Anti-Israel Protests Are Growing; Here’s What You Need to Know

Student protests against Israel expanded greatly in February, with university administrations largely unwilling and unable to enforce regulations regarding what has euphemistically become known as “expressive activity.”

Some of the worst events include:

• At the University of California at Berkeley, hundreds of masked pro-Hamas protestors shouting “intifada, intifada” attacked a theater where an Israeli speaker was to appear, smashing a window and forcing the Jewish students inside to be evacuated through tunnels.
• At Columbia University, pro-Hamas students held an unauthorized protest on the main quad in which they dyed snow red and chanted “There is no safe place, Death to the Zionist state,” and “We don’t want two states. We want all of it.”
• A pro-Hamas sit-in at Stanford University ended after 120 days, when university administrators agreed to formally hear protestors’ demands. The protestors stated they would resume their sit-in if the demands were not met.
• Protestors at Stanford disrupted a Family Weekend welcome session hosted by the university and provost.
• Brown University students undertook an “indefinite” hunger strike in support of divestment that lasted eight days. Harvard students undertook a 12 hour hunger strike in sympathy. Students at McGill University and Dartmouth College students also announced hunger strikes.
• A talk by a Jewish Studies faculty member at San Jose State University advocating a “two state solution” was disrupted by pro-Hamas protestors who rejected the presence of a “Zionist.” After a violent confrontation the faculty member was escorted from the building by police.
• At the University of Leeds, the Chabad rabbi who returned from reserve military service in Israel was driven into hiding by threats from Muslim students which came after a campaign orchestrated by Muslim Green Party members, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and the Muslim Council of Britain.

Walkouts and demonstrations were also held at Georgetown University, Stony Brook University, the University of Toronto, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan, Tufts University, Princeton University, the University of Chicago, McGill University, Condordia University, and other schools.

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions continue to be proposed in student governments:

The impact of campus protests were seen in the vandalizing of the University of Wisconsin Hillel building, unspecified threats emailed to the Brown University-RISD Hillel, identical active shooter threats emailed to a variety of individuals at Cornell University, Princeton University, and Dartmouth College, and assaults against Jewish students at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Strasbourg.

Figures collected by Hillel International indicate that more than 1,000 antisemitic incidents have occurred on campuses since October, include 44 assaults.

Faculty remain at the forefront of campus anti-Israel activities. The participation of faculty, staff, librarians, graduate students, and others indicates the depth to which anti-Israel ideology has penetrated the entire academic enterprise and compromises pedagogy now and in the future.

Among the worrying incidents:

• The American Association of University Professors signed a call issued by labor unions including the United Auto Workers demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
• The Harvard Faculty for Justice in Palestine reposted a student produced image showing a hand with a Star of David and a dollar sign lynching Muhammad Ali and Gamal Abdul Nasser. The classically antisemitic image, drawn from a 1960s era black power pamphlet, set off a firestorm of criticism.
• Harvard’s Kennedy School hosted the antisemitic UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese. Among other things Albanese accused Israel of “weaponizing” antisemitism and stated that Hamas had not displayed “aggression” against the Jews.

Reports also continue regarding informal boycotts of Israeli academics by international publications and foreign institutions. These appear strongest in the humanities and social sciences, but have spread to medicine and other scientific disciplines.

Investigations of colleges and universities by the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act expanded in February. Investigations were launched into the treatment of Jewish students at Yale University, Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, and others, as well as several local school districts.

Congress continues to be involved in addressing campus antisemitism. Congressional subpoenas have been issued to several universities including Harvard and Columbia, for documents related to their responses to anti-Israel and antisemitic protests. The situation has largely devolved along predictable party lines.

Focus also remains on anti-Israel bias in K-12 education. The American Federation of Teachers, a strong Biden ally, issued a statement calling for a ceasefire but avoided the condemnations of Israel used by other school unions.

Publicity has led schools to organize mendacious programs to proclaim “balance,” such as in a New York City high school where an anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace activist was invited to give a talk to balance a Palestinian activist’s “story of forced displacement, exile and resistance.” New York City public school teachers were also documented discussing means to bypass rules in order to teach about the “genocide in Gaza.”

The pedagogical impact of blatantly antisemitic curriculum in K-12 education was illustrated in Hayward, CA. The city had invested heavily in an organization “to train teachers to confront white supremacy, disrupt racism and oppression and remove those barriers to learning,” and which indoctrinated grade schoolers with concepts such as “resistance” and “Palestine.”

Similarly, the role of university Middle East studies in cementing anti-Israel attitudes was highlighted in an analysis of the curriculum produced by the Brown University Center for Middle Eastern Studies, which is dominated by anti-Israel activists. The curriculum describes Israel as an imperialist project, Jews as alien outsiders, and Israel as a violent illegitimate entity that routinely commits war crimes. According to its creators, the curriculum is used in hundreds, if not thousands, of schools.

As a result of surging harassment and intimidation, Jewish students continue to transfer out of school districts, such as Oakland, CA.

Non-academic protests in February continued to target transportation links and city centers, with the goal of disrupting daily life. These included the Golden Gate Bridge, New York City bridges and tunnels, the I-40 bridge over the Mississippi River connecting Tennessee and Arkansas, major roads and intersections in and around Washington D.C., the Pennsylvania capitol, and central London on Saturdays. In Brussels, pro-Hamas protestors also disrupted the Flemish Parliament.

Protests also targeted institutions allegedly connected with Jews and Israel:

• In Toronto protestors targeted Mt. Sinai Hospital, founded by the local Jewish community, raising Palestinian flags and shouting “intifada, intifada.” Political authorities including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the incident.
• In New York City, protestors inside the Museum of Modern Art and Brooklyn Museum unfurled banners demanding a “ceasefire,” and accused Jewish members of the boards of trustees of complicity in “genocide, apartheid” and “settler colonialism.” No arrests were made.
• Protestors also targeted the Jewish Museum, where anti-Zionist cultural workers disrupted a talk about the October 7 massacres and claimed an exhibition was “imperial propaganda” and a means to “manufacture consent for genocide.”

Individual members of Congress and Parliament have been targeted:

The protests are the most obvious manifestations of rocketing antisemitism and hate crimes in Britain, France, and the US, as are the escalating numbers of violent assaults, such as the stabbing of a Jewish individual in Paris, the beating of a Jewish individual in New York City, an assault against a Jewish student at Columbia University, an attack on a megachurch in Houston where a woman armed with a rifle with the words “Free Palestine” on the barrel began shooting and was quickly killed by police, and the kidnapping and torture of a Jewish individual in Melbourne, allegedly orchestrated by an anti-Israel activist.

A poll conducted by the AJC reports that 46% of American Jews have changed their behavior since October 7 as a result of fear of antisemitism. Jewish schools also report that their security costs have almost doubled since October.

Jewish and Israeli cultural and sports figures continue to be targeted and canceled over their origins or perceived support for Israel:

• Singer Matisyahu’s performances in Tucson and Santa Fe were canceled for security concerns and staff shortages, after staff members at the venue refused to work for his show. Local BDS and pro-Hamas groups took credit. A performance in Berkeley was protested by those who accused the singer of supporting “genocide.”
• A Cambridge (MA) performance by Israeli singer Ishay Ribo sponsored by the Harvard Chabad was boycotted and protested by the staff and Hamas supporters. The performance proceeded.
• An International Women’s Day event in Toronto rescinded an invitation to cyclist Leah Goldstein to be the keynote speaker after activists complained about her service in the Israeli military in the 1980s. The entire event was later canceled.
• Calls continue to eject Israel from the Eurovision song contest. The sponsoring organization has thus far rejected the demands. The Israeli song submitted to the contest which references October 7 was rejected by competition organizers as “too political” prompting Israeli threats to withdraw from the competition.
• A number of private Manhattan art galleries were vandalized with pro-Hamas graffiti including “Stop selling to Zionists. Stop working with Zionists.”
• Hundreds of artists have signed an open letter demanding that Israel’s national pavilion be banned from the Venice Biennale.
• The Berlin Film Festival’s social Instagram account displayed a series of messages accusing Israel of genocide. Organizers claimed the account was “hacked.” The winners of the festival expressed support for “Palestine” and others made anti-Israel speeches.
• An Australian WhatsApp group of hundreds of Jewish creatives was breached and messages were released leading to several participants being threatened, doxxed, and removed from bands, theater groups, and other venues. The move was defended as ‘”whistleblowing” since Jewish creatives had expressed concern regarding pro-Hamas journalists and organized letter-writing campaigns.

The author is a contributor to SPME, where a different version of this article appeared.