Campus Antisemitism
It wrote: “Israel remains America’s favorite first amendment blindspot” and praised the Palestine Solidarity Committee for its “spirited activism.”
The resolution, which was heavily anti-Israel, led to protests by Jewish students and alumni, as well as Jewish groups and organizations.
According to Rutgers Hillel, “eggs were discovered to have been thrown at the house while brothers were reading the names of Holocaust victims overnight in commemoration of Yom Hashoah.”
Representatives invited by the school’s Center for Security, Race and Rights are coaching students and others on how to speak to police when advancing anti-Israel messages.
“We are horrified that it occurred during a Passover celebration, and reports are that an object was thrown at Hillel, crossing the line from protest to violence,” said the Anti-Defamation League Midwest.
University of Connecticut senior Natalie Shclover said that while it’s not realistic to think that the harassment of Jewish students can be prevented, she does hope that the way such instances are handled by peers, faculty, administrators and academic institutions can improve.
Sacha Roytman Dratwa, CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement. said “this is no mere academic matter, but a matter of the safety and security of all Jews whose fellow students read this hate and incitement.”
Hillel has reported that Jewish students felt increasingly “unsafe” at the school due to a series of anti-Semitic acts on campus.
“From our vantage point, we are increasingly concerned that unbridled hatred of Israel is undermining the mission of the academy,” said the Academic Engagement Network.
It will open with a dinner featuring a dialogue with three members of the U.S. House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism: Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and Grace Meng (D-N.Y.).
The planned speech by Mohammed El-Kurd is being sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine and the Palestinian Cultural Coalition, and funded by the Undergraduate Student Government-Tempe.
“We want to move from defense to offense. We want to be the organization that controls the narrative and controls the conversation,” said Ilan Sinelnikov, president and founder of Students Supporting Israel.
