NEW YORK - Columbia University announced on Monday the revision of its anti-discriminatory guidelines, introducing new policies explicitly addressing the use of terms like “Zionist” when employed to target Jews or Israelis, in an effort to combat antisemitism and provide clearer criteria regarding harassment. The 73-page document prohibits coded language and includes a detailed checklist for students filing complaints.
Columbia’s actions emulate those of other universities, such as NYU, which announced last month that anti-Zionist discrimination may violate its student conduct rules.
There is a two-way misinformation issue right now that really complicates things. If you legitimately criticize Zionism, the pro-Israel side accuses you of antisemitism, which is bullshit. However, actual antisemites are using the word “Zionist” as a proxy term for “Jew”, and exploiting he current climate against Israel to spread classical antisemitic narratives. The result is a mix of honest “Zionism motivates human rights abuse against Palestinians” statements, and dishonest “Zionists control the world” statements.
When Jews and their allies attempt to counter antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism, their legitimate criticisms are treated like pro-Israel gaslighting. One of the most egregious examples of this happened in Seattle, where the Wing Luke Museum hosted a “Confronting Hate Together” exhibit featuring contributions from different ethnic communities in the city.
They kicked the Jewish group out because they said "Today, antisemitism is often disguised as anti-Zionism,” and said “pro-Palestinian groups have voiced support for Hamas” (both issues that affect the non-Zionist Jewish community, and that I have personally witnessed).
Worse yet, the museum defended their decision saying that the Jewish group conflated anti-Zionism with antisemitism and excluded Palestinian, Arab and Muslim perspectives. The thing is, they didn’t say all anti-Zionism was antisemitism, they said that antisemitism can be disguised as anti-Zionism. That’s true. And why would the Jewish group be obligated to include Arab and Muslim perspectives? Why are they required to answer for this conflict in this way just for being Jewish? Were there no Arab and Muslim groups invited to participate in this exhibit?
The Jewish group did their own exhibit somewhere else (so much for confronting hate together), and the Wing Luke Museum director resigned.
If folks would actually learn what Zionism is and criticize it with clarity, this kind of thing wouldn’t be an issue. Increasingly, the people using “Zionist” as a pejorative are just using it as a blanket term for “Jews I disagree with”, and that is really fucking shitty.
There were many Jews in the protests nobody was calling them Zionists.
People protesting against Genocide know the difference between Zionists and Jews. The administration is just lying because they are Zionists.
This type of argument may make you feel better, but it doesn’t really help anything but make you think better of yourself. Listen to what others say in discourse, or they won’t listen to you.
Far too many make enemies out of allies and hurt their own cause in the process.
Anyone supporting israel deserves to be shamed. What’s next, inclusion for people who wave around Swastikas?
I’m going to call a Nazi a Nazi and a Zionist a Zionist. Zionism is the name their death cult gave themself in the 1900s.
The problem is you want to feel better. Not change something. Some people just like feeling better than others, others like making other things better.
The problem is you want to feel better. Not change something. Some people just like feeling better than others, others like making other things better.
I bet that felt good 👍. And your very small group of an echo chamber agreed with you.
Zionists don’t control the wold, but they certainly have a lot of sway in places they shouldn’t, like the US Government, and apparently multiple Public Universities community guidelines.
Please explain how supporting Palestinian resistance negatively effects nonzionist Jewish folks.
Easy. Hamas isn’t the resistance.
they are the majority of the forces in the United front which includes everything from communists to conservatives
that didn’t answer my question at all. I will rephrase for your benefit:
Please explain how supporting Hamas(and other Palestinian resistance) negatively effects nonzionist Jewish folks.