this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2024
152 points (92.2% liked)

World News

38563 readers
2555 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world

Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
quinten@lemmy.world
NewsAutoMod@lemmy.world
jordanlund@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
lemmyAtom@lemmy.world
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world
152
Columbia University suspends three deans for 'antisemitism' in private text messages (www.middleeasteye.net)
submitted 2 months ago by Linkerbaan@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The three deans include Cristen Kromm, the former dean of undergraduate student life; Matthew Patashnick, the former associate dean for student and family support; and Susan Chang-Kim, the former vice dean and chief administrative officer.

The suspension of the deans is the latest example of how Ivy League schools have moved to squash any speech critical of Israel or simply challenging the view that students who express pro-Palestinian sentiment are inciting antisemitism.

Columbia has been the spotlight of the student protest movement in solidarity with Gaza over the past several months.

top 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 91 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

They’ve done a great job of making the word antisemitism become so utterly baseless that I no longer react negatively to hearing it.

As this article reaffirms, it’s now used to refer to anything supportive of Palestinian peoples or critical of Israel.

If I was Jewish I’d be furious with Israel and these lobbyists.

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 48 points 2 months ago

At this point I hear “antisemetic” and just have to assume that the speaker is pro-genocide and assume little about the person they are talking about.

[–] kerrigan778@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Can confirm, am furious

[–] istanbullu@lemmy.ml -3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Most Jews I have encountered are happily cheering for mass murder.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago

Seems like you're hanging out with the wrong crowd. Almost all of the jewish people in my circles are actively protesting it.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 43 points 2 months ago

anti-Semitic in 2024:

  • Doesn't support a genocide.
[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In the article, Hain wrote "Debates about Zionism, one state or two states…are all welcome conversations on campus”, but he said statements of support for the “Palestinian Resistance” equated to the “normalization of Hamas…[and] a point-of-no-return moment at Columbia”.

So it's OK to hold an abstract debate on the merits and demerits of Zionism, but quite outrageous to suggest the Palestinian people might not just accept being genocided without any fuss. If the thought that they might object to their own slaughter occurs to you, then you must hate Jews. This reasoning is nuts.

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

No no no it's about whether Israel should exist or exist MORE.

[–] istanbullu@lemmy.ml 30 points 2 months ago

In 2024 antisemitism means believing that mass murder is wrong.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago

I hate how when I see these sorts of headlines, I immediately think "oh, did they support Palestine?" whereas 5-10 years ago I'd assume they were a neo-nazi or someone in Trump's orbit like Stephen Miller. Articles like this only further reinforce that thinking:

The suspension came after conservative news outlet, The Washington Free Beacon, leaked photographs of the three deans’ text exchanges which included one dean using two vomit emojis in response to a reference to an article published in the Columbia student newspaper by Yonah Hain, the campus rabbi, about students’ response to 7 October.

In the article, Hain wrote "Debates about Zionism, one state or two states…are all welcome conversations on campus”, but he said statements of support for the “Palestinian Resistance” equated to the “normalization of Hamas…[and] a point-of-no-return moment at Columbia”.

Yeah, that shit deserves at least two vomit emojis. Its OK to debate whether or not Palestinians deserve to live on the land that Israelis are throwing them off of, but supporting resistance against colonial oppression is frowned upon.

The fact that this is the only paragraph of merit and its buried 3 paragraphs below that bullshit in the article should tell you all you need to know:

In a separate text, Patashnick texted that one speaker was “taking full advantage of this moment”, adding “Huge fundraising potential”. In another exchange, the deans appeared to suggest that the parent of a Jewish student had access to Columbia administration because of her wealth.

One person calling out right wing grifting, and another insinuation that the deans were making old 'jewish banker'-esque comments.That's the best the article has.

I'm continually amazed at the bullshit the right gets away with.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If Deans are being antisemitic, even privately, then the school should fire them. But reading the article, I didn't see anything antisemitic. Is there additional subtext I'm missing?

[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 49 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Colombia University officially said they believe anti Zionism is antisemitism.

Columbia Task Force for Dealing With Campus Protests Declares That Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism

[–] aleph@lemm.ee 39 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

This is ironic because in the opinion piece by Rabbi Hain published in the Columbia student newspaper, he complains that

For years, Columbia’s Palestinian freedom movement has differentiated between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, affirming that one can be critical of Israel without being anti-Semitic. But by using the October 7 attacks as a rallying point for the movement, attendees of the campus rally can no longer argue that their activism differentiates between the two. They are now saying the quiet part out loud: Dead Jews don’t matter.

So here he's trying to accuse pro-Palestine students for conflating Anti-Zionism and antisemitism, when in fact groups like the Anti-Defamation League and American Israel Public Affairs Committee have been doing this exact same thing for years! And now even the US Congress is in on the action.

This is precisely why conflating to two is wrong: it dilutes the term "antisemitism" so much that people start to roll their eyes when they see it being weaponized to silence criticism of Israel, which then makes it harder to protect Jewish people from actual anti-semitic attacks.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Israel's media manipulation often seems to be shockingly short-sighted. They'll lie about something that will get discovered within a week but do it anyway despite how it discredits their later efforts. Remember that calendar of terrorists doing shifts in the hospital guarding hostages? It was just the days of the week in Arabic. Like there's no way the IDF doesn't have someone who can read Arabic readily available. So why lie about that? It's almost immediately debunkable. They've grown overconfident due to the long term special relationship and lobbying efforts, but those sorts of thing can be destroyed if treated carelessly.

Discrediting charges of anti-Semitism for short term benefit is right in line.

[–] dlatch@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What does it matter? Anyone with the power to do something against them, doesn't care about their lies and supports them unconditionally. All they need to do is control their internal media cycle so that the "wins", no matter how fake, are present enough that the Israeli citizens don't care about the correction a week later, because there's a new lie to get behind.

They're taking a page out of Russia's playbook and it's working.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

Its crazy how even about 2 years ago if someone was accused of being antisemitic I'd think "damn, Nazi" and now whenever I hear it I just think that person is suckling Israel's balls.

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 months ago

See? Freedom of speech! You don't lose your freedom when you voice opinions critical of government policy, just your means of living freely.

[–] LordGimp@lemm.ee -2 points 2 months ago

Clearly the only measured response available is to glass the entire middle east from turkey to Yemen and leave nothing behind.