“Look here!”: University of #Pennsylvania president resigns after furor over free speech and #antisemitism
The pro-Israel and Jewish lobby are able divert attention from the massacre in #Gaza by manufacturing crises, aided by the experts in this field, #GOP#MAGA.
The controversy over university presidents who gave lawyerly answers in Congress about punishing students who call for genocide reflects the reality of college free speech codes that try to both encourage debate and stop hatred.
The criticism directed my way is selective application of a standard to promote a political view, which was a critique of the author's selection and omissions to promote a political agenda, when what's contentious is whether or not the president of #harvard is selectively applying rules to promote a political agenda.
“[…] Among those practicing self-censorship since the Israel-Hamas war began, 81 percent said they were withholding criticism of Israel, compared with 11 percent withholding criticism of the Palestinians. Concerns about offending students and pressure from external advocacy groups were cited as the top reasons.
"a conversation to help teachers, at the K–12 & college levels, develop strategies to teach the #Palestine – #Israel conflict & many of the attendant sensitive historical topics it entails. It might seem that this history is a minefield worth avoiding, but thoughtful & engaged teachers have been teaching such difficult topics in a civil & empathetic way for decades"
#antisemitism vs #apartheid "The academic world is rising up against us": Hidden boycott threatens Israeli scientific research
Last week, a Zoom meeting was held with senior members of Israel's academia and young researchers. The senior academics expressed concern about what is happening and conveyed a sense of emergency. The President of the University of Haifa, Prof. Ron Rubin, recounted in a conversation that he visited the US during the war and felt manifestations of antisemitism "seeping into places where they have never been before. There is a hostile attitude towards Israelis even in places like medical schools. It is terrifying to the nth degree. In the past, the problem was focused on faculties for the humanities and social sciences, but the phenomenon is spreading to additional fields."
The missing word in this article must be #aprtheid... I do see #BDS and antisemitism mentioned, many times, but not a word about the fact the USA and European boycott of Israeli academia is a refusal to cooperate with a perceived apartheid regime.
#haaretz#editorial West Bank settlers are exploiting the “propitious moment” created by the war that #Hamas started to expel thousands of Palestinians from their homes and lands. They are terrorizing them through various means in order to drive them from their villages. Far from everyone’s eyes, the West Bank is changing almost irreversibly.
"As horrific as the massacre was, it does not absolve Israel of its past crimes against the Palestinians, does not justify the ethnic cleansing Israel is currently carrying out in both the Strip and the West Bank."
"When the very mention of context itself is considered anti-Semitic, then pretext takes its place. The massacre serves as a pretext for ethnic cleansing in the Strip and West Bank and an excuse to muzzle and intimidate the Palestinian citizens of Israel."
It's not always easy to take Professor Ilan Pappé for his word when it comes to vigorous historical research, but his commentary is always interesting, and in this case also reflexive.
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The holy rage: the plight of the Israeli left
My heart goes out to Jewish-Israeli leftists these days. They vent their distress on the pages of #Haaretz daily newspaper, while directing their anger at the global left, or at least the Western left. They are in a reality I found myself in some 15 years ago: ostracized and alienated from Jewish society for my “betrayal” of it on the one hand, yet on the other hand, not accepted as a credible partner by Palestinian society, whose national movement I supported as a researcher and political activist. Luckily that stage of my life is behind me.
When you don't belong to any group of reference, you are in a societal and intellectual limbo. This is exactly the distress of the Israeli left. The massacre carried out by #Hamas on October 7 exposed the difference between it and the global left. The global left is an organic part of the solidarity movement with the Palestinian liberation movement.
This liberation movement is no longer as institutionalized as it was, and is much more fragmented and weakened compared to its heyday in the 1970s. But it remains robust and its solidarity movement remains as well. The concepts and language of the solidarity movement have always been different from those of the Israeli left. This movement has not supported the two-state solution idea for years, and has long defined #Zionism as a settler colonial movement and Israel as an #apartheid state.
The sins of this movement, as they appear in the righteous indignation articles of writers like Eva Illouz,, Ofri Ilany, Haim Levinson and many others, are mainly twofold: comparing #Israel to colonialism, and mentioning the historical context of the massacre carried out by Hamas.
But the global left does not talk about Israel as part of global colonialism, but as part of settler colonialism. It is worth recalling, even for a moment, what characterizes settler colonial movements. These are movements of European refugees, who sought refuge and shelter from a Europe that did not want them and even persecuted them. They arrived in countries inhabited by native populations, who the new settlers saw as a fundamental obstacle to their dream of building a new Europe of their own.
Destruction of the local population or its expulsion were a precondition for the success of this new settlement. This is the story of the founding of the United States, Canada and Australia. The Zionist movement was also such a movement, and like the other movements relied on an empire to gain a foothold in a foreign land, found religious justification for settlement, and engaged in the search for ways to get rid of both the empire that assisted it and the native majority population.
Indeed, this is the perception of the global left. It includes defining Israel as an apartheid state, and was not born on October 7. It does not prevent condemnation of Hamas' actions, but it certainly provides a much more convincing explanation for this terrible event than defining Hamas as a bloodthirsty #Nazi organization that seeks to kill #Jews for the sake of killing.
Israel reacted with rage to the mass killing in the Gaza Strip, yet the Israeli left still expected the global left to be outraged along with it and relate to the horrors of that Shabbat outside any context. This is the global left's second sin, and this is the sin of the #UN secretary general: mentioning the context.
The Israeli left demands focus on the event as pure evil without context. Mentioning the context does not justify it but explains it, and above all offers a different explanation than that adhered to by Israeli politicians, pundits and journalists. In vain, the Israeli left will ask people of conscience worldwide to focus on the horrors of October 7, and therefore forget about the horrors of the occupation and siege prior to October 7 and those of the days after October 7.
The global left has always focused in the past - both in its historical perception and moral viewpoint - on contexts that gave birth to difficult actions of those who rebelled against Western oppression. Therefore, those who supported the abolitionist movement did not see the terrible massacre of whites led by Nat Turner in 1831, an event that harmed the struggle to abolish slavery, as an uncontextualized evil. Those who supported the Algerian liberation movement did not demand constant condemnation of the terrible massacre carried out by the rebels in July 1962 of white settlers in the city of Oran as if it had no historical context of over a hundred years of French abuse and oppression of the Algerian people.
These contexts explain the event, they do not justify it. They certainly clarify for us why the chorus of the Israeli left is shocked by what it defines as an insufficient response from the global left, and why its prominent spokespeople accuse the global left of anti-Semitism and immorality. As horrific as the massacre was, it does not absolve Israel of its past crimes against the Palestinians, does not justify the ethnic cleansing Israel is currently carrying out in both the Strip and the West Bank.
Moreover, and perhaps most importantly. As terrifying and horrible as it is, this is not a constitutive event: Israel will remain a settler colonial state, with features of an apartheid regime, Palestinian resistance will continue, global civil society will continue to support it, and Israel will rely solely on the support of Western elites. This is a clear recipe for continued bloodshed, with no winners, only losers, a reality in which calling for a ceasefire, which could lead to the return of the kidnapped, is considered treason, and the continuation of fighting and abandoning the kidnapped to their fate is preferred.
When the very mention of context itself is considered anti-Semitic, then pretext takes its place. The massacre serves as a pretext for ethnic cleansing in the Strip and West Bank and an excuse to muzzle and intimidate the Palestinian citizens of Israel. It also serves as a pretext for the United States to return its army to the region, from which it was expelled in disgrace after the failed attempt to impose democracy by force. It serves as a pretext for Western governments to severely undermine freedom of expression and opinion in the name of fighting terror.
Moral compass and awareness of contexts exposes the pretexts and their disaster-laden results, and above all focuses on what matters now: recognizing again that Palestinians and Israelis have only two options: mutual destruction or living together.
Professor Ilan Pappé, at the Centre for Palestine Studies, University of Exeter, is the author of "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine."
It's not always easy to take Professor Ilan Pappé for his word when it comes to vigorous historical research, but his commentary is always interesting, and in this case also self-reflective.
====
The holy rage: the plight of the Israeli left
My heart goes out to Jewish-Israeli leftists these days. They vent their distress on the pages of #Haaretz daily newspaper, while directing their anger at the global left, or at least the Western left. They are in a reality I found myself in some 15 years ago: ostracized and alienated from Jewish society for my “betrayal” of it on the one hand, yet on the other hand, not accepted as a credible partner by Palestinian society, whose national movement I supported as a researcher and political activist. Luckily that stage of my life is behind me.
When you don't belong to any group of reference, you are in a societal and intellectual limbo. This is exactly the distress of the Israeli left. The massacre carried out by #Hamas on October 7 exposed the difference between it and the global left. The global left is an organic part of the solidarity movement with the Palestinian liberation movement.
This liberation movement is no longer as institutionalized as it was, and is much more fragmented and weakened compared to its heyday in the 1970s. But it remains robust and its solidarity movement remains as well. The concepts and language of the solidarity movement have always been different from those of the Israeli left. This movement has not supported the two-state solution idea for years, and has long defined #Zionism as a settler colonial movement and Israel as an #apartheid state.
The sins of this movement, as they appear in the righteous indignation articles of writers like Eva Illouz,, Ofri Ilany, Haim Levinson and many others, are mainly twofold: comparing #Israel to colonialism, and mentioning the historical context of the massacre carried out by Hamas.
But the global left does not talk about Israel as part of global colonialism, but as part of settler colonialism. It is worth recalling, even for a moment, what characterizes settler colonial movements. These are movements of European refugees, who sought refuge and shelter from a Europe that did not want them and even persecuted them. They arrived in countries inhabited by native populations, who the new settlers saw as a fundamental obstacle to their dream of building a new Europe of their own.
Destruction of the local population or its expulsion were a precondition for the success of this new settlement. This is the story of the founding of the United States, Canada and Australia. The Zionist movement was also such a movement, and like the other movements relied on an empire to gain a foothold in a foreign land, found religious justification for settlement, and engaged in the search for ways to get rid of both the empire that assisted it and the native majority population.
Indeed, this is the perception of the global left. It includes defining Israel as an apartheid state, and was not born on October 7. It does not prevent condemnation of Hamas' actions, but it certainly provides a much more convincing explanation for this terrible event than defining Hamas as a bloodthirsty #Nazi organization that seeks to kill #Jews for the sake of killing.
Israel reacted with rage to the mass killing in the Gaza Strip, yet the Israeli left still expected the global left to be outraged along with it and relate to the horrors of that Shabbat outside any context. This is the global left's second sin, and this is the sin of the #UN secretary general: mentioning the context.
The Israeli left demands focus on the event as pure evil without context. Mentioning the context does not justify it but explains it, and above all offers a different explanation than that adhered to by Israeli politicians, pundits and journalists. In vain, the Israeli left will ask people of conscience worldwide to focus on the horrors of October 7, and therefore forget about the horrors of the occupation and siege prior to October 7 and those of the days after October 7.
The global left has always focused in the past - both in its historical perception and moral viewpoint - on contexts that gave birth to difficult actions of those who rebelled against Western oppression. Therefore, those who supported the abolitionist movement did not see the terrible massacre of whites led by Nat Turner in 1831, an event that harmed the struggle to abolish slavery, as an uncontextualized evil. Those who supported the Algerian liberation movement did not demand constant condemnation of the terrible massacre carried out by the rebels in July 1962 of white settlers in the city of Oran as if it had no historical context of over a hundred years of French abuse and oppression of the Algerian people.
These contexts explain the event, they do not justify it. They certainly clarify for us why the chorus of the Israeli left is shocked by what it defines as an insufficient response from the global left, and why its prominent spokespeople accuse the global left of anti-Semitism and immorality. As horrific as the massacre was, it does not absolve Israel of its past crimes against the Palestinians, does not justify the ethnic cleansing Israel is currently carrying out in both the Strip and the West Bank.
Moreover, and perhaps most importantly. As terrifying and horrible as it is, this is not a constitutive event: Israel will remain a settler colonial state, with features of an apartheid regime, Palestinian resistance will continue, global civil society will continue to support it, and Israel will rely solely on the support of Western elites. This is a clear recipe for continued bloodshed, with no winners, only losers, a reality in which calling for a ceasefire, which could lead to the return of the kidnapped, is considered treason, and the continuation of fighting and abandoning the kidnapped to their fate is preferred.
When the very mention of context itself is considered anti-Semitic, then pretext takes its place. The massacre serves as a pretext for ethnic cleansing in the Strip and West Bank and an excuse to muzzle and intimidate the Palestinian citizens of Israel. It also serves as a pretext for the United States to return its army to the region, from which it was expelled in disgrace after the failed attempt to impose democracy by force. It serves as a pretext for Western governments to severely undermine freedom of expression and opinion in the name of fighting terror.
Moral compass and awareness of contexts exposes the pretexts and their disaster-laden results, and above all focuses on what matters now: recognizing again that Palestinians and Israelis have only two options: mutual destruction or living together.
Professor Ilan Pappé, at the Centre for Palestine Studies, University of Exeter, is the author of "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine."
I signed this, along with more than 160 Jewish leaders calling on #apple#disney#google & #amazon to stop doing business on Twitter. I encourage others to leave that platform & stop giving Musk any legitimacy by your presence. #antisemitismhttps://www.xouthate.org/
I have learned not to expect people to step forward to condemn of these attacks on Jews, but I don't want any of you to later say you didn't know what was happening, as it was happening.
Jews are not necessarily Israelis, much less supporters of Netanyahu.
Muslims are not necessarily Palestinians, much less supporters of Hamas.
Bigotry against Jews and Muslims is just bigotry; it is in no way justified by the current conflict in the Middle East. This goes double when the bigotry leads to violence, as it has.
And yet, in practice, “pro-Palestinian” protests are marred by overt antisemitism.
I don’t know whether pro-Israel protests have the complementary problem, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Certainly, Republican support for Netanyahu is accompanied by Islamophobia, as witnessed by the idiotic attempt to deport all Palestinians.
Re: authentic & fake #Jews: the tragic #Gaza war has predictably led to bad #history going viral:. European Jews are descendants of medieval #Turkic converts--#Khazars-- thus have no #historical & #genetic connection to the land of #Israel
A myth, promoted by a combination of the cynical or stupid, sadly embraced by the naive & uninformed
Sadly relevant, as I will give a virtual talk about this at Indiana Uni this week.
1of the most disturbing things re: the conversation is the denial of history, e.g. assertion that Jews mostly descended from medieval #Khazar converts (conversion was real but limited)
I've always been fascinated by the history of both the pagan #Khazars & conversion
Who knows that the Caspian Sea was called the Khazar Sea, or that the victory of the Khazars was as important as the Battle of Tours?
However, right-wing extremists & racists, from the Christian Identity movement to McCarthyites, appropriated it in the early C20 & grafted it onto existing conspiratorial #antisemitism
Here, one of my "favorite" examples, which shows you just how loopy this shit was. The book earned praise from major political & military figures
However, right-wing extremists & racists, from the Christian Identity movement to McCarthyites, appropriated it in the early C20 & grafted it onto existing conspiratorial #antisemitism
Here, one of my "favorite" examples, which shows you just how loopy this shit was. The book earned praise from major political & military figures
So, how did the #Arabs pick up the #Khazar myth? They already had plenty of practical & legitimate reasons to oppose #Zionism if they wanted to.
Scholars generally agree, Arab #antisemitism in the strict sense (though there are of course anti-Judaic elements in the Quran and Hadith) was imported from the Christian West in C19. & now, we realize, #Nazism played a crucial role:
The 1948 Arab war against Israel: An aftershock of World War II?
The Arab--+ some other nonwestern--delegates to the UN deployed the #Khazar argument against #Palestine#Partition & the creation of #Israel, though no one took it seriously, & as the eloquent Arab spokesman Cecil Hourani later noted, "It was only on closer contact with him that I came to realize he was less motivated by a love for the Arabs than by an obsessive hatred of Russian & Polish Jews,” “an ancient prejudice which was in fact a form of racism.
The #Arab League basically abandoned use of the #Khazar myth after 1948--tho cranks such as Saudi UN envoy & histrionic windbag Jamil Baroody periodically trotted it out.
Its recurrence is therefore cause for deep concern: 1) a sign of dangerous regression to zero-sum game: denying opponent's identity does not induce him to compromise 2) technique is same: historical distortion disingenuously citing scholarship from the opponent's community. Cheap trick.
Today in Labor History October18, 1927: The trial of Sholom Schwartzbard began for killing Ukrainian nationalist Symon Petliura, for slaughtering15 members of his family in Pogroms. Schwartzbard was a Russian-born French Yiddish poet and an anarchist. He served in the French and Soviet militaries.
More than 20 #ActuallyAutistic comrades have dropped out of my groups, both paid & free over the past 2 days for the express reason that I speak out agaisnt antisemitism, denounce murder. and want peace for Palestinians and Israelis.
Some for the express reason that I’m a “killer” and “white supremacist”
Many of you follow me for a long time and have met me and worked with me.
I often speak about antisemitism in our community. No, opposing the Israeli occupation isn’t antisemitism. I oppose it. Daily and my entire life.
This isn’t the question. This is about using antisemitic tropes and illogical standards. This is about bigotry towards Jewish people and Israelis as humans.
I won’t shut up. If you think my words are sullied and dirty and immoral because I am a JEW and an ISRAELI, if you think because of that I am not a valuable human, and if you haven’t unfollowed or dropped out yet, GO AHEAD NOW and drop out. I don’t need bigots in my spaces or world.
I'm so sorry you having to deal with this but deeply appreciate you speaking out for #Peace.
I normally am proud of the #Autistic community on mastodon but what you've experienced from these folks is wrong.
P.S. For any Autistic antisemitic bigots out there --- please know that there are a lot of autistic Jews in the world. Your attacks on people for being Jewish are attacks on fellow autistic people. I'm one of them.
Mini-thread 🧵 Just wrapping up the #German Studies Association conference in beautiful Montreal (with less than beautiful weather)
I have to say: an overstuffed program with 32 (!) concurrent sessions, starting at 8 a.m. (!) is just idiotic: the laudable desire to include as many talks as possible (ppl need to give talks in order to get funding to travel) becomes counterproductive at some point. The fact that some panels on related topics were given the same time slot also makes no sense 😩 1/n
Our panel, on #Antisemitism and its place in #German#history, was satisfying, though (see previous post), being put up against panels on related topics, especially when there are so many concurrent sessions, is frustrating.
Still, we had a good and lively conversation there (and afterward).
I presented some results from our new Routledge History of Antisemitism
Been researching the 43 Group today; a London-based militant anti-fascist organisation, founded in March 1946 by 43 Jewish ex-servicemen to combat fascist and anti-semitic organisations.
We have some of their papers that include alphabetical lists and car registration plate numbers of suspected fascists, and a few leaflets and agendas of meetings.