Image courtesy of Ted Eyton
Although up to 15% of Princeton’s student population identifies as Jewish today, the University has a long history of antisemitism, with Jewish students effectively barred from admission up until the early 20th century. While the University has made efforts to improve the treatment of Jews on campus, antisemitism remains present. Some have pointed to Princeton Committee on Palestine (PCP) as an instigator of antisemitism on campus. For a third time in three years, the PCP has found itself in hot water for antisemitism.
In October 2019, Norman Finkelstein *87 was invited to speak on campus at an event with Professor Joshua Guild and co-sponsored by the Princeton Committee on Palestine (PCP) titled “Fighting for Justice, From Gaza to Ferguson: Black and Palestinian Solidarity.” At the event, Finkelstein attacked Jacob Katz ’23, a Princeton undergraduate student and Israeli Defense Forces veteran, calling him a “concentration camp guard.”
In May 2021, amid antisemitic attacks on several Jewish students on campus, PCP used residential college listservs to encourage anti-Israel student activism in an email titled, “STAND WITH PALESTINE.” Dismissing problematic language about Zionists that followed the email, PCP’s president, Benjamin Robert ‘22 wrote that “[the campus community] must be more attentive to the enduring oppression of the Palestinian people,” in a comment to the Tory.
On November 9, 2021, PCP invited noted antisemite Lamis Deek to speak on the “Palestinian right of return.” According to her personal website, Lamis Deek is an attorney focused on “international human rights, criminal defense, and appeals, civil rights, civil litigation, immigration, and family law.” However, she has a public record of antisemitic rhetoric, dating as far as 2017. “Just as Nazi judges were tried and convicted at Nuremberg, so shall the Zionist judiciary and legal community,” she tweeted in May 2019. According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), drawing comparisons between contemporary Israeli policy and the Nazis is antisemitic.
Deek has also expressed support for violent attacks on American Jews; Hamas, whose founding charter calls for genocides against the Jewish people; and extremists. She has accused Israel of being a colonial state, spewed blood libel, and blamed the international crisis on “thieving US-zionist-aligned fascist bankers.”
May 2021 Tweet from Deek’s Twitter Account
During her remarks on campus, Lamis Deek shared her views on Israel and Jews to applause. When discussing Jews living in Judea and Samaria, she said “they are liable and it’s forthcoming, they are liable for genocide under US law.” Following the event, a University “Free Speech Monitor” stepped in to calm talks between students visibly upset by the event and Deek. Benjamin Roberts ‘22, the event organizer, declined to condemn Deek or her words, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The event prompted a rare public statement from the Center for Jewish Life (CJL). “This week, those values were threatened when the Princeton Committee on Palestine hosted a panel which included Palestinian human rights lawyer Lamis Deek,” the CJL stated in an email statement. According to the statement, the CJL’s efforts for discussion were rebuffed by the PCP. Within the statement, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter is quoted as saying that “Antisemitism has no place at Princeton and all Jewish students should feel welcome here.” The CJL noted continued efforts to address the situation.
In the past few years, antisemitic occurrences on Princeton’s campus have increased. For many, it seems like a pattern. Just several months after Jewish students at Princeton were directly and verbally attacked, Jewish students are once again feeling uneasy.
Copyright © 2024 The Princeton Tory. All rights reserved.