Amid violent police sweeps of student encampments, arrests, and suspensions comes the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which easily sailed through the House by a vote of 320-91. 70 Democrats and 21 Republicans opposed it.
The bill is ostensibly about antisemitism, but of course, it’s actually about stifling criticism of Israel. It would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism for the enforcement of federal anti-discrimination laws in education programs.
The IHRA definition has faced backlash since it was first developed in 2016 because it’s vague and some parts equate antisemitism with anti-Zionism. Even the definition’s main author, Kenneth Stern, has warned about it being implemented at schools. “The definition was intended for data collectors writing reports about anti-Semitism in Europe,” he wrote in a New York Times op-ed. “It was never supposed to curtail speech on campus.”
The legislation was introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who drew a direct connection between the bill and the current protests.
“In the wake of anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University and other colleges and universities across the nation, the safety of Jewish students has become a major concern,” said Lawler. “Amid escalating protests, a Jewish student at Yale was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag and a Jewish UCLA student was blocked by protestors from entering campus.”
Video shows that the “stabbed in the eye” thing is nonsense, and that UCLA student (who is a StandWithUs intern) wasn’t blocked from campus; he was blocked from the encampment after antagonizing protesters for hours, but I digress.
You’ll find some IHRA advocates who like to go through a little song and dance to pretend that this isn’t about criticism of Israel. Take Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), whose biggest political contributor is AIPAC.
Torres says that he thinks anti-Zionism is antisemitic, but don’t worry! He’s assured everyone that criticism of Israel will be protected. “If you can figure out how to critique the policies and practices of the Israeli government without calling for the destruction of Israel itself, then no reasonable person would ever accuse you of antisemitism,” he explained.
Let’s leave aside the obvious question of what Judaism has to do with Israel and ask ourselves whether politicians like Torres can be considered “reasonable.” The Congress Member is so delusional that he recently told a website that he could be assassinated by a pro-Palestine activist.
No, if someone has to advocate for the IHRA definition getting implemented, I would much rather have it be someone like the pro-Israel activist Noa Tishby. While testifying before Congress in 2022, she openly stated her support for such a policy was all about stopping Israel from getting criticized.
“The reason that IHRA unfortunately gets a pushback is…exactly because of Israel..it’s very convenient to condemn Nazis, nobody likes to walk around and call themself an antisemite, but you kind of go ‘I’m not an antisemite, I’m just an anti-Zionist.’ That is considered okay and that is one of those things that we have to make clear: anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Period. End of story. There’s no question about that,” she explained.
Tishby has recently been on cable news shows to promote a new book she co-authored on antisemitism. On Morning Joe she told the panel that college protesters are “brainwashed by Tik Tok” on the issue of Palestine and implied that tents for the campus encampments were paid for by a shady, outside entity.
Hosts of these shows neglect to mention that up until recently, Tishby was employed by the propaganda wing of the Israeli government before getting canned over some mild criticisms of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul. She may have lost her job but seems to be doing similar work.
Outside agitators
“Outside agitators.” It’s a dangerous trope that was consistently implemented during the Civil Rights movement, and we saw the same boogeyman back in full force during the Black Lives Matter protests. It’s returned for student encampments, and one of the most prominent people pushing the narrative is the Democratic mayor of New York City.
After cops arrested 282 people at Columbia University and CUNY Eric Adams claimed that “outside agitators” were working to “radicalize our children,” lest anyone think that students were being radicalized by the the 35,000 people who have been killed.
Adams singled out 63-year-old, retired elementary school teacher Nahla Al-Arian, telling multiple media programs that she was at Columbia and her husband had been convicted of terrorism.
Except she wasn’t at Columbia this week. Her husband, Sami Al-Arian, was arrested in 2003 and charged with supporting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group decades ago, but the jury didn’t convict him.
A photo of Al-Arian sitting in front of a Columbia tent last week was immediately circulated across social media as proof of some vast pro-terror network. Al-Arian says she briefly swung by the encampment after visiting her daughters in the city. She didn’t talk to any students. “I sat and I felt happy to see those students fighting for justice for the oppressed people in Palestine,” she said. “Then I was tired, so I left.”
Adams has also pushed the lie that many of those arrested at Columbia weren’t students. He told WNYC his outside agitator theory was a “gut reaction.” Pressed by MSNBC the best he could do was say two of them weren’t students, then he referenced Al-Arian again even though she wasn’t there.
The NYPD has embraced the same lie, putting out a particularly creative press release claiming half of those arrested weren’t Columbia or students. How’d they do it? They added arrests from City College, counted street arrests as non-students, and didn’t share any info on who was arrested from inside Hamilton Hall.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard showed up on MSNBC with a bike lock, which was supposed to prove something. “This is not what students bring to school he said,” he explained. “This is what professionals bring to campuses and universities. These are heavy, industrial chains that were locked with bike locks.”
Students can actually buy the exact lock from Columbia.
It obviously does not matter if non-students are showing support for a Gaza solidarity protest, but Adams and the cops have a vested interest in claiming universities are being invaded thus justifying their tactics.
If you’re looking for actual outside agitators, you might want to begin with pro-Israel hedge fund manager Bill Ackman or Jessica Seinfeld, wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. They both donated thousands of dollars to the Zionist counter-protesters who attacked the UCLA encampment and sent dozens of students to the hospital.
Odds & Ends
🏫 Pro-Israel groups vs. student democracy at McGill
👮 NYPD clears Columbia student occupation, arrests hundreds across the city
⛪ United Methodist Church votes to divest from Israel bonds
⛺ ‘It’s important to use these platforms to speak out about the genocide’: a Yale student organizer on the school’s encampment protest
✏️ Bergen Record: Rutgers New Brunswick postpones some final exams due to ‘anticipated escalation of protest activities’
🇵🇸 Truthout: Pro-Palestinian Student Protesters Are Enacting the Highest Ideals of Education
🇺🇸 Electronic Intifada: US implicated as Israeli impunity nears its end
🪧 Counterpunch: Vilification and Violence Hurled Against Gaza Protests Shows They Hit a Nerve
✉️ Common Dreams: 57 House Dems Call On Biden to Prevent Israeli Assault on Rafah
🗣️ HuffPost: Hundreds Of Former Obama Staffers Slam White House For Not Doing Enough For Gaza
🇮🇱 Israeli pro boxer identified as assailant intimidating UCLA protestors in video
📝 The Hill: Jewish Democrat on voting against bill: Anti-Zionism not ‘inherently’ antisemitism
🇺🇸 IfNotNow national spokesperson Eva Borgwardt on the House passing the Antisemitism Awareness Act:
“As American Jews, we see this McCarthyite crackdown on speech under the guise of Jewish safety as extremely dangerous. We know that Jewish safety cannot come at the expense of Palestinian freedom. Jewish safety and Palestinian safety are inextricably intertwined. This bill would criminalize criticism of Israel on college campuses in the name of protecting American Jews, but its impact would be the opposite.”
“Fearmongering by political and communal leaders and right-wing organizations like AIPAC overrode the strong opposition of the ACLU, Jewish representatives including Jerry Nadler, and even Kenneth Stern, the author of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which was codified in the bill. President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Schumer should make clear their opposition to this attempt to stifle the pro-peace, antiwar movement.”
🇵🇸 Some of Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s statement on the arrests:
“The world sees you clearly, Columbia. Your only goal, which you will defend at any cost, is to enrich your endowment at the expense of 40,000 Palestinian martyrs and every student in your care.”
“We honor the memory of every university in Gaza destroyed by Israel, and we will continue to use our education to speak truth to power. We call on students and faculty worldwide to escalate their protests. To students and their supporters: you must create your own campus agitations. University business cannot continue as usual amidst a genocide.”
“And to every professor who has expressed shock at the events of last night: if you do not take action to demand divestment and an end to police presence on campus by withholding your labor, you too are complicit. You must do more than make statements. You must strike. Do not grade exams. Do not teach classes. Our universities which put profit over life must grind to a halt until our demands are met: Divestment, disclosure, an end to campus militarization, and amnesty for all. The student revolution will help free Palestine within our lifetime.”
Stay safe out there,
You have to give it to the anti free speech ADL, other I lobby groups impeccable timing putting the “antisemitism Awareness Act” forward in the House now. Hoping all of the student groups are aware. Putting it up at their fb pages.
Let’s just hope Senate members will not pass it. Simple change to title “Anti Free Speech Awareness Act”
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“If you’re looking for actual outside agitators, you might want to begin with pro-Israel hedge fund manager Bill Ackman or Jessica Seinfeld, wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. They both donated thousands of dollars to the Zionist counter-protesters who attacked the UCLA encampment and sent dozens of students to the hospital.”
During some of the earliest coverage of the UCLA protest there were pro Israel supporters much older than any of the students. Hell pro Israel supporters my age in their 70’s One woman in particular carrying an Israeli flag pushing her way in front of main stream media host ,filling up camera shot…..getting right in front of camera’s over and over again. Far more aggressive than any of the young pro Palestine supporters. Not once did I hear any news host ask or refer to these individuals as “outside agitators, not students infiltrators, ” etc. Not once mentioned on any msm outlet. Not even a question. “Who are these older people on campus?”
Let’s be clear. Everything this asinine Act is supposed to address is already covered by the Civil Rights Act. The only thing not covered by the Civil Rights Act is criticism of Israel. Therefore the sole purpose of this bill is to curtail criticism of Israel. No ifs, ands, or buts.
The premise of this bill is also horribly flawed. Aside from the straight up lies regarding the made-up attack of a single Jewish student. Defenders of this bill cite a marked rise in anti-semitism nationwide. Which is also a highly distorted fabrication. The ADL claims that there has been a 300% rise in antisemitism in the last year. What they fail to mention is that this astronomical rise only happened in the wake of them adopting the IHRA’s Working Definition of Antisemitism. Which effectively made anything short of bending the knee and pledging fealty to Israel, antisemitism. Little fucking wonder there was such a rise. It’s effectively a self-fulfilling prophecy by design.
It’s like Pizza Hut declaring that from now on all food that contains flour, tomatoes, and cheese must be referred to as “pizza” and then turning around and telling investors and the media that there has been an astounding increase in “pizza” sales and consumption nationwide.
Of course, this bill now also provides the perfect foil to would be detractors of this same inane bill, as critics of the implementation and reasoning behind the bill can now be classified as “antisemitic” and punished thusly.
This is McCarthyism plain and simple. Only they aren’t even pretending that it’s to protect America from outside forces. They have happily handed over legislation to a foreign fascist Apartheid state. If it wasn‘t clear enough during those sham hearings of the Ivy League presidents, it should be now.
Quite simple explanation: https://trackaipac.com/us-house
Both political parties are bought and paid for by the Israeli lobby, among other lobbies. This is legalized bribery that most citizens don’t know about or don’t care about or lack the inquisitiveness to find out or are too busy trying to put food on their table. Bit by bit the great ideals on which the US was founded, are being eroded while politicians get richer and richer.
Check out Lucy McBath (D, Marietta) in the photo…snuggled-up to child-killer Bibi. Lucy’s owned by AIPAC, DMFI purchased McBath; SAD for LUCY and GA! GA Gov Kemp and Marty enjoyed an Israeli junket too. Marty’s tackling sex trafficking here in GA and little does she know how many BUSLOADS of pedophiles she coulda herded back to the Governor’s Mansion.
Surely there’s a Weiner at UCLA and every major University by now enforcing “intellectual safety” at all times so seinfeldjr. will never have a thought challenged, never be asked difficult questions, and never ever made to FEEL uncomfortable at the site of a Palestinian flag. Unity Forever
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/05/02/columbia-crackdown-university-nypd/
If Palestinians successfully lobbied Abbas to declare self-determination, in either two independent states or one state with equal rights for all citizens, that would put Congress and Israel’s supporters, in a box.