Anti-Israel activity over the autumn term quietened at American universities although there were two high-profile incidents in Britain. The term ended with an anti-Israel group offering a bounty to kill those named on a list of Israeli academics.
American campuses were generally more peaceful than in the last academic year. Universities continue to make deals with the Trump administration. These were partly in order to settle allegations of allowing an environment hostile to Jewish staff and students to develop. Brown and Cornell, both Ivy League institutions, were the latest to settle.
Remarkably on the Unholy podcast, the dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Keren Yahri-Milo, herself Jewish, claimed that Jewish students and staff were thriving at Columbia. Nevertheless the unrest surrounding anti-Israel encampments at the university, a centre of anti-Israel activity, continues to have after-effects. Two Jewish students, David and Jonathan Lederer, have filed a lawsuit against the university claiming the complaints they filed regarding assault, harassment and docxing were ignored. In an opinion piece in the Columbia Spectator entitled “To Columbia, I’ll steal”, a doctoral student issued a call for others to “go underground”. The clear implication was that disruptive and “fugitive” action was necessary. It argued the kind of action permitted by the university’s policy on protest would not achieve aims such as divestment from Israel.
Indeed Columbia’s investment committee recently rejected a student motion to divest from Israel. Some 60% of of the student population did not bother to vote on the motion. That suggested a majority might even oppose it, or at least be uninterested in the matter. Still the language in the “to Columbia I’ll steal” piece clearly echoes the language found in African-American spirituals and and other writings on the struggle against slavery. This suggests that some students in the anti-Israel movement see their position as analogous to the anti-Confederate forces in the American civil war. It is not hard to conclude such people would come to believe they are entitled to do almost anything to advance their cause.
Events in Britain have been more dramatic. In October Michael Ben-Gad, an economics professor at City St George’s University, University of London, had his lectures disrupted by anti-Israel protestors. One even reportedly threated to behead him. The protestors branded Ben-Gad a war criminal as he had done compulsory military service in the Israel Defense Forces in the 1980s.
The threats against Ben-Gad resulted in a parliamentary early day motion expressing support for him and Jewish students. It noted the threat to academic freedom posed by those who threatened him with violence.
The early day motion is welcome and Academics for Academic Freedom (AFAF’s) involvement in these matters will ensure that some focus remains on the problem of anti-Semitism on British campuses. It should be said that Ben-Gad said this was the first time he had experienced such threats.
Earlier this month Samar Maqusi, a former fixed-term researcher at University College London (UCL), gave a talk to the Students for Justice in Palestine society (SJP) which revived a classic anti-Semitic trope. She repeated as fact the false allegation that Jews in 1840 Damascus used the blood of non-Jews in religious rituals. UCL referred the matter to the police and banned her from campus. SJP is also banned from organising events pending the results of an investigation into the incident.
However, Rosa Freedman, a professor of law at Reading university, said the UCL authorities only took decisive action after considerable efforts from Jewish groups. She said that staff in universities often ignore legitimate complaints from Jewish students and staff. In her view meaningful punitive action, such as suspension or expulsion, is rarely taken.
On 21 November the Jerusalem Post, an Israeli newspaper, reported that an anti-Israel group, the Punishment for Justice movement, has offered bounties on the heads of several named Israeli academics. These included several based in Israel as well as at Harvard, Oxford and the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The group listed addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and social media accounts of the targeted academics.
If there is a terrorist attack on any of these individuals it should not come as a surprise.
Guy Whitehouse is a member of the Academy of Ideas and the Free Speech Union. His views do not necessarily reflect those of those organisations.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the Radicalism of fools project.