War Breaks Out On Campus", The Nation, June 17. 2002/
- ^ "The Battle for the American Campus", Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania, August 1, 2002, accessed January 9, 2006.
External links
- Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
- SPME Report: Report of the meeting of SPME Faculty Representatives from three University of California campuses with head of the UC Academic Senate on addressing anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, By • Leila Beckwith, MD, UCLA, SPME Board of Directors • Ilan Benjamin, UCSC • Tammi Benjamin, UCSC • Moshe Rosenberg, UC-Davis, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, February 16, 2007