Thread by @equalityAlec

THREAD. Something must be said about today’s irresponsible New York Times article about antisemitism. I can’t believe it was published.

The article is a series of portraits of pro-zionist students. The thesis, as summarized by one student: “The mood on campus these days is not pro-Palestinian, it’s antisemitic.” nytimes.com/2023/11/09/us/…

I care deeply about the media conflating criticism of far-right Israeli policies and antisemitism for many reasons, including 1) It cheapens the concept; 2) It is weaponized to distract people from horrific injustices.

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1720439679881765334

The article argues that progressive Jewish students and pro-Palestinian protestors have taken the “hothouse jargon of academia” to mislead people into being compelled by the Palestinian cause in a way that Zionists “believe” is antisemitic. Look at some of its examples:

None of these terms is controversial, let alone antisemitic. Occupied Palestine is overrun with armed far-right settlers stealing land and establishing colonies—many of these illegal settlers are Americans.

Everyone from Obama, to Biden, to the UN, to the State Department, to nearly every country in the world has declared this illegal. Watch this video of a settler stealing a family’s house. This happens thousands of times:

It's a consensus in international law that Israel’s occupation and two-tiered system of legal rights (restriction on movement, voting, mass arrests, lend theft, indefinite military detention, etc.) constitutes the legal concept of “Apartheid.” amnesty.org/en/latest/camp…

If this is antisemitic, then so is every major international human rights org, the UN, and a number of the leading Jewish historians of the holocaust. Let Ta-Nehisi Coates explain it:

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1720475782890369351

How else could one describe Gaza? It has been completely blockaded for years. Nearly every basic freedom that Americans take for granted is deprived—to travel, to fish, to eat what you want, etc… For years, Israel has controlled how many calories can enter Gaza!

As huge demonstrations in the U.S. and across the globe—and as public opinion polling confirms—more and more people are opposing Israel’s illegal settlements and carpet bombing of Gaza that is killing thousands of children.

A distraction is needed. I have been alarmed in convos with politicians, journalists, and academics at 1) how focused they are on defining antisemitism to include criticism of far-right Israeli gov policy; and 2) how focused they are on this as opposed to ending the slaughter.

This is a strategy. Create confusion and fear that criticism of far-right Israeli settler policy is “antisemitic.” It’s designed to silence criticism (Israel has now raided, beaten, + arrested anti-zionist Jewish people, banned protest, and passed law to surveil social media).

Look at this 2009 guide that Zionist groups had Republican strategist Frank Luntz prepare for them to manipulate U.S. public opinion away from Israel’s violations of international law. It's chilling how effectively these strategies are now employed. transcend.org/tms/wp-content…

Today's NYT article is expertly executed propaganda. It is filled with sensitive color portraits of students complaining about antisemitism and examples of offensive quotes. **It does not contain a single portrait of a progressive anti-zionist Jewish student or Palestinian.**

Today's article comes on the heels of yesterday’s NYT editorial "How Are Students Expected to Live Like This on Campuses?" which did not mention Islamophobia or attacks against anti-zionist Jewish students, but incredibly included the following assertion:

Although today’s article mentions Islamophobia and the hatred and threats against progressive anti-zionist Jewish students, it doesn’t contain photographs or specific examples. One side’s fears are portrayed as imminent and tangible, the other side’s abstract and speculative.

This is propaganda 101. Providing portraits and vivid examples of what one side is facing but not doing the same for another group is designed to influence which group a reader develops empathy for.

It is not until 53 paragraphs into the article that we learn something important: the groups tracking such issues have tracked way more (400% more!) incidents of Islamophobia than antisemitism on college campuses.

The article doesn’t even mention the dangers faced by Muslim students and anti-zionist Jewish students + professors. There are FBI investigations, firings, suspensions, + disciplinary actions. Indeed, one student group was just banned for holding a vigil!

https://twitter.com/NathanJRobinson/status/1721670854063337960

The article serves the purpose not just of biasing people against anti-zionists, but it is meant to sow confusion, make it seem like it's hard to determine what is antisemitic, make sure people are worried and arguing about that and not about the underlying causes.

I’ll let Gideon Levy, perhaps Israel’s most prominent journalist, explain why stuff like this NYT article is actually making the situation more dangerous because it insulates monstrous policies that themselves fuel cycles of hatred:

UPDATE: I meant to add 1 more thing. If you read between the lines, NYT gives up the game in its discussion of a divide between the large number of Jewish students at Sarah Lawrence: it's is not actually about antisemitism, but **political disagreements among Jewish students.**

As in Sarah Lawrence, the article subtly complains about social consequences for zionists. It's not antisemitism if other Jewish students don't want to hang out with someone if they support land theft, authoritarianism, and massacres of children. That isolation is not bigotry.

If people have and express political positions that make them unpopular among their peers--or that make their peers think they are callous or ignorant of basic history--that is not antisemitism.

But by conflating social consequences for expressed politics with antisemitism, the article does a disservice to those of us worried about all forms of bigotry. That's the point Gideon Levy was making about how stuff like this actually harms many Israelis like him.

By erasing Jewish students calling for peace and equality, NYT is analogous to Israeli officials now calling to revoke citizenship of Jewish people who support ceasefire. The result? People like Marione Ingram are "antisemitic":

https://twitter.com/democracynow/status/1722253710032879832