Nearly half of Connecticut College faculty publishes antisemitic slur of "Jewish supremacy" ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Sunday, May 05, 2024

Nearly half of Connecticut College faculty publishes antisemitic slur of "Jewish supremacy"

Ninety members of the faculty of Connecticut College have signed a letter of "solidarity with student protestors" nationwide that not only ignores facts, and not only explicitly lies about Israel, but it even spreads the antisemitic slur that Jews engage in "Jewish supremacy."

The college has 187 full-time and 67 part-time faculty members, meaning that up to nearly half of the faculty there signed this letter.

Every paragraph includes lies and ignorance:

Institutions of higher education have never been apolitical spaces, and choosing to remain neutral in the face of a genocide is, itself, a political position.

There is no genocide by any definition of the term - except the attempted genocide by Hamas.

Criminalizing students for peaceful protest demonstrates these institutions’ deplorable commitment to the repression of academic inquiry and the shackling of critical thought.

If students are violating university policies, refusing to leave when requested, making areas of campus no-go zones for other students including Jews who support Israel, this is no longer peaceful protest. No one has a problem with peaceful protest.

The criminalization of nonviolent student protesters constitutes a willful and cynical flouting of the mission of universities as speech havens, where the strong protections of academic freedom must apply and be upheld.

Not a word about the suppression of free speech of Jewish students, of the intimidation of Jews on campus, of the violent attacks that some Jews have suffered. These teachers, in other words, don't give a damn about free speech except the speech they agree with, which means they don't care about free speech.

Divestment is a tried and true political strategy. Faculty play a crucial role in supporting student demands for universities and colleges to divest from companies supporting Israeli state violence, genocide, apartheid, and occupation.

For a letter from academics, there isn't even a pretense of evidence for the accusations. Like all good propagandists, they lie about "genocide" and "apartheid" and "occupation" as if these are established truths.

We also stand in solidarity with Israeli organizations and activists who oppose Israeli apartheid and Jewish supremacy such as Shoresh.

I had never heard of Shoresh, and for good reason: it was just founded after October 7 and it is not an Israeli organization at all, but a tiny group of a few ex-Israelis who live in the US. it was profiled by Al Jazeera in March, and that is about it. It doesn't have a webpage, just a page on Action Network where they describe themselves as pretty much an ex-Israeli JVP: "We offer a leftist vision for radical change between the river and the sea" where Palestinians would have a right to "return" but Jews would have no national rights. No names of the leaders, no official statements, no mention of where funding comes from, nothing. The very faculty that claims to care about transparency in college investments has no problems with propping up an alleged organization that is completely opaque.

But like JVP and Neturei Karta, they serve a purpose: to shield today's bigots from charges of bigotry. "See? I'm not antisemitic when I say there is 'Jewish supremacy!' I have an organization of Jewish Israeli expats who agree with me!"

There is no pushback I can find at Connecticut College except a single article in the campus newspaper by Professor Andrew Pessin condemning this letter. Besides the points I make, he emphasizes that a letter like this by itself chills the free speech of those who attend these people's classes:

In general I believe it is inappropriate for a mob of faculty to promote their opinions to you this way. There is a bullying process that goes into acquiring signatures that is inconducive to free and open inquiry. This document may also make some of you uncomfortable, and feel unsafe in the classrooms of those who signed it. Are these professors looking at their Jewish students, thinking about those Jews and their evil Jewish supremacy? How could you object to or protest this statement, and expect to prosper in that professor’s class, under the threat of the professor’s grade? For that reason alone I register my objection to it.

The rot in today's higher education is far worse than we knew before October 7.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!