Mehran Banaei
Since October 7 Hamas’s reaction to 75 years of Israeli brutal occupation of Palestine there have been numerous student protests at Canadian and American university campuses to end the savage bombing of Gaza. The students are not alone, their protest is also supported by a handful of academics, particularly by those who teach the history of the conflict. In response to these protests, the university administration has expelled a number of students and professors for their pro-Palestinian stands. The students and faculty members are being silenced by the university, accused of promoting violence against Jewish students, supporting terrorism, and above all are labelled as antisemitic. These ridiculous allegations are frequently attached to the critics of Israel when so many of them are of Jewish background, some are even children of Holocaust survivors. A case in point is Professor Norman Finkelstein, an American academic and fierce critic of Israel who was unceremoniously kicked out of Hunter College and later denied tenure at DePaul University in Chicago over a decade ago for his unsparing criticism of Israel, exposing the West’s double standards and sheer hypocrisy of the Israeli narrative.
More Canadian and American professors and graduate students are now experiencing what Norman Finkelstein has been experiencing. They are labelled anti-Semites, and painted as pro-Islamist extremists. Their academic freedom is ignored, precisely because their research, teachings, and publications are incompatible with the Israeli account of the 75-year-old conflict between Palestine and Israel.
Prof. Jasmin Zine, a distinguished sociologist at the University of Wilfrid Laurier, argues that Islamophobia has turned into an effective industry with countless online influencers promoting anti-Islamic sentiment around the world. Her research indicates that the current anti-Islamic sentiments are far worse than post-September 11, 2001. Adding that the post-9/11 propaganda of the War on Terror has laid the groundwork that has made it so easy to collectively label all Muslims around the world as a bunch of violent religious fanatical terrorists who are threatening democracy and the stability of the civilized world. The pushed one-sided narrative collectively toasts all Middle Easterners, particularly Palestinians and Iranians. Moreover, she adds that this racist narrative paved the way for the Palestinian genocide. If and when the narrative is challenged by some well-informed academics and scholars who oppose the Israeli and American accounts, then they too are immediately accused of being anti-Semitic, glorifying violence and promoting terrorism. In addition to the importance of academic freedom for professors to teach, she also emphasizes on the importance of academic freedom for students to learn. Critical thinking ought to be encouraged and kept apart from indoctrination.
Prof. M. Muhammad Ayyash of Mount Royal University in Calgary exposes the underlying Zionist strategy of silencing opposing voices and suppressing academic speech which is detrimental to the fabricated Zionist narrative of the settler-colonial agenda. The agenda which its purpose is the Palestinian genocide. He stresses for anyone, academic or non-academic who disagrees with the pro-Israeli narrative, there should be no fear of reprisal and getting fired for criticizing blatant Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. The crucial point is, that these academics are not hired to teach maths or science. They are hired to teach what has been happening in Palestine and are doing their job impartially with a clear conscience. Unlike Salman Rushdie, what they write is not novel or fiction, it is based on empirical research findings. Yet, the former is praised as the freedom of expression, the latter is not even allowed. Weaponizing antisemitism would lead to taking sides, censorship and a significant drop in the quality of higher education.
One cannot disagree with these professors and blindly accept the imposed bogus definition of antisemitism, equated with the condemnation of murdering children, and defending the BDS with criticism of Judaism. Ironically enough, this ridiculous and hypocritical discourse is taking place in Western countries where the freedom of speech is a matter of national pride, and supposedly a constitutional right often used to criticize adversarial countries like Russia and China. There is nothing controversial said or done on the university campuses based on cherished Western democratic values. Israel has no impunity from being criticized. How can a genuine advocate of justice be selective, and vocal about what is happening in Ukraine, but be silent when it comes to the annihilation of the Palestinian population? Justice is indivisible with no geographical boundaries. Indeed, in the case of Palestine, framing advocacy for justice as defending terrorism is a slippery slope, using mendacious standards not applied fairly and wholistically. The tide is turning, Israel is losing its grip on public opinion. Truth is exposed, people can no longer be easily fooled or bullied.
However, having said that one always has to be mindful of hidden agendas. The Zionist regime is a master of deception. They have always managed to divert the public attention from the core issues at hand to trivialities and distractions, and possess the required apparatus to do so. The root of the Israel-Palestine conflict is occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. The progressive activists ought to be mindful, as I am sure they are, not to fall into the Zionist trap. While their outcry is indeed very legitimate and worthy, they must be of utmost careful not to allow the real debate to drift from genocide to academic freedom on university campuses. The main issue and discourse is what Israel is doing in an illegally confiscated land, not the politics on Canadian and American university campuses. Israeli’s smoke screen is designed and used very cleverly to shift attention from occupation, de-Arabization of the Palestinian territories and murdering the Palestinian children to academic freedom. In the past, they always sidetracked the main discourse to, for instance, a fictional threat of Iran’s nuclear program with the sole intention of wiping Israel off the map. Likewise, once again they would happily rather that the public attention and activism be focused on academic freedom than halting genocide and the carpet bombing of Gaza.
Inevitably, those who value freedom most, must sometimes choose to lose it for taking the just course of action. Resisting occupation is not terrorism, and supporting the freedom fighters is not antisemitism.
Falsely accusing the critics of Israel as ‘antisemite’, will change the disgusting concept that is depicted by this word. It will turn ‘antisemitism’ into a very respectful term which ultimately makes one to declare, that if condemnation of settler colonialism, genocidal expansion and killing children makes me an ‘antisemite’, then I am very proud to be one.
Mehran Banaei 