Current Events > Jewish girls say they are ostracized on college campuses over support for Israel

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In the afternoon of Feb. 28, when it seemed like her life was falling apart, Natalie Shclover, a senior at the University of Connecticut, scrolled through the dozens of messages that were being posted about her online.

One in particular stood out: This should be a warning for all of the dirty zionists on this campus.

The message was posted anonymously on YikYak, a social media network popular on college campuses, and was part of a wave of online invective that had been building around hersince the early afternoon.

Thats when Shclover and her boyfriend had an argument tangentially related to the Israel-Palestine conflict with four other students at a campus library. After one of the four students recorded a snippet of the exchange, several of them posted it on their social media accounts, alongside captions accusing Shclover, who is Jewish, and her boyfriend of Islamophobic harassment. (The four students, as well as Shclovers boyfriend, are Muslim.)
The video did not seem to support the accusation. It showed Shclover arguing briefly and then turning around. As she walked away, one of the four students shouted expletives at her, including [expletive] Zionist.

But the substance didnt matter. The video spread throughout campus in minutes. Then came the threats, the public denunciations, the posting of her address online, the ejection from her a cappella club, anonymous outreach to her future employer, and an article in the campus newspaper that reported the accusation as fact without so much as a comment from Shclover.

Shclovers story is an extreme example of a phenomenon that Jewish students and activist groups say is becoming increasingly prevalent on college campuses: Jewish students feeling ostracized or, like Shclover, actually under attack for their presumed support for the state of Israel. The extremity of Middle East politics seems to have taken root, with new force and ferocity, on some campuses and their many social media extensions.

Jewish students have begun compiling their stories from campuses in California, Texas, the mid-Atlantic, and New England on social media accounts that update several times weekly. A survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel found that nearly a third of Jewish students personally experienced antisemitism on campus or from a classmate last year.

What were seeing on campuses across the country, said Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, is a kind of virulent anti-Zionism that purports to be about Palestinian rights, but in reality results in the marginalization and the demonization of all Jewish students.

The issue is thorny. It pits free speech rights against the value of fostering campus climates that offerwelcome to all. It prompts harsh scrutiny of the actions of some young activists genuinely worried about Palestinians plight. And it asks a lot of Jewish students, who feel pressured to endure what feels like antisemitism but may in fact be sincere, if sometimes overzealous and confrontational, criticism of a powerful state Israel.

Jewish groups say a double standard rooted in antisemitism applies. Why dont campus activists reproach other nations accused of trampling human rights China and Saudi Arabia, for example with the same fervor, they ask.

I completely disagree that anti-Zionism is in any way related to antisemitism, said Khaleel Rahman, president of the UConn Muslim Student Association, whose members were among the students who clashed with Shclover at the campus library. We try to be clear.

Tufts University president Tony Monaco believes the distinction is not easy to tease out. The line between political speech and antisemitic speech can be difficult to find and isnt the same for everyone, he wrote after commissioning a 2021 study of the campus climate for Jewish students.

One Boston-area college student told her rabbi that she is afraid to wear her Star of David on campus. A student at Tufts said her engineering club used photo software to remove a reference to Israel from her T-shirt before posting a group photo online. At Rutgers, the members of a predominantly Jewish fraternity watched from their house as four carloads of anti-Israel protesters rolled by shouting baby killers and terrorists at them.

Disturbingly, he wrote, we also heard from some Jewish students who felt that, in order to be welcome in student organizations supporting social justice, they had to hide their Jewish identities.

In March, the Tufts chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a national pro-Palestine group, urged the entire student body to sign a pledge to boycott a variety of Jewish-identified campus groups.

Theres a lot of really good work being done [on campus] on a lot of progressive issues that oftentimes is looping in a heavy component of anti-Israel activism, said Ben Shapiro, a recent Tufts graduate. That inherently is going to make the majority ofJewish students feel that they have to check a part of their identity at the door.

On social media, students tagged Shclovers a cappella group. Natalies the president of uconn_chordials, an anonymous user posted on YikYak. LMAOO NOT FOR LONG. That afternoon, Shclover was summoned to a Zoom meeting where the Chordials vice president, with the backing of most of the group, expelled her.

Meanwhile, the messages kept coming. Dirty [expletive] Jew rip up another poster and Im coming to UConn myself, wrote one man. (Shclover did not rip up any fliers.)

Someone anonymously contacted Shclovers future employer about the incident. The companys chief of staff said it did not pursue the matter.

In the evening, the Daily Campus, the student newspaper, published an article under the headline Muslim students harassed in library, without contacting Shclover or El-Tayyeb for their side of the story, a Daily Campus editor said in an interview. Thats obviously not best practice in journalism,the editor added.

In the weeks that followed, Shclover was too afraid from online threats to her safety to go to class.

I am left now with an awful feeling of isolation, having been ostracized by the communities I so valued being a part of, she wrote. The harassment and defamation of my character didnt just come from an angry mob of internet strangers; it came, in large part, from friends and classmates.

In a letter to the campus community on March 28, Maric, UConns interim president, said that no one involved in the library incident had violated the student code of conduct. Noting that Schlover had been called a [expletive] Zionist, she wrote: It is entirely possible for words to be protected speech under the First Amendment but still deeply harmful and inconsistent with our communitys values, which this was. A spokesperson said the university is reviewing its policies related to hate speech.

Shclover wasnt satisfied with Marics letter, which she felt came too late or with the universitys response generally. Shclover said she has chosen to speak out to call attention to what she regards as a persistent problem.

I know this will happen to someone else, she said.

Full Article: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/14/metro/some-jewish-students-feel-ostracized-college-campuses-over-support-israel/

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"Why aren't you as mad at China and Saudi Arabia as you are at us" is a weak as fuck defense

Newsflash: young people are dumb. Their rational brain isn't fully developed

UnfairRepresent posted...

"Why aren't you as mad at China and Saudi Arabia as you are at us" is a weak as fuck defense

Yeah but, "You're Jewish so you obviously support Israel" is an anti-Semitic belief.

The KsA gets a free pass from the US too lol

Palestinians are shot on Palestinian streets for existing in Palestine.

Just because youre Jewish doesnt mean you have to support Israel. Im American, do you think I support America?

So what did she say? Weird the article (or TC) left that out.

UnfairRepresent posted...

said Ben Shapiro, a recent Tufts graduate.

Is that the way to describe him?

They should be ostracized

MaxEffingBemis posted...

Just because youre Jewish doesnt mean you have to support Israel. Im American, do you think I support America?

Jews that doesn't support Israel will be labelled as "self-hating Jews."