Spike in anti-Israel attitudes on US campuses: Study

By Ibrahim Mukhtar

ANKARA (AA) - The manifestation of anti-Zionism attitudes on US university campuses has drastically increased in recent years, according to a study by Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

Report author Miriam Elman said anti-Zionism has manifested in different ways, including plastering anti-Zionist flyers that accuse Jews of “secretly infiltrating [the] government.”

Regular anti-Israel campaigns calling “to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel” are featured at hundreds of campuses, including “some of the country’s most prestigious and those with high Jewish-student enrollments,” said Elman.

“Israel continues to be delegitimized and cast as a pariah state,” according to the report that said many students view Jewish students -- the majority of whom self-define as Zionist according to the author -- as “imperialists, racists, and even Nazis and white supremacists.”

The study said some students are perceived as harboring Zionist beliefs and those who identify with Israel have been questioned about “their fitness to serve in leadership positions.”

According to the study, the number of American students supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has risen in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in 2020 which “strengthened allyships between supporters of BDS and the movement for Black Lives Matter.”

BDS is a Palestinian-led movement inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement that demands freedom, justice, and equality for Palestinians as well as working to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians through promoting the boycott of Israeli products and sanctions against Israel.

Floyd, 46, died in May in Minneapolis, Minnesota after Derek Chauvin, a white former police officer, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. He was killed by "asphyxiation from sustained pressure," an independent autopsy found.

His last words were "I can't breathe," which became a slogan for worldwide demonstrations.

The report has also noted the rise of anti-Israel professors in the US who publish anti-Israel materials in leading peer-reviewed outlets. “Academic departments are increasingly sponsoring events that demonize Israel,” it said,

Many Jewish-Zionist students have also been excluded from participating in progressive coalitions and there exist “obnoxious campus campaigns that discredit American-Jewish organizations,” the study said, adding that campaigns “seek to prevent or limit their activity on campus.”

The study highlighted the open call for an “academic boycott of Israel” by university professionals discouraging students not to pursue “study abroad programs in Israel.”