Being anti-Tel Aviv isn't antisemitic

The resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay on Tuesday, following bitter criticism of her appearance at a congressional hearing in early December, has fired a debate in the US on campus antisemitism. She goes along with U Penn president Elizabeth Magill who quit last month, and with pressure growing on their MIT counterpart, Sally Kornbluth, to follow suit. Gay and Magill are collateral damage of the Israel-Hamas war. They represent the tip of the iceberg of the unintended consequences of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu‘s decision to continue with attacks on Gaza.

The initial sympathy for Israel and condemnation of Hamas have shifted as the Palestinian body count has risen. On the one hand, it has meant open season for all manner of extremist positions and a renewed surge in antisemitism. On the other, it has resulted in the unsavoury and unfortunate conflation of criticism of the Netanyahu administration with that of all Jews. Gay and other fellow university presidents came under attack of legislators, donors and alums for their indecisive answers when asked whether the calls for ‘intifada‘ amounted to calls for ‘genocide’ of Jews. And whether such protest calls amounted to violations of their universities’ codes of conduct.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has breathed new life into the demand that US universities push political agendas out of universities, rather than provide campus space for different, sometimes conflicting, PoVs. Questioning Tel Aviv’s decision to disproportionately punish Gaza’s citizens does not amount to antisemitism. The same way conflating Hamas’ murderous agenda with Muslim, never mind Palestinian, intent is wrong. This conflation insults genuine cases of antisemitism that must be snuffed out promptly.