An intellectual history of anti-Semitism and support for Palestinian terrorism on campus
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CounterCurrent:
Anti-Semitism Comes
Home to Roost
An intellectual history of anti-Semitism and support for Palestinian terrorism on campus
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: Israel, BDS, Higher Education;
Reading Time: ~5 minutes
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** Featured Articles/Report: ([link removed])
" ([link removed]) The Academic Roots of Hamas’s Terror, ([link removed]) " ([link removed]) " ([link removed]) Turning Our Universities Against Barbarism, ([link removed]) " ([link removed])
" ([link removed]) A Reckoning: How to Respond to Those Who Temporize with Terrorists, ([link removed]) " ([link removed]) " ([link removed]) Report: ([link removed]) The Company They Keep ([link removed]) " ([link removed])
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We at the National Association of Scholars must walk a fine line between respecting the rights of students and faculty members to say abhorrent things, and the need to express the countervailing force of civilized condemnation. What does it mean to tolerate speech while condemning its content? [. . .] We can and will hold the apologists for terror accountable for their efforts to make atrocities an acceptable part of political disagreement. But we will not reciprocate by silencing them. — Peter Wood ([link removed])
Over the years, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) has done extensive work tracing the roots of anti-Semitism in higher education and calling attention to the individuals, departments, and institutions which engage in it. Colleges and universities have and should remain places where the exchange of ideas and freedom of speech reign. But the abominable events in Israel begun by Hamas on October 7, 2023, have further solidified the presence (and acceptance) of anti-Semitism in American academia—in disgusting displays of anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions.
It might be surprising to some that anti-Semitism runs rampant in higher education. That’s why NAS has put time and resources into unearthing this horrific trend through reports, research, and articles on the subject to educate the public. Think of this edition of CounterCurrent as a guide through some past work on the subject, current thoughts on higher education’s treatment of Israel, and what must be done for the future to root out anti-Semitism in academia for good.
Bruce Gilley, professor of politics and global affairs at Portland State University and a member of the NAS Board of Directors, traces the intellectual history of Hamas from 1988 to the present. The article details the gestation of major ideologies that shaped this terrorist organization and their prevalence on campus. “The Academic Roots of Hamas’s Terror ([link removed]) ” also states that “[t]he violent and hate-filled doctrines that motivated the Hamas attacks are directly connected to the theories taught on today’s American college campuses.” Read more here ([link removed]) .
David Randall, NAS research director, calls out colleges and universities that position themselves as neutral or sympathetic to Hamas in his article “Turning Our Universities Against Barbarism ([link removed]) .” “Our institutions of higher education morally besmirch themselves by an admixture of open sympathy for slaughtering Jews, toleration of such sympathy, postures of ‘moral equivalence’ between the killers and the killed, and cowardly silence.” Read more here ([link removed]) .
Peter Wood, president of NAS, writes in his recent statement ([link removed]) about the terrorist attack on Israel and the celebration it received by many in academia: “This is a moment when both criticism and condemnation are indeed necessary: criticism of the inhumanity of those who celebrate cruelty, and condemnation of the ideology that makes such repugnant views persuasive to many faculty and students and compelling to those so credulous as to indulge it.” Read on here ([link removed]) .
Ian Oxnevad, NAS senior fellow for foreign affairs and security studies, wrote an extensive report ([link removed]) on the “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” (BDS) movement where he outlined how it not only threatens Jewish students and scholars, but also the political neutrality of American academia. “The BDS movement promotes a one-sided narrative that demonizes the Jewish state while disproportionately amplifying narratives of Palestinian grievance and Arab victimhood.” Read more here ([link removed]) .
By no means is this an exhaustive list of the work done on this subject by NAS (Minding the Campus also has many pieces on Israel, BDS, and more). But the point remains that anti-Semitism doesn’t start and end with one professor, student, or administrator on a college campus. It pervades whole departments and institutions through tolerance of anti-Semitic rhetoric and through politically motivated funding. Until higher education returns to institutional neutrality, eschews agenda-fueled foreign funding, and recenters its mission on the search for truth over activism, the roots of anti-Semitism cannot be weeded out effectively.
Until next week.
Kali Jerrard
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read "The Academic Roots of Hamas’s Terror" ([link removed])
Read "Turning Our Universities Against Barbarism" ([link removed])
Read "A Reckoning: How to Respond to Those Who Temporize with Terrorists" ([link removed])
Read "The Company They Keep" ([link removed])
For more on Israel, BDS, foreign influence, and higher ed:
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October 30, 2023
** Support for the Hamas Reveals Two Truths: DEI is a Lie and Institutional Neutrality is Essential ([link removed])
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Andrew Gillen
If an institution only wants to be neutral on the attempted genocide of Jews, it is not standing on principle, it is using a convenient excuse to hide bigotry.
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October 26, 2023
** Multiculturalism Begets Tribalism: Hamas in Our Universities ([link removed])
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Phillip Carl Salzman
If you wonder why university students celebrate the barbaric atrocities of Hamas, the lies of postcolonial theory and critical race theory explain a good part of it.
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September 13, 2022
** Report: Outsourced to Qatar ([link removed])
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Neetu Arnold
In partnering with Qatar, American universities have invested substantial time and manpower to aid the development of an illiberal regime that funds and befriends entities hostile to American national interests.
** About the NAS
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The National Association of Scholars, founded in 1987, emboldens reasoned scholarship and propels civil debate. We’re the leading organization of scholars and citizens committed to higher education as the catalyst of American freedom.
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