campus activism

Recognizing Antisemitism When We See It

Campus Activism

Cindy Chamides

July 17,2020 

I am no stranger to being discriminated against for being Jewish. Growing up, other students would draw swastikas on my papers at school, taunt me with Holocaust jokes, and ask me to pick up the spare change from the ground. I know antisemitism when I see it. Just as I denounce bigotry and discrimination against others, I hope that my peers would stand up against bigotry targeting me and my community.

Unfortunately, we are seeing some of those same people who stand against bigotry that targets other minority groups failing to do the same for Jewish people. What I don’t understand is, why is antisemitism an acceptable form of bigotry in so many spaces today?

I am a student at Florida State University (FSU), which is currently embroiled in  controversy over the antisemitic history of our Student Government Association (SGA) Senate and Senate President. That controversy is not without context. There has been a pattern that demonstrates that antisemitism is not taken seriously.

Just as with any other form of bigotry, it is the targets of that hate to whom we should listen. I am a Jew and I am Zionist. Many will try to separate these things but Zionism is our people’s movement for self-determination in our ancestral land. Denying Zionism is a denial of either our peoplehood or our rights. That is why I am active with Noles for Israel, FSU’s pro-Israel club on campus, to educate my peers about the issues and promote dialogue. 

One way we have attempted to do so is through FSU’s “Market Wednesday.” “Market Wednesday” events give organizations on campus the opportunity to set up a booth alongside others in the hopes of gaining members. They are one of, if not the most, prominent ways for my group to interact with other students on campus. We discuss our club’s purpose, upcoming events, and try to gain more understanding, support, and involvement. We provide a friendly atmosphere and welcome adversity. On more than one occasion we have held peaceful discussions with students who hold different and opposing views. I try to enter these conversations with a sense of understanding in the hopes of making peace. My intentions are to simply educate other students on the history and current events taking place in Israel today. By giving them all the facts, they can come to their own conclusions. 

At FSU, Noles for Israel is met by the opposition of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) which promotes the destruction of Israel using hateful tactics and bullying. We have never had any personal interactions, as they tend to avoid confrontations on campus. While we would like to have dialogue with them and have even attempted to in the past, SJP has an anti-normalization policy at the national level. An example of the type of opposition Noles for Israel faces from SJP happened this past March. At a “Market Wednesday” in the beginning of March, my group had our table set up as usual. Without our knowledge, a member of SJP took a picture of us and our table and posted it to their official Facebook account. They went as far as calling us “Islamophobic” and questioned the school for allowing us the right to promote Noles for Israel on campus. Although I reached out and let them know that all we are looking for is a meaningful conversation, they continue to respond with baseless hatred. Instead of having a respectful debate, they decide to personally target us through social media. Their attacks were not only untrue but also demonstrate the attempt to cause damage to us reputationally on campus or in our careers. 

FSU SJP post attempts to slander students as “islamophobic” and “alt-right.”

SJP consistently uses language like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which calls for the annihilation of Israel and for all the Jews in the region to be pushed into the ocean,  as well as invoking other tropes that imply real damage to our people. Swastikas have appeared on campus. This is in an environment in which hate crimes against Jews are on the rise. Sadly, FSU’s administration had no response to those events.

Unfortunately this was not the only instance of the type of bullying without consequences that Jewish and pro-Israel students face at FSU. 

On June 5th, 2020,  the Student Senate removed its previous president, Jack Denton, who was accused of making derogatory comments. They selected Ahmad Daraldik, a member of the FSU SJP, to take his place. Because of our history of experiencing bullying at the hands of SJP and their anti-normalization policy, I was concerned but open to giving President Daraldik a chance to lead without bias. Unfortunately,  in the ensuing days, more and more evidence came to light about Daraldik’s antisemitic views and inability to lead impartially. 

Dating as far back as 2012 and as recently as June 2020 (while already holding his position as Senate President), Daraldik has posted a flurry of antisemitic rhetoric online. These posts include a post on Instagram “stupid Jew thinks he is cool,” about a fake picture of an IDF soldier and “#f***Israel” and “#f***theoccupation.” He created a website which equates Israelis with Nazis. While some of these instances are older, Daraldik’s response in June was  to defend his behavior and double down on his equation of Israelis with Nazis. Students, alumni, and fair-minded observers were incensed and called for his removal. 

Daraldik’s post of a staged photo of a soldier with the caption “stupid jew thinks he is cool”
Daraldik’s post with the hashtags “#f***theoccupation” and “#f***israel”
Daraldik posts a maze of clear repeated swastikas
Post from Rawan Abhari, FSU student Secretary of Internal Affairs

On June 18, 2020, Florida State University’s SGA Senate voted to keep Ahmad Daraldik in spite of the outcry from the Jewish community and its allies.

The FSU Senate had set a precedent just one meeting prior by removing Daraldik’s predecessor for expressing discriminatory views members of the FSU community found harmful. Individuals who condone or promote discrimination should not serve in leadership roles or represent the entirety of FSU’s student body. Daraldik was not held to that same standard of integrity.

Throughout the June 18th, 2020, meeting, Jewish students and their allies explained that while the documentation of Daraldik’s antisemitic comments goes as far back as social media posts from 2012, they were made as recently as June 2020, during his time as senate president.

Instead of apologizing for his antisemitic comments, Daraldik repeatedly justified his behavior by claiming ignorance and blaming his antisemitic posts on his youth and Israeli itself. He went as far as to defend a viciously antisemitic website he created, which compared Jews with their Nazi oppressors. While defending himself he tokenized a Jewish extremist, Norman Finkelstein, who has been widely condemned for promoting hate against the Jewish community. Still, the vote to uphold the standard that was set by the same senate nearly two weeks earlier had failed.

On June 29th, we became aware that Daraldik wrote an apology for antisemitic social media posts he made in 2012 and 2013. I accept his apology. However, I can’t help but wonder, why did it take more than three weeks for him to offer an apology? Moreover, Daraldik has yet to apologize for comparing the Jewish state to Nazis several times over the past couple of years and weeks and has failed to respond to the many FSU students who have reached out to him to express their concerns. The failure to remove Ahmad Daraldik exposed a broader problem on our campus: antisemitism is not taken seriously. 

Despite this climate, the “Increasing Jewish Representation” Resolution passed on July 15th, 2020 in the student senate. This acts as only the first small step towards solving the antisemitism issue on my college campus. In addition, this resolution did not pass without attempts to discredit our community’s experience with antisemitism and obvious attempts to prevent the resolution from passing. While the passing of this resolution is a move in the right direction, it unfortunately does not fix the hurt in our community caused by Daraldik’s words or the ignorance of those student senators who tried to filibuster or amend the resolution. 

“Free Palestine” written on the “Increasing Jewish Representation” Resolution during the FSU SGA Senate meeting on July 15, 2020 via Zoom.

To this end, I pose a simple request to my fellow students. The next time a Jewish student expresses that something or someone is perpetuating antisemitism: pause, listen, and reflect. Antisemitism can occur in numerous forms, and has adapted to many different contexts over hundreds of years. If students are unsure about the different types of antisemitism, or how to combat it, they should take the steps to educate themselves and better our communities.  All too often, I see charges of antisemitism reduced, defended, or brushed away. Moving forward, I simply ask that acts of antisemitism are held to the same standard as all other forms of bigotry: they are denounced and not tolerated under any circumstance.

Reclaiming Zionism

Zionism

Lilia Gaufberg - Clark University

I am about to begin my final year as an undergraduate college student. I have come to love my university over the time that I have been there: the students and professors alike have created an environment of engaged, discussion-based learning, and students are encouraged to question and to think critically in every area of study. Attending my school has opened me up to a world of knowledge and has allowed me to meet so many fascinating, unique people. All of these factors should prompt feelings of excitement, of relief, of warm and fuzzy nostalgia for what everyone has told me are the best four years of my life. However, I can’t shake this bitter, sinking feeling of returning to my university campus; one that claims to be liberal but is instead full of hypocrisies, where free speech is touted as a given, but dissent from the reigning narrative is often shunned and demonized.

The last three years, with all of the beautiful moments, the breadth of knowledge I have been exposed to, and the growth that I have undergone, have been truly emotionally taxing. My proud Zionism, my outspoken love of Israel, has grown exponentially since beginning college. Starting as a freshman, I knew virtually nothing about Israel or about the region, but various experiences, including taking a class on the Holocaust, witnessing anti-Semitism parading as ‘anti-Zionism’ on my campus, traveling to Israel with Taglit-Birthright, and reading works written about Israel and Judaism, has caused me to begin exploring my identity more in-depth. My resulting loud-and-proud love of my Jewish identity, of Israel, has paved the way to me being alienated, criticized, and demonized.
It is one thing to be attacked for various political ideals, such as being pro-life or pro-choice, for being for or against gay marriage, for supporting or denouncing this or that environmental policy. Politics, in general and by its nature, is messy, and being politically opinionated will inevitably get a person into hot water now and again. However, I have been struggling deeply with the fact that my very identity, my very core, my very spiritual and historical integrity, has incessantly been politicized, and subsequently, has mercilessly been questioned, denounced, and delegitimized, over and over again, during my time as a university student. I have been given the middle finger for wearing an Israel Defense Forces shirt while walking to class; I have been sneered at hatefully while tabling for Taglit-Birthright or my Israel group in the University Center; I have seen an Israeli soldier, who identified as gay and who I helped bring to campus to speak about his experiences in the IDF, being yelled at and labeled a ‘pinkwasher’ by hateful Students for Justice in Palestine members; I have been called a ‘Zionazi’ after posting a photo on Facebook of my Israel group and I with Kay Wilson, a survivor of Palestinian terrorism; I have had doors shut in my face on the way to the dining hall for having an Israeli flag tied to my backpack during Apartheid Week (or, as it should be more accurately named, Israel Hate Week); I have had arguments started with me in the library, out of the blue, after some of my peers saw the ‘I Heart Israel’ stickers on my computer. I have also, tragically, seen my Jewish friends shy away from their identity over the past few years, and I have felt recent Birthright alumni grow quieter and quieter in their excitement over Israel. I have witnessed various Jewish organizations on campus stray from hosting events that are ‘too political’ or ‘too polarized’ for fear of drawing protests. I have seen people who support Israel choosing silence for the sake of their safety and comfort, while the Israel-bashers and anti-Zionists grow louder in their hatred as they hide behind a deceptive veil of ‘Palestinian activism’, despite refusing to condemn a single one of the atrocious acts committed towards Palestinian-Arabs by their own ruling powers.

Because of this, because of the grab-bag of propaganda, lies, and labels at the disposal of Israel-haters, and because of the culture of fear that has permeated the Jewish community when it comes to expressing support for the Jewish State, my university campus, along with many others, has become a nearly unbearable place to be for Israel’s supporters.

As author and activist Gil Troy pointed out in his book, Why I Am a Zionist, “Viewing all of Israeli history through the prism of the Arab-Israeli conflict is as distorting as reducing all of Canadian history to the French-English struggle or all of American history to the black-white struggle.” Israel’s history is rich, and extends far beyond the narrow confines of conflict; its kibbutzim and moshavim, its flowering deserts and resurrection of an ancient language that the Jews have had ties to for thousands of years in and out of diaspora; the beautiful mosques and their calls to prayer in the Old City of Jerusalem; the Bedouins in the Negev who live by the stars and the Druze in the Galilee and Golan with their secretive traditions; the nightclubs of Tel Aviv and the Baha’i Gardens of Haifa. Israel is multi-faceted, and it is a unique country that is not able to be fully, or even partly, understood through the constricted dimensions that CNN and the New York Times so carefully craft. Allegations of apartheid are simply false; anyone who goes to Israel can see Jews, Arabs, Ethiopians, and Russians shopping together at supermarkets, being treated at the same hospitals, riding the same buses and working the same jobs. The term ‘occupation’ is mis-applied; occupation is when one sovereign entity takes over another, often militarily. However, ‘Palestine’ was never a sovereign country, and Judea and Samaria, more commonly known as the West Bank, is disputed territory, and is therefore not occupied by Israel. In fact, Israel has given large portions of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority in the hope of coming closer to peace. The carefully-spun web of lies surrounding and encompassing issues about Israel can easily be untangled, if one is motivated to see past them to the truth.

Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, is a beautiful celebration of what it means to be tied to the Jewish culture, history, and religion. Just like any expression of nationalism, any celebration of peoplehood, Zionism offers a community and a common ground to unite over. Zionism binds every kind of Jew – secular, religious, Mizrahi, Ashkenazi – through their mutual story of struggle, wandering, and loss, and through their celebration of re-claiming their national rights and their dignity as a people.

It is time for a Zionist revolution. It is time for my fellows lovers of the Jewish state, of its historical and spiritual significance, to allow the pride surging through our blood to come to the surface, and instead of falling back on names, dates, and facts, to show, through our love and our passion, why it is that we love Israel so much, and why Israel is a miracle. It is time for us to refuse to back down, no matter how terrifying it can be to face the toxic hate of the so-called Palestinian rights activists on campus, and no matter how outnumbered we are. It is time for us to bring the love, the beauty, the spirit, the simcha, and the pride that we feel, and weave it into the fabric of our daily lives, to bring it forth whenever we can and not just when we are faced with hatred. I made myself a promise a couple of years ago to always stand up for what is just and true; therefore, I will invariably defend the right of any people to self-determination, as it is a basic human right. The Jewish people have just, in the last 67 years, re-claimed their own self-determination after two millennia of living without it, and I refuse to allow anyone to delegitimize that. Defending Israel is exhausting, and it is often a lonely task, but it is one that is existentially essential. I will never stop, and I hope that my fellow lovers of Israel will not either. We will feel distressed, we will feel irate, we will feel hopeless, but I hope that we will continue to sing ‘Am Yisrael Chai’, no matter what.

Lilia Gaufberg is a senior at Clark University and is a leader of its pro-Israel group CHAI. She is also an alumna of the 2014-2015 ZOA Student Leadership Mission to Israel.