A curated reading guide for the public and media.
If Foxx, Stefanik, and fellow House Republicans were genuinely concerned about anti-Semitism, they would investigate the white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and QAnon conspiracy theorists who make up part of their base and participated in the January 6 insurrection. . . . Foxx not only voted against certifying the 2020 election but, like Stefanik and fellow House Republicans, vehemently opposed the commission to investigate the capitol riot.
Read Professor Robin DG Kelley’s article in the Boston Review →
But this rush to weaponize events on college campuses and demonize people like Holloway is all about politics, another reminder of how degraded our national conversation has become — and how divorced from reality.
“I’m not saying there is no antisemitism at Rutgers, but I’ve personally never seen it,” says David Kurnick, a Jewish professor of English literature who has taught at the New Brunswick campus for 17 years. “I was at the encampment, and I saw many Jews there. I get that it makes some people uncomfortable, but that’s not the same as antisemitism.”
Read Tom Moran’s article in the New Jersey Star Ledger →
A group of billionaires and business titans working to shape U.S. public opinion of the war in Gaza privately pressed New York City’s mayor last month to send police to disperse pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, according to communications obtained by The Washington Post and people familiar with the group.
Read Hannah Natanson and Emmanuel Felton’s coverage in the Washington Post →
The interviews, including those with campus labor activists and academic associations, revealed a pattern of politically motivated repression where campaigns by pro-Israel advocates can mar the careers of academics because of comments that express outrage at Israel’s ongoing occupation and its war in Gaza.
Read Natasha Lennard’s article in the Intercept →
While national attention is manipulated into focusing on some Jewish students who say that they feel uncomfortable or anxious in view of the protests against the Gaza genocide (which no doubt some do—everyone ought to feel uncomfortable that we are complicit in genocide), hardly anything is being said about the actual material harm, including physical injury to the point of disability and the threat or actuality of lost job prospects and future careers suffered by those advocating for Palestinian rights—including countless numbers of Jewish students.
Read Saree Makdisi’s article in the Los Angeles Review of Books →
The legal scholar Asli Bali traces the history of international law and its role in the Israeli-Palestinisn Conflict.
Listen to Professor Bali’s conversation on the Ezra Klein Show →
One-third of American Jews under 40 consider Israel’s assault on Gaza to be a “genocide” and two-fifths of American Jews of the same age range consider Israel to be an “apartheid state.” The new antisemitism law would in effect silence vast swaths of Jews within educational institutions. It would in some ways be the most punitive law against Jews to be enacted in the U.S. since the Immigration Act of 1924.
Read Professor Benjamin Balthasar’s op-ed in the Hill →
Medics, physicians recall ‘dystopian’ violence of encampment attack and sweep
“There were students that had head bleeds, brain bleeds from those rubber bullets. There were students that had such significant fractures from those rubber bullets that they were in danger of losing a finger,” they said. “Those are not actions of people interested in student safety. Whatever letter that Chancellor Block wants to issue stating that these are his goals – his actions do not reflect his words.”
Concerned Law Professors 