Princeton Students, Faculty Embrace Anti-Israel Rhetoric, University Silent on Antisemitism

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

 

In a 2016 contribution to Princeton Alumni Weekly, President Christopher Eisigruber ‘83 described Princeton as a “place where Jewish students and scholars can thrive.” But this past week, many Jewish students have questioned their place at Princeton. The recent violent clash between Israel and Hamas has resurrected anti-Israel rhetoric on campus, with language often creeping toward antisemitism, and at least two antisemitic assaults of Jewish students on Princeton’s campus.

 

After the Princeton Committee on Palestine (PCP) hosted discredited academic Norman Finkelstein *87 to speak at an event in 2019, Finkelstein’s remarks were widely criticized. The panel was co-sponsored by the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding (CAF), among other groups.  The Daily Princetonian labeled his address as “anti-semitic,” and a Tory opinion essay commented that in sponsoring Finkelstein, “[m]embers of the Princeton community joined a reprehensible history of normalizing anti-Semitism.” PCP, however, stood by their event and defended Finkelstein. CAF demurred in condemning Finkelstein. Two years later, PCP and University offices have found themselves embroiled in antisemitism once again. 

 

Anti-Israel Posts in the Virtual Student Community  

 

On May 9, 2021, clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists erupted. Soon thereafter, several anti-Israel posts were published on Tiger Confessions#, a private Facebook group for Princeton students. The platform allows students to post anonymous confessions and comment publicly.

 

On May 14, 2021, one student accused a pro-Israel student of “settler colonial apologism.” The comment gained 28 likes. Another student commentator posted that Zionist students “would have been apologists for slavery during the abolitionist struggle.” 

 

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Zionism is the “the Jewish national movement of self-determination in the land of Israel.” The majority of Israel’s Jewish population are of Middle Eastern and North African descent whose ancestors fled their home countries after expulsion in 1948. 

 

 

On May 14, 2021, PCP used residential college listservs to encourage anti-Israel student activism in an email titled, “STAND WITH PALESTINE.” Israel “advance[s] its settler-colonial project to maintain Jewish supremacy in the land of historic Palestine and the occupied Palestinian territories, through apartheid policies, ethnic cleansing, illegal annexation, forced expulsion, home demolition and outright war,” the email stated.

 

PCP’s email sparked a debate as some students defended Israel, while others justified and refused to denounce Hamas and Hezbollah. Both groups, which have called for the extermination of world Jewry, are designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department. 

 

“We must be more attentive to the enduring oppression of the Palestinian people,” Benjamin Roberts ‘22 of PCP wrote to the Tory of campus discourse. 

 

In July 2020, residential college listservs were reviewed after a student was accused of spreading racism on the platform. “[S]ome members of the college staffs across campus do intermittently monitor the tone and content of conversations taking place on their unofficial listservs,” Professor Stacey Sinclair, Head of Mathey College wrote, in July. Several residential college deans wrote about student responsibility to uphold standards of respect on the residential college listserv. As of May 21, 2021, no residential college dean has officially commented on the listserv discourse. 

 

A student member of the Class of 2025 who wished to remain anonymous reached out to the Tory to express his frustration at antisemitic content found in the Class of 2025 GroupMe chat. One incoming freshman posted a petition in the chat calling for “financial and military sanctions” against Israel for alleged “war crimes.” The petition’s creator separately referred to Israelis as “nazis.” The US State Department considers comparisons between Nazis and contemporary Israeli policy antisemitic. The comment gained likes for supporting “the cause of protecting Palestinians.” The student member of the Class of 2025 who posted the petition did not respond to request for comment.

 

“One can only imagine how Jewish students … [felt having Israelis] compared to the perpetrators of the Holocaust,” the student explained to the Tory. “The fact that similar instances of discrimination would have been met with collective and institutional fury makes the antisemitic incident all the more obscene.”

 

Faculty Lead Anti-Israel Effort

 

Several Princeton faculty have aggressively promoted their anti-Israel political agendas. Professor Max Weiss, Associate Professor of History and Near Eastern Studies, has gone on record supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Professor Joshua Guild, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, has tweeted content from the Electronic Intifada, an antisemitic platform, and moderated PCP’s 2019 conversation with Finkelstein. 

 

On May 18, 2021, faculty organized an activist statement, signed by Weiss and Guild among others. The statement rejects “the ‘two-sides’ and ‘evenhandedness’ narrative” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also endorses the Princeton and Praxis “call to action,” which includes support for the BDS movement. 

 

“The brutal system that controls Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is ideologically founded upon Jewish supremacism, rules over the lives of Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel alike, and is practically committed to territorial theft from Palestinians who continue to resist physical removal and existential erasure,” the petition reads. 

 

The petition has been signed by over 60 University staff and faculty members. 10 faculty members, including Professors Guild and Weiss, did not respond to request for comment.

 

 

University Ignores Antisemitism 

 

In June 2020, President Eisgruber criticized a University professor for his right-leaning political opinion published in an online journal. In July, University officials investigated a student for racism on social media. However, the University has not condemned the recent antisemitic attacks. 

 

“Princeton guarantees all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn,” said Deputy University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss in a comment to the Tory. “Ideas and opinions often conflict, and the intersections of bias, inclusivity, and offensive speech can be challenging, given the University’s dual commitments to free expression and inclusivity.”

 

The official Instagram account of Rockefeller College, one of Princeton’s residential colleges, posted an infographic produced by the University Health Services (UHS) supporting student mental health. The message expressed comfort for those hurting from the “suffering and pain occurring around the world, including the violence occurring in Palestine and Columbia, as well as the devastating toll of the pandemic in India and other parts of the world.” Since May 9, 2021, 12 Israelis have been killed by Hamas rockets. 

 

When questioned about their statement, UHS Outreach Counselor Susan Kim wrote to the Tory in an email that “[o]ur role as CPS counselors is to support all students while at the same time actively supporting students who are marginalized by systems of power and oppression.” 

 

In a separate exchange with the Tory, Professor Clancy Rowley ‘95, Head of Rockefeller College, said he was “previously unaware of [the post].” The post has since been taken down from Instagram. 

 

Rise In Antisemitic Attacks, University Silence

 

Anti-Israel rhetoric is correlated with an increase in antisemitic attacks. In March 2020, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger released a statement recognizing a surge in antisemitism as connected to emboldened anti-Israel campus activism. Princeton’s own anti-Israel activism has been followed by antisemitic attacks across the University campus. 

 

On May 7, 2021, Yavneh, the orthodox Jewish student group, gathered on the lawn of Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life (CJL) for a University-approved prayer service. A car drove by, honked its horn, and shouted slurs at the Jewish students. 

 

In a second incident, a visibly identifiable Jewish student was subject to jeers walking on Wiggins street, right near campus, during Commencement weekend, according to a source familiar with the matter. 

 

Since the recent violence between Israel and Hamas, the number of antisemitic incidents globally has surged. In Britain, cars bearing Palestinian flags drove through Jewish neighborhoods while yelling antisemitic slurs. In Germany, multiple synagogues have been attacked. Within the past week, Jewish people and Jewish institutions have been attacked in Los Angeles, New York, Tucson, and Salt Lake City. 

 

“As a Jewish student, observing anti-Israel mobs harass and assault Jews all over the world is concerning. I feel unsafe because many faculty members and students echo, sympathize with, and encourage the violent attitude of these mobs. Whether their hate is truly antisemitic, or simply misplaced ‘compassion,’ it doesn’t make a difference to the Jew hiding his yarmulke under a baseball cap,” Peter Brown ‘24 told the Tory. 

 

When George Floyd was murdered in July 2020, Eisgruber released a statement in solidarity with the Black community. In March, following a shooting at a massage parlor in Atlanta, Eisgruber issued a message condemning “the roots of injustice, racism and violence directed against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.” 

 

In July 2020 and again in March 2021, Eisgruber called on the Princeton community to “stand up against racism, wherever and whenever we encounter it.” 

 

Four days after this article was first published on May 25, 2021, Eisgruber posted a statement on his “President’s Blog” condemning the recent uptick in antisemitism across the country and world. Eisgruber acknowledged that Jewish students at Princeton were “heckled” and accused of “hostility toward Palestinians.”

 

“Sharp, intense, and provocative disagreement about Israel and Palestine is fully consistent with the debate that must occur on college campuses,” Eisgruber continued. “Harassment, heckling, stereotyping, and intimidation are not.”

 

Adam Hoffman ’23 and Cassandra James ’23 contributed to this piece. 

Comments

comments