After Antisemitic Attacks, Colleges Debate What Kind of Speech Is Out of Bounds

[ADevilYouKhow]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/us/antisemitic-speech-palestine-israel-protests.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

How far is too far?

 

[mastermind]

Antisemitism is definitely up in America. No one is going to deny that unless they are an antisemite.

However the bolded:

Many Jewish students say that while these attacks are alarming enough, they are also pained by the slogans that harness the horrors of the Holocaust and turn them against Jews or Israel — like accusing Israelis of “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing.” In this telling, Jews are not victims but “Nazis” and “fascist” oppressors.

To many Jews who believe Israel had a right to self-defense and retaliation after the Hamas attack, accusing Israel of such atrocities against Palestinians is an insidious form of antisemitism.

is not antisemitism and American Jews who say stuff like this hurts the case against real anti-Jewish attacks.

this passage is interesting and echoes what I heard on an American Prestige episode with Emily Tamkin:

voters approved or disapproved of Israel’s response to the Hamas attack, those 35 and older tended to approve, with percentages rising as voters aged. But for 18- to 34-year-old voters, slightly more than half — 52 percent — disapproved.

This is an interesting change as American Jews move further away from the Holocaust.

Tamkin wrote about the rise in antisemitism and what American Jews can do about it last week in Slate.

American Jews Are Scared. We Also Have to Be More Than That.

I have experienced antisemitism. But right now, we can’t be defined by our fears.

slate.com

I dug this point:

Second, we should be careful that fear and pain is not used to close off discussion and debate, including when that debate may make some uncomfortable. Discomfort does not feel good, but it is not a threat. A Palestinian flag is not inherently antisemitic. Palestinian writers, books about Palestinians, speech in support of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, calls for a cease-fire: None of these are threats to American Jews. And as the war continues, as Israel continues its aerial bombardment of Gaza, and as “ground incursions” expand, Americans will continue to discuss it, including on university campuses. That is not antisemitism. Again, there are actual threats to American Jews, but they should not be used as a pretense to silence speech on American foreign policy, or on Israeli politics, or to keep people from considering and indeed centering a war in which, according to one Palestinian NGO, a child in Gaza is killed every 15 minutes. (This statistic is not antisemitic, either. It also does not diminish the horror and tragedy of the murder and kidnapping of children by Hamas.)

 

[the cac mamba]

you know what's not cool? anti-themitism

 

[mrfortune]

any and everything is anti-semetic. asking a hard question will have you getting blacklisted or fired. what are they scared to talk about , the truth ?

 

[ORDER_66]

This is bullshyt... there's been plenty of speech from politicians on down that have squarely aimed at black folks do i see any colleges looking to ban them or stop donating to them or their causes??? why do the j folks get to be a protected class above all others because they are white or have money??? They are not special... they just white folks with more money than other folks they are human just like the rest of us. they are not above criticism for their actions.

 

[Blackgate]

When i say israel committing the crime of apartheid i didnt decide that on my own. I am relying on the expert opinions that say it is apartheid. College is the place for debate. Is Zionism good or bad sounds like a legit debate to me. Is that anti semitic?

 

[hashmander]

you all don't get it. first you must accept that israel can do no wrong. once you understand that then you'll see that it's only antisemitic people who make claims that israel did X wrong. remember they can do no wrong and if you can't do any wrong then it's only the real haters claiming you're doing wrong.

 

[hashmander]

the more i think about it, these poor guys are misunderstood. when they were giving ethiopian jews depo-provera shots it wasn't evil, wicked or wrong (that's what bad people do and israel can't be bad: hitler is bad). they were just doing it to control reproduction by non-desirable jews to maintain the real jewish integrity of israel. you're in favor of a genocide of real jews if you're against forced birth control of undesirables. hitler would be proud of you.