Antisemitism has existed for millennia throughout the world. Originally manifested under a religious guise and then a racial one, in recent years much anti-Jewish animus has been manifested under the political/ideological guise of anti-Zionism. This is particularly true on American college and university campuses, where political “criticism” of Israel often morphs into the recognizable tropes of classical antisemitism, such as claims that Jews are baby killers and the portrayal of Jews as hungry for world domination.
On many college and university campuses, Jewish students have been subjected to:
- swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti in residential halls, public areas on campus and Hillel houses;
- physical aggression, harassment and intimidation by members of student or community groups in student-sponsored protests, rallies and agitprop held on campus;
- speakers, films and exhibits sponsored by student, faculty and community groups, that engage in antisemitic discourse or use antisemitic imagery and language to falsely describe Israel, Zionists, and Jews, including that Israel is a racist, apartheid or Nazi state; that Israel is guilty of heinous crimes against humanity such as ethnic cleansing and genocide; that the Jewish State should be destroyed; that violence against Jews is justified; that Jews exaggerate the Holocaust as a tool of Zionist propaganda; and that Jews in America wield excessive power over American foreign policy;
- student and faculty-sponsored boycott, divestment and sanction campaigns against Israel that are a means of demonizing lsrael and seek to harm the Jewish state; and
- suppression and disruption of free speech that presents Israel’s point of view.