On December 5, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing titled “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Anti-Semitism.”
On December 5, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing titled “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Anti-Semitism.” This hearing was a setup aimed at suppressing and silencing the righteous wave of protest on college campuses against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide that is happening right now against the Palestinian people.
Called to testify before the committee were the presidents of three universities: Claudine Gay of Harvard, Liz Magill of University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and Sally Kornbluth of MIT. After hours of badgering these university presidents, one sound bite that made them look bad went viral. Since then, Magill from UPenn has been forced to resign, and calls are intensifying against the other two.
The viral moment was when MAGA fascist Rep. Elise Stefanik asked each of the university presidents: “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment?” Dr. Gay of Harvard responded that “It can be, depending on the context.” The other two presidents gave similar answers. Stefanik demanded a “yes” or “no” answer from each, but they did not oblige.
So what is this about? And overall, what is the “anti-Semitism” that these university presidents need to be “held accountable” for?
Stefanik made clear that she wasn't concerned about any actual anti-Semitism, but she repeatedly badgered the witnesses to agree with her characterization of popular slogans of the pro-Palestine movement like “from the river to the sea” and “intifada” as being calls for genocide of Jews, in Israel and around the world. This is totally upside down!
“Intifada” means a “shaking off” in Arabic. It's popularly understood to be the uprising of the Palestinian people against the decades-old ethnic cleansing and genocide by Israel.
“From the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea” is a reference to the boundaries of Palestine before the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948. Hard core Zionists use it to mean they will drive all the Palestinians out of Palestine. As a reactionary organization, Hamas has used it to mean driving out the Jewish population. But for many other people—of different faiths and nationalities—it means that all Palestinians should be free in their historic homeland, in which all the current population should live as equals, rather than being a Jewish state in which Palestinians are either second-class or non-citizens, as it is today.
Bob Avakian on the Existential Crisis Facing Israel
What Stefanik was really saying is that any and all protest against the state of Israel is automatically anti-Semitic (hatred of Jewish people). And that any and all calls for Palestinian liberation is identical to a call for the genocide of Jewish people. This is not just bullshit, it is an attempt to deny the actual genocide taking place right now—the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. It's an attempt to suppress the righteous protest against this, and to change the fucking subject!
The Democrats went right along with the fascists in this. Not only did the Democrats on the committee not say a word in opposition, some even joined the attack. Susan Wild (D-Penn.) wanted to know why a pro-Palestine protest at UPenn had been allowed to take place and claimed that the protest made Jewish students “uncomfortable.” Kathy Manning (D-NC) wanted Harvard administrators to combat the “false accusations that Israel is a racist settler colonial state.” After the hearing, other prominent Democrats joined the attack, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) who went on Fox News to demand that all three university presidents be fired.
Three basic points:
1. The reality that this hearing was aimed at suppressing is the reality that Israel—with the full backing of the U.S.—is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people. The attack by Hamas on October 7 was reactionary and it should be condemned. But that doesn't come close to the decades-long slaughter and terror that Israel has subjected the Palestinian people to, with a major intensification of this over the last two months—killing off almost 20,000 and counting, and making it nearly impossible for Palestinian people to survive.
2. Being against the state of Israel (anti-Zionism) is NOT being against Jewish people (anti-Semitism). As the revolutionary leader and thinker Bob Avakian wrote a few weeks ago:
Judaism is a religion, a culture and a people sharing that culture.
Zionism is a racist, Jewish-supremacist political doctrine and ideology. Zionism is the ideological basis on which the state of Israel was founded, and which it continues to perpetuate as the rationalization for its existence, and its oppression and destruction of the Palestinian people.
And here is the twisted “logic” of Zionist supporters of Israel whose position amounts to this:
“I can’t understand it. When we Jews were the victims of genocide, decent people everywhere condemned those committing that genocide. But now, when we are committing genocide against the Palestinians, decent people are condemning us. I just can’t understand it. It must be anti-Semitism.”
No—it is not anti-Semitism—it is consistent and righteous opposition to atrocity, whoever is committing that atrocity.
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3. This whole hearing was aimed at wiping out the basic right to protest and to suppress speech—on campuses and throughout society. If people were actually calling for the genocide of Jewish people on college campuses as a widespread phenomenon, this would have to be called out and condemned. Why this was happening would have to be dug into and met with protest and debate defending the humanity of Jewish people. But it would be unacceptable to kick these people out of school, drive them out of jobs or be attacked by the state! And the utter hypocrisy of these fascists—who are actively suppressing discussion of the humanity of LGBTQ people, or the actual genocidal history of this country—exposes the reality that they don't give a fuck about Jewish people or about free speech. What they care about is crushing any determined opposition to their larger agenda.
In the face of this, the people—including thousands of Jews—who are standing up against the U.S. and Israel in their cold-blooded murder of Palestinian people are right and righteous, and should be defended. Those aiming to stop this protest are the ones actively supporting a genocide and need to be opposed—throughout all of society.
“We Stand with Israel” = We Stand for Genocide!
