“Rhymes with Not Governor” Josh Gottheimer Smears Union, Faculty and Protected Free Speech as “Anti-Semitic”
If you want to get an idea as to what NJ will be like if the legislative bodies get their way with the measures against our protected speech that they are pushing – imagine if NJ was under the autocratic rule of a self elected tyrant with a mind like Josh Gottheimer.
In his world you do not need evidence to make public false accusations of antisemitism – all you need is that someone said something not nice about Israel.
In this case the faculty unions at Rutgers New Brunswick held an internal vote on the issue of Israel and Rutgers investments. The majority of participating union members voted yes to call for divestment from Israel in protest of US supported genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. There is a tradition of such movements at Rutgers, efforts to separate the university from oppressive systems dating back to the anti-apartheid effort of the 80s. This editor participated in such activities back then as a student and as a recent Rutgers graduate. During the Vietnam war era there were also protests at Rutgers demanding the severance of financial, research and recruitment ties to that destructive tragedy.
But because Israel is mentioned in a policy statement of the union that they polled their membership upon, Gottheimer glibly and inaccurately smears the union, the members, the faculty of Rutgers as antisemitic. As an attorney you would think he would be concerned about having evidence before making specious accusations. But in his mind he does not have to provide evidence – just that Israel was mentioned, therefore they are guilty of antisemitism. In his letter he pronounces it as fiat just as a despotic tyrant in the middle of purging his opposition might do. Indeed that is Gottheimer ‘s mission with his campaign for Governor, to use the full power of the law against the pro-Palestine advocates of NJ.
In a statement issued by Gottheimer he makes the following patently false remark and offers no evidence:
“I strongly condemn the Rutgers AAUP-AFT and Adjunct Faculty Union vote to approve an antisemitic BDS resolution calling on the state university to divest its financial investments and academic affiliations with America’s key democratic ally, Israel.” Josh Gottheimer letter smearing Rutgers Faculty and Union
Does he provide any evidence for his scurrilous accusation? He states his opinion that Israel is a key democratic ally of the USA. Some of the faculty at Rutgers disagree with that opinion – so if you disagree with Gottheimer you are antisemitic then I guess. He does not state exactly what in what he calls “an antisemitic BDS resolution” that he says is “antisemitism”. He advances a smear without a shred of actual evidence. That is how the Kafkaesque laws that NJ legislators are promoting will work. If you want the genocide to stop, if you call for ending US support for Israel, if you state anything disagreeable to staunch pro-Israel advocates like Gottheimer, you are antisemitic.
After claiming to be a staunch supporter of free speech Gottheimer has a redundant wording of his false accusation of BDS – again without any evidence. He makes assertions of slanderous allegations – no proof. Bad lawyer Josh! To show how much he supports free speech Gottheimer states: “(The faculty divestment vote) is unacceptable and has no place on college campuses or in our country — especially at Rutgers. “
Gottheimer makes another maliciously false claim about “rampant” antisemitism and then details a faculty member who was found to have made offensive postings on social media in 2017. This tact is what most would call a “red herring” and if Gottheimer tried that in court the opposing side would say “objection relevance” and the judge would say “sustained – strike from record.” He has no case so he uses a straw man attempt to falsely associate the justice seeking faculty resolution for divestment with the questionable postings of a professor made in 2017. It is the weakness of Gottheimer’s argument that he is grasping at this straw-man argument
Gottheimer’s closing paragraph is ominous:
“Administrators at colleges and universities across the country have a legal obligation to protect Jewish students against antisemitism, harassment, and intimidation.”
How convenient that Gottheimer’s concern about antisemitism allows him to vote to arm Israel’s genocidal war machine with the 2000 pound bombs to drop on tents and hospitals while, if he and others get their way, we who oppose such nefarious policy are obstructed by giving Kafkaesque legal weight to false smears of “antisemitism” based on false conflation of the nation-state of Israel with the religious belief of Judaism.
This will be the M.O. under the laws. Lawyers with specious arguments asserting Israel impunity will serve papers and threats against schools, libraries, publicly funded agencies accusing of antisemitism because someone held a negative thought about Israel. He says he believes in free speech and the rest of the letter proves he does not – just like he is Not Governor Josh Gottheimer.
