Columbia Uni’s Task Force on antisemitism is confused…
JVL Introduction
Six months ago Columbia University’s President appointed a Task Force on Anti-Semitism “as part of a commitment to ensuring that our campuses are safe, welcoming, and inclusive for Jewish students, faculty, and staff, and all of us”
Professor at Columbia’s School of the Arts, James Schamus, is very worried by it, pointing out that in a recent Task Force Op-Ed in the Columbia Spectator, “We Hear You“,it is very busy blurring the distinction between Israel and Jews, and conflating Zionism and Judaism.
At one “listening session” Co-chair of the Task Force Ester Fuchs, while refusing to define the term antisemitism said the Task Force would take an “experientially oriented approach” to the term (whatever that is, remarks Shamus) invoking Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s famous non-definition of obscenity: “I know it when I see it.”
Her co-chair, David Schizer, however, is quite happy to offer a definition of antisemitism: it is the IHRA one.
As Schamus open his remarks: “You may hear us, but we see you. And what we see is, to be honest, downright scary.”
RK
This article was originally published by Mondoweiss on Thu 23 May 2024. Read the original here.
The ‘blurred lines’ of Columbia’s Task Force on Anti-Semitism
Columbia’s “Task Force on Anti-Semitism” has announced a goal of making “ambitious changes” to the university. Faculty and students critical of Israel and Zionism appear to be the first target.
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Two prominent people in the UK have fought back recently on the conflation of Antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel and anti Zionism, is instructive here. Having watched those craven University Presidents grovelling in front of clueless Congressional members who called the peaceful student protest movements Anti Semitic hate fests. The two prominent individuals are former President of the National Union of Students [NUS] Shaimine Delalli and Academic David Miller. Shaimire was sacked by the NUS and so took them to court and won substantial damages when the NUS had to concede that holding pro Palestinian and anti Zionist views are protected beliefs according to the UK Equalities Act 2010.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/nus-reaches-substantial-settlement-former-students-union-president-shaima-dallali
David Miller was also dismissed from the University of Bristol in 2021, he also won sustantial damages in a landmark ruling at an Industrial Tribunal also under the Equalities Act 2010.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-judge-rules-professor-was-discriminated-against-anti-zionist-views
Time to fight back against these ignorant and self serving Congressional Zionist mouthpieces and their UK equivalents whose only function is to serve Zionist donors, vote them all out.
Zionist logic? ‘Israel is the only Jewish state on the planet. All Jews are welcome to live there. It offers a refuge from the persecution that Jews face round the world because they are Jews. Therefore Israel represents the best interests of the Jewish people. Acordingly, the Jews of Israel must act against all those non-Jews in Israel who otherwise might persecute Jews because they are now inhabiting the Israeli land these people once claimed as theirs; and these Israeli Jews must be permitted to use whatever means are thought necessary, even violent means, to prevent these fresh persecutions. It must also act against those in the rest of the world who would criticise it for carrying out such an action, because in refusing to support Israel in this matter, they are denying the viability of a Jewish state, and therefore denying all the Jews of the world the opportunity to save themselves from persecution. Therefore, criticism of Israel is by its very nature an attack on the whole Jewish people, i.e. it is anti-semitic. It follows from this that Jews who, for whatever reason, criticise Israel for trying to make Israel a safe place for Jews, are betraying Jewish values and therefore rejecting their own Jewishness. These Jews, by criticising Israel, have become themselves anti-semitic. Anti-semitism is a hatred of Jews. So it is that these Jews must hate themselves, and so must be excluded from the community of Jews who have a right to live in Israel. Also, since it is Irael’s policy to oppose on behalf of all Jews anybody who opposes Israel, it will take whatever action is necessary to diminish and demean those Jews who have been deemed to be anti-semitic, so that their opinions on the matter of Israel will be regarded by the world by the world…
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This is a desperate attempt to legitimise the theft of land by Jewish settlers and the forced expulsion of the Palestinians who were already living there and tending the land.
To insist that the Jewish people are excused from normal ethics because of their history of oppression is to demean Jews and far more reasonably described as antisemitic than the actions of those Jews who believe that Jews can behave ethically and must abandon attempts at ethnic supremicism.
To insist “these Israeli Jews must be permitted to use whatever means are thought necessary, even violent means, to prevent these fresh persecutions. It must also act against those in the rest of the world who would criticise it for carrying out such an action” is a fascist view that the ends of preserving a state form of Judaism justifies any means used and an abandonment of centuries of Jewish thinking. It seeks to put Israel, and in the view of the comment author, all ‘right thinking Jews’ beyond legal constraint.