“It comes just over a week after its president, Claudine Gay, resigned in part over her handling of antisemitism.”
Is this just blatant misinformation or am I out of the loop? I was under the impression that she resigned over plagiarism while some people online criticized her for “antisemitism”. I haven’t read anything about antisemitism being a primary cause from any publication but this one.
As with anything you read about Israel, the facts are always distorted just slightly enough to completely change the message without flat out lying. It’s not just you, there’s a major funk around any Israel based news stories coming out of the mainstream media.
Without having seen the specific kind of “hatred and harassment” they’re talking about, I can’t form a valid opinion. I wonder, though, if people are interpreting fair criticism of the Israeli government as “antisemitism”. Fair criticism and antisemitism are two very different things, but I often see them confused.
Similarly, I wonder if people are trying to disguise hateful antisemitism as “fair criticism” when there’s nothing fair or reasonable about it.
As always, it will be difficult to protect freedom of speech while preventing and punishing hate speech.
“selectively enforces its policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, hires professors who support anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda, and ignores Jewish students’ pleas for protection”
The problem with this statement is it is completely subjective and not at all objective. The first one is reasonable if Jewish students are being verbally harassed walking through campus with complaints being ignored. That might very well be happening. However, the other ones sound a whole lot like, “you hired professors who don’t 100% support Israel no matter what the country does.” One person’s “spread antisemitic propaganda” is another person’s “shared a story from a reputable news source that didn’t show 100% support for Israel.”
Nuking Israel because it’s primarily Jewish? Yes fuck that, that’s anti-semitism.
Israel as a purely Jewish ethnostate? Fuck that too, non-Jews live there and everyone is human. Netanyahu’s comments on “Israel solely for Jews” is fucking stupid and he clearly learned nothing from the 20th century German attempt at an ethnostate.
Saudi Arabia should not be allowed to exist as a Muslim ethnostate, though. Their human rights abuses against those that aren't part of their specific ethnicity and religious sect are pure evil.
"They get to do evil, so I should too" is a very bad argument that is not made by people who aren't evil.
Saudi Arabia isn't a Muslim ethnostate. It's a state whose citizens happen to be almost 100% Muslim because this is Saudi Arabia of course they are. This isn't defense of their treatment of slaves foreign workers or anything of the sort, that's just pure evil.
It’s unfortunate that entities such as the ADL have intentionally (and openly) blurred the line between antisemitism and criticism of Israel, and the news just regurgitates whatever they tell them.
Is antisemitism up? Yes.
Is it particularly bad at universities? Probably.
Is it up by 5000000%? (I don’t know the actual number, but the ADL likes to throw a big % out there.) No.
all citizens are legally entitled to the same rights
It’s worth pointing out that, in general and throughout history, citizenship is something that separates the privileged from the unprivileged. The in-group from the outsider. The masters and the slaves.
Touting the rights of citizens, therefore, does not necessarily rebut the parent comment’s criticism.
No they're not. Jewish Israelis have Jewish ancestry, which entitles them to more rights, and Palestinians are explicitly signaled as exceptions to a number of laws (see: Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens can't be naturalized).
That’s my assumption–it’s basically legal extortion.
I will say that I believe that there is antisemitism in most places because there are humans in most places. Whatever happens at Harvard is probably not exceptional or notable in any way.
Universities encourage critical thinking. For a lot of young adults, it’s the first time being exposed to a lot of new ideas in their infancy. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was higher simply because they are processing new concepts and sometimes come to unfortunate conclusions.
And it doesn't help that, as of late, the term "antisemite" is aggressively being expanded to include those who show any criticism whatsoever of the current Bibi administration.
It's crazy to me. On October 6th, 2023, the Bibi administration was largely viewed as a far right, antidemocratic, religiously extreme collection of intensely corrupt lunatics. On October 7th, so many otherwise totally-reasonable people just forgot how they felt the day before.
That’s how people respond to terrorist attacks. Look at what America did after 9/11, rallying behind Giuliani and Bush to attack Iraq because… Then you had bigots attacking Sikhs on the streets, Freedom Fries because France opposed indiscriminate bombing, and just about the most ridiculous performative security measures for people wanting to travel in a plane.
History will remember. We will look back on this time as a dark period of bigotry, violence, oppression, and genocide.
It’s true. And we didn’t fix anything, we just made travel so much more miserable and put in laws to let the government spy on people. As we saw with both 9/11 and Oct 6, high surveillance isn’t the answer. We need to move beyond security theater and retribution.
I have also found that some people become very angry when you point out that Palestinians and Arabs in general are actually Semites. There were actually a whole lot of Semitic groups in history.
Antisemitism has nothing to do with whether or not someone is of an ethnicity related to the Semitic language group. My guess would be that you are upsetting people not by pointing out that Palestinians are Semites, but by incorrectly claiming that antisemitism is in any way connected to the - very real - discrimination against and hatred of Palestinians and Arabs.
I don't have the patience or tact to offer thoughtful and gentle explanations (as you did) when it's "pointed out" that many people from the region could be considered Semitic.
It's very much the sort of argument my clever nephew might make. He's a smart kid, but he hasn't gotten to the point where he can understand that a clever fact is not necessarily in any way relevant to a complex problem. And certainly not a devastating argument that can simply stop everyone in their mad mutual desire for destruction.
"Well, shit. We were all Semites the whole time????"
Critical thinking doesn’t make people racist, though. I work at a university and have seen many people be edgy. Some do it for effect because they are, frankly, very immature and like that attention. Most who are actually racist were brought up that way or went down the rabbit hole sometime in high school.
Not to mention that Harvard will likely settle just to avoid going through discovery simply because they know there is an entire political movement looking for ANY excuse to go for blood with them.
The entire complaint is linked in the third paragraph. It goes into some detail about specific incidents of harassment of Jewish students and some of the ways that the university is systemically hostile to Jewish students, particularly those who express support for Israel, which, “is a crucial component of Kestenbaum’s and SAA members’ Jewish identities, and many of them are descendants of survivors of the Nazis, with family and friends in Israel.”
It’s really quite sad that the Israel simps have abused the idea of antisemitism to the point that when I see accusations of antisemitism, I genuinely have no idea if they’re taking about serious bigotry or if they’re talking about people saying it’s bad to murder civilians.
No need to speculate; the allegations are linked in the article:
Harvard students and faculty harass, discriminate, and assault Jewish students—including on October 18, when a mob of protesters attacked a Jewish student, and the next day, when a mob trapped a group of Jewish students in a study room
Subjected to intense anti-Jewish vitriol, including from their own professors and Harvard administrators, Kestenbaum and other Jewish students, including SAA members, have been deprived of the ability and opportunity to fully participate in Harvard’s educational and other programs and have been placed at severe emotional and physical risk.
Moreover, over the past ten years, Harvard has instituted admissions policies that have severely reduced—by as much as sixty percent—the number of Jewish students, an enormous decline that evinces an intentional effort, much like Harvard’s quotas one hundred years ago, to exclude Jews.
when a mob of protesters attacked a Jewish student, and the next day, when a mob trapped a group of Jewish students in a study room
The important part here seems to be left out: did Harvard punish the students responsible for this? I find it hard to believe that they got away with this if they actually did it and we know who they are.
He showed up at a pro Palestinian protest to try and dox the students there. They asked him to leave. He ignored them and was then escorted out. People did not say nice things to him.
I start d (slowly) reading this and… Is this how legal briefs are written? It seems like a reddit blog post. For instance in the examples section they write “SJp … is one of the most vitriolic antisemitic networks on college campuses. SJP was founded by the chairman of American Muslims for Palestine (“AMP”), the leadership of which overlaps with the leadership of organizations that have been shut down by federal authorities, whose assets were frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department, or that were found liable in civil actions for providing material support to Hamas. SJP receives funding and training from AMP as well as from universities. SJP and its affiliates sponsor antisemitic events, host antisemitic speakers…” All of which I’m reading expecting a citation somewhere… Anywhere. It seems like easily verifiable stuff. But there is none. Is this how legal briefs are written?
Being anti Israel is just not the same as being antisemitic. I’m not sure why that is such a hard thing for people to understand. Israel and Judaism are different things.
With the information about the organzied harassment campaign that is openly available, I feel confident in judging that group as agitators and lawyers that terrorize human rights advocates.
I'm getting damn sick of Jews saying that Harvard is anti-semitic and trying to disguise their own sick bigotry as some sort of "god given" mantra. They drove a black president out because of her being black and they claim to be "good people?????" Jews are sacks of manure. The more I learn of this abhorrent harrassment by them, the more I hate them with every single fiber of my being and the more I am determined to hate and hurt them however and whenever I can.
You as well mhjague, as we know from your past. You as well. I know the things you have done, so this is like the pot calling the kettle "black." Only in this case, the pot is made of pure seething maggotty cow dung.
Not all Jews are pro-Israel, pro-genocide, pro-harassment, etc (take your pick). This cuts both ways. Anyone saying that criticizing Israel is antisemitic is equating the two and being antisemitic themselves. That means you, Israel, ADL, etc, whoever.
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary“Every day there is mounting, irreparable loss of life, property, dignity and humanity for the Palestinian people,” Adila Hassim, also representing South Africa, told the court. In its evidence submitted before the hearing, South Africa said Israel’s actions were “intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group”. On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the hypocrisy of South Africa screams to the heavens” - criticising the country for failing to respond to atrocities in Syria and Yemen committed by “partners of Hamas”. It was in contrast to the formality inside the court, where the Israeli delegation is listening to South Africa’s lawyers accuse the country’s forces of committing genocide in Gaza. It sees parallels with its struggle against apartheid - a policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white-minority government in South Africa against the country’s black majority, until the first democratic elections, in 1994. In Gaza, more than 23,350 people - mostly women and children - have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since the war began in the aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October attacks on southern Israel. — Saved 77% of original text.
Ffs, can we please please stop the car centric city? Can we please invest in public transportation, bicycle lanes everywhere, and walkable neighborhoods?
Climate change hats this one little trick where we don’t design cities to be car dependent hellscapes, and it’s good for your (mental) health too!
FFS can we please acknowledge reality that cars are not going anywhere anytime soon and that cars are going to be a part of the solution along with the expansion of public transportation and bike lanes that doesn’t get people killed and city planning around less urban sprawl and stop treating this stuff like it’s a zero sum game.
It boggles my mind, that solutions so obvious and simple are somehow framed as untenable. If 3/4 streets in Manhattan were made walkable/bike-able only (except for wee hours for trash and whatnot) - we could still get everywhere - less death - less pollution - more little shops - more trees - healthier.
I’m actually really interested in this as a project I would like to understand what it would take to get this done. The scope creep in planning seems simply astronomical and I would like to know who the authorities are on city design at the moment.
I also think there is a cynical side to me that thinks that all the people who do city design take the money they make and dump it into a mc mansion out in the burbs anyway so the motivation of individuals with these skills seems skewed.
Having lived in the US with publicly run transit and in the UK with privately run transit I’d say there’s a lot of ‘it depends’ you’re glossing over here. Very city dependent
Enough with the ‘it’s the worst and it will get even worse’ stories. Start publishing the names and actions of those who benefitted from these catastrophies. Start publishing their plans to ride out the crises when the rest of us struggle in a disaster they made. Start publishing the actions they took to sabotage the world’s search for energy independence and sustainability. Start publishing how much money they made/stole with this. Start publishing the number of lives lost per person who benefitted from this.
I don’t understand the f***ing pacifist strategy against a bunch of greedy sniveling mass murderers.
I would love to see chargers more incentivized at workplaces. As solar becomes more common charging during the day is going to make more sense than night. There are already ways to track charging costs and bill them out or just consider it a job perk. Most people don’t need to charge 300 miles a day so even if every single employee drives an EV you probably only need to install enough chargers for somewhere like ¼ of the cars on site. Yes some people need to drive for work, but there are a lot of cars that sit all day and could be running on solar instead of charging off something else at night instead.
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