I don’t understand why this topic has become about extremism. I thought it was about College response to terrorism. As far as Colleges’ response, I’m not sure how any College responding to our Country’s heritage of unequal treatments of Black citizens or other domestic social issues is the same as a College issuing a statement regarding Israeli military policy. How is supporting Me Too the same as taking a side on “defensible borders” in Israel? Yale didn’t comment on Somalia or Kashmir nor Taiwan. In fact, when asked, President Salovey of Yale, who missed a colloquium on US - China relations due to Passover, simply issued a statement simply that no one should assume that Yale endorses “all of China’s policies”. Should the Uyghur people have taken that to mean that Yale tacitly supports the genocide of the entire Uyghur people? Advocacy groups call out “unequal treatment” of Jewish people as evidence of anti-Semitism, but isn’t unequal affirmation of the political right in Israel exactly what is being demanded from Colleges?
No one would focus on the few women of Me Too who fabricated or exaggerated their narratives of abuse. Few focus on the race riots that burned most of our own country’s inner cities rather than praising the civil rights movement and its accomplishments. Why is this so different, and we are always drawn into a conversation about swastikas? If one student says to another student, “I don’t want you here”. So what? What about, “I don’t want you here either”?
When a group shouts “Free Palestine”, why do some always “know what they are thinking” which is that a call for a self-governing Gaza and West Bank means that Israel can’t have safe borders which means that Israel shouldn’t exist, which means that all Jewish people in Israel should be killed, which means a global genocide for all Jews, which means they are being threatened with death? What about when the people shouting those words are Jewish? When someone shouts “Black Lives Matter”, does that always mean they hate all non-black people? What if the person shouting that is not black herself?
Can’t we discuss the verifiable events on Campuses? On the campuses that I follow, the reports of “violence” amount to less jostling and blocking than I typically experience in a week simply walking around the East Village or attending a concert or show. Isn’t that in itself pretty good evidence that all that shouting really isn’t a prelude to assault, homicide or genocide?
The thread was started on Oct 12, and at that time it was primarily about colleges responding to the events of Oct 7 and those events immediately following afterwards. Since that time, the thread has been through many permutations of discussion topics, and there have also been many intervening events in the world, and at our kids’ colleges.
I think this relatively recent comment is probably the best explanation of the value of this thread (emphasis mine):
Are the chants limited to “Free Palestine?” Because they aren’t here. They are explicitly calling for the dismantling of the Israeli state.
One could argue that is still not antisemitism but I think given that about 45% of the world’s Jews live there and many, many more Jewish people consider Israel a part of their cultural identity, that’s a hard argument to make.
Especially as it very quickly turns into antisemitic stereotypes of Jews.
And are they limited to demonstrations and chants against Israeli policy? My kid’s experience has not been this.
I’d really love to read this article - as would many others on this thread. Anyone have a gift link to post for non-subscribers? Thanks!! The War at Stanford - The Atlantic
This’ll be my last post here as I’m sure I’ve said my peace, and I don’t feel entitled to make this a forum for advocacy of my own personal views.
To respond to your questions, I think many people might wonder why some assume that a call to “dismantle Israel as a state” is de facto antisemitic and a call for genocide when those same people call for the dismantling of the Palestinian authority not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank. Isn’t Israel a state? Since when is sovereignty tantamount to survival?
To keep it on topic. If “Free Palestine” is arguably NOT antisemitic in your view, why should there be a “College Response” as per the title of this forum? And why can’t Jewish students just move on? And if it is anti-Semitic, why are Jewish students involved with chanting those words?
Yes, awful, ugly bigoted people get more vocal in these kinds of times. But they’ve been there all along. And they aren’t everyone who is speaking up, in this case or any.
I don’t have any issue with acknowledging actual bias, prejudice or fear. It is ironic however that many of the advocates who see Jewish victimhood on campuses also violently oppose DEI - recompense and acknowledgement of the victimhood of black and other racial minorities in the United States.
And as far as Colleges’ response, I would be first in line to condemn any actual violence on either side. But there’s a lot of rhetoric out there. For example, advocates cite the fact that according to Hillel, the representation of Jewish students at Harvard has fallen from 15% to closer to 10%. A decade ago, it was closer to 20%. Lost in this is that there is a commensurate drop in the number of Catholics and Protestants. It’s called secularization of the youth.
It’s this kind of “fear”, “discrimination” or “data” that is weaponized in a political way that I object to.
Please read the article posted by bxgirl—this is not about students chanting “free Palestine.” Is the thread entitled “College Response to the slogan ‘Free Palestine?’”
Please just stop trying to minimize our students’ experiences by making it sound like they are merely complaining about having to walk past people chanting “Free Palestine” when I and others have provided multiple examples of it going far beyond that.
This is about platformed and funded and official organizations breaking college rules in order to spread blood libel and other antisemitic tropes, harassing Israeli and Jewish students, celebrating the October 7 massacre as justified resistance, and creating an antisemitic atmosphere on campus that should be intolerable no matter what group it is directed at. And other incidences involving professors, instructors, and staff.
Is a 17 year old allowed to be uneasy if they are living with people who celebrate the killing of people they see as “like” them and insist more of their classmates do the same?
We are making an executive decision and are closing this thread. You can continue the discussion in the Politics Forum or start school specific threads in the designated forums if you want to discuss that specific school’s response to the situation.