The Anti-Defamation League has gotten into the defamation business. The ADL was founded in 1913 to combat anti-Semitic prejudice and was once respected for its civil rights work. Now, amid nationwide protests united nations special rapporteur Others say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but Israel’s reckless and unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism are shattering that reputation.
Led by CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL launched a campaign to target what appeared to be any Criticize Israel and ridicule its statements mission Not just to “stop the defamation of the Jewish people,” but to “ensure justice and fair treatment for all.”
Today, the organization denounces as anti-Semitic anyone who dares to criticize Israel, even progressive, anti-Zionist Jews in groups such as . Jewish Voice for Peace. it has encourage Weaponization of universities anti-terrorism law Silencing the voice of the Palestinian pro-Palestinian group Students for Justice. It is undermining its widely cited hate crime data putter Jewish Peaceful rallies fall into the same category as anti-Semitic attacks, lumped together liberal Jews, called for a ceasefire with Jew-haters, and prompted Wikipedia’s editors to warn that it had “repeatedly published false and misleading statements on the subject of anti-Semitism and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.” Speech”.
The Anti-Democratic League increasingly became the killer of McCarthy’s Zionism. An employee of the organization spoke to The Guardian No beating around the bush: “The ADL has a pro-Israel bias and an agenda to suppress pro-Palestinian activism.” In fact, Greenblatt vowed to “apply More concentrated energy Confronting the Threat of Radical Anti-Zionism.
The group is responding to the threat in Southern California. One of its latest targets is my alma mater, Occidental College. The ADL announced in May that it and another pro-Israel groups, The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Legal Human Rights filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against Occidental College and Pomona College, accusing them of “allowing egregious discrimination and harassment of Jewish students in violation of Chapter Six Civil Rights Act of 1964,” which allows the federal government to deny funding to agencies found to be discriminatory.
Quoting carefully edited testimonies from four anonymous students, complaint — one of many groups targeting universities across the country — alleging that “Jewish students at Occidental College have suffered discrimination, disparity and harassment because of their shared ancestry” since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. And the college’s administration allowed “a hostile environment to flourish.”
The complaint describes the student flyers as “pro-Hamas pamphlets” and describes those who occupied the school’s administration building last fall as “pro-Hamas protesters” who “taped” anti-Semitic stickers on the walls and anti-Israel posters, thereby fanning the flames. It should be noted that the profession in question is Short and calm. The complaint did not provide detailed descriptions, photos or other evidence to support its allegations of support for Hamas or anti-Semitic messaging.
When I spoke with Matthew Vickers of the Western chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, he readily admitted that he and his fellow student activists are unequivocally anti-Israel as they denounce the country’s carpet-pulling of imprisoned civilians The bombing is genocide; denounces its illegal West Bank settlements as violent colonialism; and denounces its systematic domination and dehumanization of Palestinians under apartheid. But he flatly denied there were anti-Semitic posters or slogans during the occupation or at the group’s rallies, let alone a pervasive anti-Semitic atmosphere on campus.
Of course, the Anti-Defamation League’s complaints about Western television aren’t really about anti-Semitism. It’s about weaponizing accusations of anti-Semitism to discredit, silence and punish critics of Israel at a time when its actions have sparked a storm of protests on campuses.
The ADL claims that a “hostile environment toward Jewish and Israeli students” prevails at the school, on the basis that “Zionism is a key component of the common ancestry and racial identity of many Jewish Americans.” Until recently, this assumption was 2020 Pew Research The quotes in the complaint indicate that they are generally true.
But Israel’s grotesquely disproportionate response to Hamas’s atrocities has deeply divided Zionism even among Jews, and sparked heated debate among Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. Support for Israel is a cornerstone of many Jewish identities, but for some it has become a millstone.
The Anti-Defamation League’s complaint against Occidental says an unnamed Jewish student chose not to wear a Star of David necklace after being confronted in a cafeteria, noting that “she felt she could no longer publicly affirm her Jewish identity.” “Won’t be harassed. ” No one should be harassed because of who they are. But if “a connection to the State of Israel is an integral part of one’s identity,” as the ADL insists, and Israel is struggling with Countries considered to be the “State of Israel” go to war. genocidal With indifference to civilian life, things get messy.
“When Israel is targeted because of anti-Semitic hatred, that is anti-Semitism,” the Anti-Defamation League solemnly and plainly asserts in its complaint. So true, like a tautology: anti-Semitic hatred is indeed anti-Semitism. But as hard as it may be for the anti-democratic coalition to imagine, there are other reasons why Israel is being singled out, chief among them the following: 37,000 He has been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The ADL’s complaints make many Jewish and Israeli students at Occidental feel unsafe, but the college’s concerns about Jewish safety appear to be limited to right-thinking Zionists. Might those anti-Zionist Jewish students face reputational damage or worse by being labeled “anti-Semitic” as a result of the Anti-Defamation League’s pressure campaign? According to Vickers of Occidental’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, the camp there is a joint effort with Jewish Voice for Peace. He told me that Jewish participation in the camps was “quite disproportionate.” “Thirty to 40 percent of the people sleeping in the camp were Jewish, and they made up about 10 percent of the students at Occidental College.”
Attacked by the Anti-Defamation League for comments it didn’t like, Greenblatt conflated anti-Zionist and anti-war protests with anti-Semitism, defaming and threatening not only Jewish students but also LGBTQ+ students and students of color, according to Vickers said the students were protesting.
These students were so moved by a sense of solidarity with oppressed people on the other side of the world that they were willing to risk punishment from administrators, violence from police and counter-protesters — as in UCLA — and legal bullying by the ADL. They understand better than Greenblatt that you cannot “ensure justice and fair treatment” all” while defending minority rights.
Mark Dery is a cultural critic who graduated from Occidental College in 1982.
