Antisemitism, an outdated tool against protesters
By Ebrahim Beheshti
Staff writer
Alongside the harsh crackdown by the police on protesting students against the US’ supportive policies towards Israel and the detention of numerous students, another political controversy has emerged from the United States government and Israel supporters against critics.
Due to the significant influence of the Zionist lobby in the United States, the outdated “antisemitic” stereotype has surfaced. While a considerable portion of Jewish followers oppose the staunch ideology of Zionism and the policies of the Israeli regime, any opposition to Zionism and the Israeli regime in the US and Europe is labeled as “antisemitism,” which, of course, has legal and political repercussions.
In this regard, Nimet Minucheh Shafiq,” the president of Columbia University faced a congressional committee over allegations that the leadership of the Ivy League school had failed to protect students and staff from rising “antisemitism” on its New York City campus. This accusation was also leveraged by President Joe Biden, who condemned pro-Palestinian activists for what he called clear antisemitic actions during the protests at Columbia University. In a statement to commemorate the Jewish holiday of Passover on April 22, Biden said it was necessary to speak out against “the alarming surge of antisemitism – in our schools, communities, and online”.
“Silence is complicity. Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews,” Biden said.
“This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country.”
Supporters of the Zionist regime, in fact, regardless of distinguishing between Judaism and Zionism, benefit from the accusation of antisemitism. Israeli-supportive media outlets, in the early months of the war, leveled serious accusations of this nature against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and even against the Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres. In response to Israel’s accusations against Sanchez, the newspaper El País addressed the issue in a report, questioning the boundary between opposition to Israel and antisemitism.
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