Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine-Discourse
This paper is a must read for all of us in the fight to defend our beloved protected speech rights in the state of NJ. Our rights are under attack by a NJ Democratic Party led (with Trump-ian Republican support) effort to criminalize pro-Palestine advocacy by falsely accusing proponents of “antisemitism.” The proposed laws being pursued provide a false basis upon the sham definition of “antisemitism” known as “IHRA” designed to make a legal framework to attack all opposition to policies of Israel and US support for Israel under the false smear of “antisemitic”. FightBackBetter provides this excerpt and encourages all to read the full document which is fully cited.
ISSUE BRIEF
Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine-Discourse
“The months since October 8, 2023 have been the deadliest on record for Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli military has killed over 45,000 Palestinians (including 20,000 children) and injured more than 100,000 Palestinians. Severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid for over a year have caused mass starvation among Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians.iii As a result, leading genocide scholars, experts in international law, and respected human rights organizations have concluded that Israel’s disproportionately violent response to the Hamas October 7th unlawful attacks amounts to war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and an unfolding genocide in Gaza.
Yet when Americans advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza, they are vilified as hateful toward Jews–especially when the speakers are Muslim, Palestinian, or Arab. False allegations of antisemitism are weaponized to silence and discredit advocates who humanize Palestinians. The political objective is clear: censor discussions on university campuses and in media that put into context the decades-long Israeli military occupation of Palestinians, the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands in 1948, and the consequent inter-generational trauma experienced by Palestinians.
Anti-Palestinian Censorship in Higher Education
When seeking to learn and teach about Palestine on college campuses, students and faculty face aggressive harassment, intimidation, and smear campaigns from pro-Israeli student groups, parents, and external special interest groups.vi University administrators enable or directly participate in these concerted attacks by canceling events, restricting free speech activities on campus, and ignoring anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia experienced by their Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students and faculty.
Pro-Israeli groups also abuse university administrative processes and anti-discrimination laws to quash on-campus political discussions or activism critical of Israel, notwithstanding that American taxpayers’ payment of $18 billion in foreign aid to Israel since October 2023 makes this a matter of public importance. vii
The success of these concerted censorship campaigns relies on the internalization among university administrators and elected officials of false stereotypes that Muslims and Arabs are presumptively antisemitic and terrorist supporters.viii
One need only look to the robust, open conversations in the U.S. surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a glaring contrast to the hostile crackdown on
political conversations surrounding Israel’s protracted military assault on Gaza. Viewpoint discrimination and bias against Palestinians explain the disparate realities.” READ PAPER IN FULL.
The paper continues by calling for equality and an end of disparity, explaining that while Israelis are treated currently as humans but Palestinians are treated by elected officials, university administrators and media as inferior, dangerous and undeseriving of dignity. The paper describes an Islamophobia network of organizations and demagogues that propagate Islamophobic tropes that Muslims and Arabs are presumptively antisemitic. That network is attempting to impose a definition of supposed “antisemitism” that encompasses criticizing the laws, policies, and practices of the nation-state of Israel and the political ideology of Zionism. As the Issue Brief explains: “The perverse result is that Palestinians and Muslims must forfeit their civil rights in the United States so that pro-Israeli Jews do not feel offended by opposing political viewpoints.” The false definition of antisemitism, according to the brief undermines a fight against the very real antisemitic threats that do exist.
The paper makes the following recommendations:
1. Congress, state legislators and local governing bodies must reject the attempt to establish the false IHRA defintiion of anti-Semitism
2. University administrators must reject and not succumb to pressure from pro-Israel groups and instead stick to the university tradition of freedom to debate opposing viewpoints including pro-Palestine perspectives, without fear of University punishment.
-and –
3. Congress should include the experiences and perspectives of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim American communities in U.S. foreign policy development.
Please – if you are in this fight to defend free speech in NJ – read the full briefing at this link.
