Among the many, many interesting points made in this article, one stood out to me, and I don’t feel that it was harped on as much as it should have been. The basis of the work is that of inequalities between general (mostly academic) responses to the Gaza genocide and the difference in presentation of antisemitism vs Islamaphobia. Oftentimes, university workshops or speakers do not even mention the ladder, as they fund tremendous DEIB efforts to combat Antisemitism. At the same time, very real and pervasive, Antisemitism in the wake of the Gaza genocide has been largely institutional in its implementation. In contrast, Islamaphobia has been violently executed and resulted in the stabbing of a child, the shooting of 3 young men, and the purging of academics. These two issues are often bridged together in some way, or Antisemitism being hailed as the “primary issue” when the violent aftereffects of Islamaphobia are widely ignored.
Perhaps the most alarming trend presented in the work, and supported by more recent developments, is the precedent of responding to large, well-funded, powerful Zionist organizations with complete acceptance. As universities are forced to adopt definitions of anti-Semitism and create workshops appealing to Zionism, the hypocritical implementation of DEI at these universities begins to show, as they use DEI as a stepping stone to merely appeal to wealthy and powerful organizations and do their bidding using the veil of “inclusiveness”. This is not a critique of DEI or even the implementation of workshops/discussions, but rather a concrete red flag that the institutional adoption of Zionist groups’ will to fuel dangerous rhetoric that both undermines true anti-semitism and normalizes the Israeli regime and its genocidal mania.
