02.11.23
Editorial Note
The current surge in antisemitism on campuses in the West since the Black Sabbath brutal attack on Jewish communities near the border of Gaza on October 7, showed that antisemitism and hatred of Israel, the collective embodiment of the Jewish people, are the same.
IAM reported that efforts to adopt IHRA, the authoritative document defining modern antisemitism have met with strong resistance from many scholars. They stridently protested that the document conflates antisemitic speech with legitimate criticism of Israel. Indeed, a group of radical scholars met at Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem in 2020, to issue the so-called Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism.
Even before October 7, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad spewed venomous antisemitic propaganda based on the writings of the Muslim Brotherhood founders Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb. Both were greatly influenced by the Nazi propaganda beamed to the Middle East from Berlin during WWII. Haj Amin al Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, traveled to Berlin to discuss with Hitler a Final Solution to the Jews of Palestine. Abdullah Azzam, the Palestinian preacher and co-founder of al Qaeda, published an antisemitic treatise that draws on the same materials. He pushed Sheik Ahmed Yassin to create Hamas, and his view that Jews are evil and need to be eliminated by a global Jihad shaped the organization’s 1988 Charter. Still, the pro-Palestinian activists considered Hamas a national liberation movement. To the extent that when its notorious antisemitism was acknowledged, it was brushed off as performative, that is, a rhetorical device to mobilize support. The massacre of innocent civilians, the burning of people alive, the raping of women, decapitating babies and adults, and taking hostages, demonstrated that for Hamas, like their Nazi role models, the goal is elimination. Few doubt that, given the opportunity, Hamas would try to exterminate all Israeli Jews. Indeed, Hamas threatens Israel with more massacres to come until it is annihilated, as reported recently on Lebanon TV.
More to the point, the war with Hamas had created a huge wave of antisemitism. The number of incidents has risen daily. In Sydney, Australia, there were chants in the streets calling to “Gas the Jews.”
Academics and students from Ivy League Universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and others, have issued statements supporting the “Palestinian resistance” – their term for the October 7 massacre.
At Cornell University, an online student group conversation stated, “Watch out pig Jews. Jihad is coming. Nowhere is safe. your synagogues will become graveyards. Your women will be raped and your children will be beheaded. Glory to Allah.” Signed by Hamas Soldier.
Another post said, “If I see another Jew on campus…if I see a pig male Jew I will stab you and slit your throat. If I see another pig female Jew I will drag you away and rape you and throw you off a cliff. If I see another pig baby Jew I will behead you in front of your parents. If I see another synagogue another rally for the Zionist globalist genocidal apartheid dictatorial entity known as “Israel”, I will bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig Jews. Jews are human animals and deserve a pig’s death. Liberation by any means. From the river to the sea Palestine will be free!”
On another campus, Drew University, SJP published a poster spreading lies against Israel. “Addressing the circulation of kidnapping posters” claimed that the flyers of the people “kidnapped by Hamas,” posted on Drew Campus and across the county, are “serving the Zionist army” and that these kidnapped people are not innocent civilians but former or current Israeli soldiers. If, according to the Israelis, the captives were wounded, murdered, beaten, and raped by Hamas, according to Drew SJP, “There is not one iota of evidence that any of these prisoners of war have endured such brutalization.” Such “false claims and tropes perpetuate the propaganda used to silence, dehumanize, and threaten the livelihood of Palestinians who have been victims of the occupation and genocide that have been taking place in their homeland for over 75 years. They delegitimize the need for Palestinian resistance.” They added their disappointment that the Office of Student Life approved the flyers.
Failing to comprehend the antisemitic nature of the Hamas attack, even in Israel, the “Statement of the Israeli Sociological Association October 2023,” published in Hebrew, this is not clear. While it begins by discussing the horrific attack on October 7, it moves to attack “Extreme right-wing organizations” that “are abusing these emotional developments for actions of persecution and silencing of those who express positions that deviate from the consensus, and in particular positions critical of the Israeli response. These right-wing organizations started working several years ago and during the war accelerated their undemocratic action.”
It then discusses cases of “personal persecution of civilians, in particular of Palestinian citizens of Israel, against the background of statements that support violence and terrorism have nothing in common.” Surely, when a person is accused for no reason, the case is closed.
According to the Sociologists, some events continue to occur and be reported in the media and “create an atmosphere of violent silence and McCarthyist persecution, directed mainly towards the Palestinian citizens of Israel, but also towards citizens from the entire spectrum of the population who ‘dare’ to raise their voices regarding the Palestinian suffering in Gaza, the West Bank, the Jordan Valley and East Jerusalem… in the current atmosphere, even expressions of legitimate criticism of official Israeli policy or identification with the suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza are labeled – often as ‘support for terrorism’. As mentioned, there are those who take advantage of the explosive situation to incite and sow enmity and division by monitoring the statements of students, and lecturers on social media, harassing and demanding the administrations to act. Some of the institutions not only do not work to prevent the transformation of the campus into a space of supervisors, but cooperate with it and a number of lecturers, including a peace activist, have already been fired.” Furthermore, “The Israeli Sociological Association sees these developments as a danger to the Israeli academy and society as a whole. Apart from the question of whether monitoring the private activity of students on social networks is the role of the academic institutions, freedom of expression is the lifeblood of the academy and no scientific and intellectual activity worthy of its name would be possible without it. Academic institutions have an obligation to protect the freedom of expression of lecturers and students, even in times of emergency, as long as their words do not constitute an offense against the law. These revelations of persecution and silencing do not only concern freedom of expression. The academic communities are heterogeneous communities from a national, religious, ethnic and political point of view.”
This letter coincides with a Haaretz opinion piece, “The Original Sin was the Disengagement,” by Ben Gurion Sociologist Prof. Lev Grinberg, who is the president of the Israeli Sociology Association, and his colleague, Daniel De Malach, on October 30, 2023. They wrote, “The original sin that led to the current systemic collapse is the unilateral exit from Gaza, misleadingly known as ‘disengagement’. The withdrawal was planned with the aim of thwarting the establishment of a Palestinian state, knowing that following the separation from the West Bank and Israel and the blockade, serious distress would arise in Gaza, which would lead to violence against Israel. Israeli policy since then has been based on a repeated violent response to attacks from the Strip, which has been nicknamed ‘mowing the lawn’, putting up with the firing of rockets, which abandons the residents of southern Israel, and an attempt to force Egypt to ‘accept responsibility’ for the residents of Gaza.”
People need to understand that since the creation of Israel, antisemitic attacks against Jews around the world have been bolstered by an assault on the Jewish State. Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are the same.
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Watch out Jews, jihad is coming’: FBI investigate Cornell University messaging board after vile anti-Semitic threats are made against students
By Stephen M. Lepore For Dailymail.Com04:53 30 Oct 2023, updated 13:08 30 Oct 2023
- Cornell President Martha E. Pollack wrote a letter to students where she announced she’s contacted the FBI about ‘a potential hate crime’
- Threatening messages with the headlines ‘Eliminate Jewish living from Cornell Campus’ or ‘Israel deserved 10/7’ were made against a Jewish living center
- The school has seen anti-Semitic graffiti on its walls and a professor forced to take a leave of absence after calling the attacks ‘exhilarating’ and ‘energizing’
The FBI are investigating a Cornell University messaging board after vile anti-Semitic threats were made against Jewish students.
The Ithaca, New York-based Ivy institution has already seen anti-Semitic graffiti on its walls and a professor forced to take a leave of absence after calling the attacks ‘exhilarating’ and ‘energizing.’
Authorities were investigating at the school’s Center for Jewish Living Sunday night after revolting anti-Jewish threats were discovered online.
Some of the abhorrent comments threatened violence – including rape – in the most grotesque terms. There was repeated use of the word ‘pig’ – an anti-Semitic slur.
Cornell President Martha E. Pollack wrote a letter to students where she announced she’s contacted the FBI about ‘a potential hate crime.’
Cornell University, the site of many anti-Israel sentiment in the wake of the October 7 attack, is on high alert about ‘a potential hate crime ‘ toward a Jewish community center on campus Sunday night
Of the several messages left on the school’s Greekrank page – a forum meant for fraternity and sorority reviews – were messages with the headlines ‘Eliminate Jewish living from Cornell Campus’ or ‘Israel deserved 10/7’
Of the several messages left on the school’s Greekrank page – a forum meant for fraternity and sorority reviews – were messages with the headlines ‘Eliminate Jewish living from Cornell Campus’ or ‘Israel deserved 10/7.’
One member wrote: ‘Watch out Jews, jihad is coming.’
Another was even more revolting, writing: ‘I will bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig Jews. Jews are human animals and deserve a pigs death.’
The commenter, who went by username ‘hamas‘ and also made threats of sexual violence toward female students, added: ‘Liberation by any means. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’
One specific message singled out the Center for Jewish Living, which also includes the school’s Kosher dining hall.
‘Earlier today, a series of horrendous, antisemitic messages threatening violence to our Jewish community and specifically naming 104 West – the home of the Center for Jewish Living – was posted on a website unaffiliated with Cornell,’ wrote President Pollack in a statement.
She added that ‘law enforcement was immediately notified.
‘Threats of violence are absolutely intolerable, and we will work to ensure that the person or people who posted them are punished to the full extent of the law. Our immediate focus is on keeping the community safe; we will continue to prioritize that,’ Pollack added.
Cornel’s Hillel organization told students to stay away from the Center for Jewish Living in a statement of their own.
‘The Cornell University administration has been made aware of this concerning language, and the Cornell University Police Department is monitoring the situation and is on site at 104West! to provide additional security as a precaution. At this time, we advise that students and staff avoid the building out of an abundance of caution.’
Cornell Police said that the ‘targeted locations were intentionally selected’ in a threat alert for the entire city of Ithaca Sunday night, according to the Cornell Sun.
They reported parents trying to convince their students to leave campus and others attempting to find different places to stay the night to feel safe.
Cornell President Martha E. Pollack wrote a letter to students where she announced she’s contacted the FBI about ‘a potential hate crime’
Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, made a lengthy post on X Sunday slamming the attacks.
‘The disgusting & hateful posts on a message board about Jewish @Cornell students is the latest in a series of concerning incidents on college campuses. While it is unclear if these are credible threats, @nyspolice is engaged & we’ll take any steps needed to keep students safe,’ she wrote.
She notified various state universities that the state police was being called to monitor any threats, while attempting to reassert a commitment to ‘free speech’ on campus.
New York’s Attorney General Letitia James also condemned the remarks in a post on X Sunday night.
‘These threats targeting Jewish students at Cornell are absolutely horrific. There is no space for antisemitism or violence of any kind. Campuses must remain safe spaces for our students.’
Cornell, like many liberal campuses, has been a hotbed for anti-Israel demonstrations in the wake of the state’s response to the Hamas terror attacks, which killed 1,400 Israelis on October 7. 
The school was defaced with antisemitic graffiti reading ‘f**k Israel’ just days after a professor, who had described a Hamas attack as ‘exhilarating’ and ‘energizing,’ took a leave of absence.
Spray-painted messages such as ‘Zionism equals Racism’ and ‘Israel is Fascist’ began appearing on the sidewalks of Cornell University’s upstate New York campus on Wednesday morning.
The vandalism occurred amid a heated campus controversy surrounding the Israel-Palestine dispute, following Professor Russell Rickford’s leave of absence after his comments on Hamas’ brutal attack.
The graffiti, bearing messages like ‘Israel is Fascist,’ ‘Zionism equals Racism,’ ‘Free Palestine,’ and ‘F**k Israel,’ were first noticed just before 9am but have since been cleaned up by university staff.
It’s unclear who painted the appalling messages in red and white on Campus Road which is known to have a lot of foot and vehicle traffic through the day.
Spray-painted messages such as ‘Zionism equals Racism’ and ‘Israel is Fascist’ began appearing on the sidewalks of Cornell University’s upstate New York campus on Wednesday
It remains unknow who left the messages
The graffiti was painted on one of the busiest area on campus
A Cornell professor with a history of radical left-wing views called the Hamas terror attacks in Israel ‘exhilarating’ and ‘energizing’ at a pro-Palestine rally on October 15. He apologized on October 18, but on October 20 announced he was taking a leave of absence
The aggressive graffiti comes after Rickford told an October 15 rally at Ithaca Commons, the downtown shopping district in the upstate New York city, that he was thrilled by Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,400 Israelis were killed.
His words were met by anger, and Rickford attempted to explain – and doubled down on his outrageous views, before taking a leave of absence.
He said he condemned the killing of any civilians, but said he was angered by ‘the injustice and the hypocrisy of Western support in celebration of Israeli war crimes, and the equation of any form of Palestinian resistance with terrorism.’
Rickford later apologized, saying on October 18 that he was sorry ‘for the horrible choice of words that I used’, and calling his language ‘reprehensible’.
It emerged later Rickford had pulled out of teaching his history class for the rest of the semester, and the Cornell Review confirmed that he has gone on leave.
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הצהרת האגודה הסוציולוגית הישראלית
אוקטובר 2023
ב-7 באוקטובר ישראל חוותה את מתקפת הטרור הקשה בתולדותיה. מספר הנרצחים, הפצועים, החטופים ושורדי הטבח, גם בקרב בדואים, הוא כה גדול, עד שאין כמעט אדם בישראל שאין לו נגיעה אישית כלשהי לאירוע. מדובר במתקפה נפשעת ואכזרית הראויה לכל לשון של גינוי. מאז, רבים פונו מבתיהם, נותרו עקורים באי וודאות לגבי העתיד. הטבח והאובדן העצום שנגרם למשפחות רבות, ולצידו המאבק הקשה של משפחות החטופים ורבים למען השבת יקיריהם, קשים להתמודדות והכלה. בהקשר זה, פחד זעם וחשדנות התחזקו ביחסים בין יהודים וערבים בקמפוסים ומחוצה להם. ארגוני ימין קיצוניים מנצלים לרעה התפתחויות רגשיות אלו לפעולות של רדיפה והשתקה של מי שמבטאים עמדות החורגות מן הקונצנזוס, ובפרט עמדות ביקורתיות כלפי התגובה הישראלית. ארגוני ימין אלו החלו פועלים לפני מספר שנים ובמלחמה האיצו את פעולתם הלא-דמוקרטית.
הרצון והצורך להוקיע את מעשי החמאס ולעמוד איתן נגד ניסיונות להצדיקם ברור ומובן, ורבים מאיתנו עוסקים במלאכה זו. יחד עם זאת, מאז ה – 7 באוקטובר נרשמו מקרים של רדיפה אישית של אזרחים ואזרחיות, בפרט של פלסטינים אזרחי ישראל על רקע התבטאויות שבינן לבין תמיכה באלימות ובטרור אין דבר וחצי דבר. דוגמא אחת היא של רופא בבית החולים הדסה שהושעה מעבודתו עקב פוסט שלכאורה הביע “תמיכה בחמאס” ועד מהרה הסתבר שמדובר בפוסט ישן עם תוכן דתי מוסלמי (הרופא הוא מוסלמי מאמין) שלא קשור בשום דרך לחמאס או למתקפת הטרור; דוגמא אחרת היא של פיטורי עובדת מערכת החינוך בחיפה ששינתה את תמונת הפרופיל שלה לרקע שחור (בלבד!) ביום של הפיצוץ בבית החולים בעזה שגבה עשרות קורבנות. אירועים דומים ממשיכים להתרחש ולהיות מדווחים בתקשורת כמעט מדי יום ומייצרים אווירה של השתקה אלימה ורדיפה מקארתיסטית, המכוונת בעיקר כלפי אזרחי ישראל הפלסטינים, אך גם כלפי אזרחים מכל קשת האוכלוסייה אשר ‘מעיזים’ להשמיע את קולם ביחס לסבל הפלסטיני בעזה, בגדה, בבקעת הירדן ובמזרח ירושלים.
כמוסד האמון על ערכים של שוויון וכבוד האדם, מובן שהאקדמיה אינה יכולה להסכין עם ביטויים של תמיכה בטרור, אלימות, הסתה וגזענות. אלא שבאווירה הנוכחית, גם ביטויים של ביקורת לגיטימית כלפי המדיניות הישראלית הרשמית או הזדהות עם הסבל של אזרחים חפים מפשע בעזה, מסומנים – לא פעם כ”תמיכה בטרור”. כאמור, יש מי שמנצלים את המצב הנפיץ כדי להתסיס ולזרוע איבה ופירוד באמצעות מעקב אחר התבטאויות של סטודנטים וסטודנטיות, מרצים ומרצות ברשתות החברתיות, התנכלויות ודרישה מההנהלות לפעול. חלק מהמוסדות לא רק שאינם פועלים למניעת ההפיכה של הקמפוס למרחב של מפקחים ומפוקחים, אלא משתפים עמה פעולה ומספר מרצים, ביניהם פעילת שלום, כבר פוטרו.
האגודה הסוציולוגית הישראלית רואה בהתפתחויות אלה סכנה לאקדמיה הישראלית ולחברה בכללותה. מלבד השאלה, האם ניטור פעילות פרטית של סטודנטים ברשתות החברתיות הוא מתפקידם של המוסדות האקדמיים, חופש הביטוי הוא נשמת אפה של האקדמיה ולא תיתכן פעילות מדעית ואינטלקטואלית ראויה לשמה בלעדיו. למוסדות האקדמיים יש חובה להגן על חופש הביטוי של המרצים והסטודנטים, גם בעתות חירום, כל עוד דבריהם אינם בגדר עבירה על החוק.
גילויים אלה של רדיפה והשתקה אינם נוגעים רק לחופש הביטוי. הקהילות האקדמיות הן קהילות הטרוגניות מבחינה לאומית, דתית, אתנית ופוליטית. יצירת אווירה של קבלה, אמון ופתיחות כלפי מגזרים שונים ודעות שונות היא הכרחית לשם שמירה על קהילה אקדמית חיונית ומתפקדת. הפיכת הקהילות האקדמיות לקהילות של חשד, מעקב, הלשנה והשתקה פוגעת פגיעה אנושה במרקם היחסים העדין בין קבוצות שונות בקמפוס, אשר ספק אם אפשר יהיה לשקם גם לאחר שתסתיים הלחימה.
יתרה מכך: למרות שההנהלות של חלק מהמוסדות פרסמו הצהרות המגנות תמיכה בטרור ובאלימות מכל סוג שהוא, עד כה ננקטו הליכים כמעט אך ורק כלפי סטודנטים וחברי סגל פלסטינים. לעומת זאת, כאשר ביטויים של תמיכה באלימות ובטרור כלפי פלסטינים מגיעים מצד סטודנטים ומרצים יהודים, הם אינם זוכים לאותו טיפול. בכך יש פגיעה בערך השוויון ומסר לסטודנטים פלסטינים לפיו רק יהודים זכאים להגנה.
האקדמיה היא אחד מן המרחבים המרכזיים בישראל בהם מתנהל מפגש מתמשך בין יהודים לערבים. שמירה על המוסדות האקדמיים כמרחב בטוח של חיים משותפים היא בנפשנו. בימים אלה של שידוד מערכות כולל, על האקדמיה להוות מופת של סובלנות, שוויון, פתיחות וצדק. ראשי האוניברסיטאות סרבו לשתף פעולה עם החלטת המל”ג המחייבת אותם לדווח על אופן הטיפול בתלונות על “תמיכה בטרור” מצד סטודנטים והבליטו את מחוייבותם לשמירה על החוק. זהו צעד חשוב אולם אין להסתפק בכך. האגודה הסוציולוגית קוראת לראשי המוסדות האקדמיים – אוניברסיטאות ומכללות – לנקוט בפעולה אקטיבית כדי להבטיח שמירה על הקמפוסים כמרחב חופשי ומכבד לסטודנטים וסטודנטיות, חברות וחברי סגל מכל הקבוצות, בכל זמן ובמיוחד בשעה קשה זו.
לצד זאת, באופן שאינו מפחית כהוא זה מהנאמר לעיל, אנו קוראים לכולם – מוסדות ופרטים כאחד – להימנע מקריאות המעודדות פגיעה בגוף, בנפש או ברכוש וכן להימנע מפרסומים ומקריאות המצדיקים פגיעות כאלה ונותנים להן לגיטימציה – לא בקרב ישראלים ולא בקרב פלסטינים.
israel-academia-monitor.com 