The responses were telling.
On November 3rd, students from Lionpac, a non-partisan pro-Israel group on campus, screened Columbia Unbecoming, a new video that features students testifying about incidents of anti-Israel intimidation at Columbia. The screening was followed by a panel discussion, and unfortunately, some students’ reactions to the film were not altogether surprising.
One audience member proclaimed categorically that there is no anti-Semitism on this campus. He was followed by several speakers who, avoiding the issues raised by the video, resorted instead to ad hominem and anti-Semitic attacks of the most vile sort on the Lionpac students. One student added to the intellectual level at Columbia by calling a pro-Israel student “Zionist fascist scum.” Another audience member asked why we could not use our money to buy him ad space in the New York Sun, one of the newspapers that has been covering this story. And another asked why, if we were searching for safe space to comfortably discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, could we not run to our multi-million dollar Hillel building.
Our Hillel building is a wonderful place, but we cannot take it to our classrooms. And anti-Semitism does, indeed, exist at Columbia. Since the video’s screening, students have seen fresh swastikas in the library bathrooms. Last year, a swastika was etched onto the door of the law school. Anti-Semitic slurs and scrawls are meant to intimidate students such as myself. These instances are often isolated and limited to outside the classroom, but anti-Israel intimidation is another matter.
Dr. Martin Luther King famously said, “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism.” With all due respect to Dr. King, I disagree. Not a single student in the video who courageously spoke out against the anti-Zionism that pervades MEALAC equated the venom directed at Israel and Israelis with anti-Semitism. The issue is not what is in the hearts of these professors, but the atmosphere they create in their classrooms. That so many who viewed the video responded with ancient anti-Semitic canards tells us all something about the general atmosphere on campus toward Jews, but none of us in the video ever made the claim that MEALAC professors are, themselves, anti-Semitic.
Our claim is a different one. It is simply unacceptable to silence students and stifle debate in the classroom. Raising one’s voice to a student, and demanding that certain viewpoints not be expressed, is intimidating and stifling. Insisting that a student declare how many human beings he has killed before answering his question – one incident catalogued in the video – is tantamount to silencing the debate.
Many students – including Jews and Israelis – have had positive experiences in their MEALAC classes. I, too, highly value the classes that exposed me to new perspectives about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and forced me to question my views on Israel. This is precisely why I am at Columbia: I thrive on debate. I only ask that it take place without threat of ridicule and intimidation.
The fact that many students have enjoyed their MEALAC classes does not take away from the legitimacy of our claims. If one student is intimidated, that is one too many, no matter how many others were not. Some students at the panel discussion stated that they have been harassed for wearing Palestinian kaffiyas in public. This, too, should not be tolerated. I urge everyone to stand up against intimidation of all forms, inside and outside of the classroom, no matter what the issue is. Columbia should be a place where all students can feel comfortable holding and expressing their own opinions.
