Zionist groups are making cynical use of San Francisco State University’s identity-based protections against discrimination to ban criticism against Israel as antisemitic.

At the heart of such campaigns is the false notion that criticism of Zionism and Israeli policy and support for justice in Palestine constitute antisemitism. In response to these attacks and the growing violence of Israeli policies, increasing numbers of Jews, particularly among younger generations, now openly define themselves as anti-Zionist.

In less than two days, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, and Jenin.

Ahmad Amer Abu Juneid, 21, was killed with a bullet to the head in the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus; Sanad Samamra, 19, was killed in Hebron after an alleged stabbing attempt; Samir Ouni Aslan, 41, was killed with a bullet to the chest in the Qalandia refugee camp; and Habib Mohammad Abdelrahman Kamil, 25, and Abdelhadi Fakhri Nazzal, 18, were killed in Qabatiya, Jenin.

The Harvard Kennedy School’s brazen move to rescind a fellowship to Kenneth Roth over criticism of Israel is becoming a massive own goal for the institution. Organizations are calling for Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf’s resignation, Roth hitting the interview circuit, and a fresh round of people checking out Human Right Watch’s apartheid report.

“Anybody who is contributing to the Israeli economy should stop. Stop that contribution until the wind changes.” Noa Sattath, an Israeli rabbi and civil rights activist often promoted by the liberal Zionist group J Street, called for crushing economic pressure on the fascistic new Israeli government during a webinar with Americans for Peace Now last week.

Itamar Ben Gvir wants to normalize Jewish worship at the Al-Aqsa compound as a precursor to full Israeli control over the holy site, much like Baruch Goldstein’ massacre at the Ibrahimi Mosque brought full Israeli control over that part of Hebron.

It is hardly farfetched to assume that the al-Aqsa compound might suffer the same fate — where a particularly violent set of events would facilitate further Israeli takeover. 

Harvard Kennedy School’s Palestinian Alumni Collective is calling for the resignation of Dean Douglas Elmendorf after he rescinded a fellowship to Ken Roth over his Israel criticisms. The group is also calling for Roth, who spent almost thirty years as the executive director of Human Rights Watch, to be reinstated at the school.

There is an ebb and flow between hearing the stories, being on the ground reporting on the developments of war, and being a part of this reality at the same time. No certainty of what can be found, no real safety, and a looming feeling of endlessness. 

From banning the flag, to slaying Palestinians, to continuing colonization, the actions of the Israeli state are consistent with the spirit and origins of Zionist settler colonialism.

On January 9, the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, banned the display of the Palestinian flag in all public spaces. 

This order is one in a recent string of escalating attacks on Palestinians by the newly formed ultra-rightwing Israeli government.

“It’s erasure and a form of criminalizing every act of Palestinian resistance and identity,” Linda Tabar, a Palestinian professor of international relations at the University of Sussex told Mondoweiss. “It’s a form of trying to negate Palestinian life,” Tabar said, “they’re suffocating us.”

Hillel Halkin moved to Israel from the U.S. 50 years ago because he believed in the Zionist vision. Now the author confesses that the project failed because it could not deal with the central question, Palestinian demands, and he was naive when anti-Zionists made that argument to him years ago. Today the country is going off a rightwing-religious “cliff” — a quarter of all nonreligious Israelis between ages 18-24, and half of all religious ones, think Israel’s Palestinian citizens should be stripped of the right to vote!