Why Jewish Students Complain of Antisemitism Not Only in Vienna

Der Standard, December 11, 2023

German original: https://www.derstandard.de/story/3000000198962/warum-juedische-studierende-nicht-nur-in-wien-antisemitismus-beklagen

In Europe and the USA, Jewish students are increasingly confronted with anti-Semitic, "post-colonial" hate speech

Even things that are taken for granted currently seem difficult to enforce at universities. The Jusos parliamentary group recently tabled a resolution in the student parliament of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU). The title: "Take historical responsibility seriously! Protect Jewish life at universities". The motion was preceded by reports of anti-Semitic verbal violence documented at Humboldt-Universität and Freie Universität Berlin (FU).

A group called "Class against Class" is working on the latter. It complains of an "expansive apartheid state of Israel". The Jusos' motion has now failed at both universities. In the already sparsely legitimized student parliaments, left-wing post-colonial formations are setting the anti-Israeli tone. Jewish students are expressing their unease ever more dramatically. There is incitement against Jews in the wake of the Middle East war. At the Berlin University of the Arts, people wearing black masks with a pro-Palestinian agenda raised their red-smeared hands in the air. Vienna is not exempt from the tendency to physically unsettle Jewish students.

At the Central European University (CEU), the Jewish Austrian University Students (JöH) have now come forward with alarming statements. At CEU, events organized by the "Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions" (BDS) movement under the name "Teach-in Palestine" would have been readily supported. Repeated urgent requests for talks to the Rectorate from the Jewish students were met with a resounding silence - "in the first week after the Hamas massacre". Meanwhile, the student representatives were agitating in the mailing list. The Hamas atrocities were declared "resistance". Students on campus were allowed to call themselves "Zionists" and were excluded from activities.

Strange situation

JöH spokesperson Alon Ishay sees the CEU Rectorate's inaction as "unprecedented". "Free of anti-Semitism means for us: We students can openly express our connection to Israel at any time without having to fear anti-Semitism! Large sections of the left in Austria understand very well the importance of a Jewish state."

The situation is "all the more strange because we are very critical of the current Israeli government. Nevertheless, we strictly reject any one-sided defamation of the state of Israel." The stale joke here is that the CEU was once founded by George Soros. He was repeatedly subjected to anti-Semitic campaigns, for example in Hungary. CEU Rector Shalini Randeria, an Indian with US socialization, has since declared her determination: "We do not tolerate any form of bullying or discrimination. Anti-Semitism and all forms of incitement have no place at CEU!"

The university refers to a safety program - and offers the prospect of meetings. Ishay identifies an overarching problem. "In Anglo-Saxon university institutions, there is widespread sympathy with BDS. The reason for this is certainly that Israel is wrongly discussed there as part of Western colonial history." The identification of Israel as a colonial power is the bitter fruit of the tree of post-colonialism. With the proclamation of an "anti-colonial liberation struggle", Hamas and Hezbollah have been declared actors in the struggle against the West and its "discourses of domination."

Guidelines on bullying

The names of "progressive" academics are not only crowded onto "pro-Palestine" lists. When recently questioned in the US Congress, Harvard President Claudine Gay did not know whether "calling for the genocide of Jews" at universities violates the guidelines on bullying and harassment. "It may be, depending on the context," was Gay's response. In the meantime, she has done some soul-searching. She now says: "I'm sorry."

Her colleague Elizabeth Magill has left altogether. The president of the University of Pennsylvania also only wanted to make her answer to the same question dependent on "context". She has now resigned. (Ronald Pohl, 11.12.2023)