The Modern Language Association, a 140-year-old organization of scholars in English and language departments across North America, recently adopted an “emergency motion” calling on university administrations to defend the academic freedom of students and faculty who have “condemned the Israeli government for its massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip.”
Whatever anyone thinks about Israel or Zionism, however, it should still be possible to protest the Gaza war without lurching into antisemitism.
Unfortunately, the temptation to raise anti-Jewish tropes appears to have been irresistible, judging from the slogans at campus demonstrations in support of the Palestinians. There is no contradiction between defending academic freedom and criticizing offensive speech.
Consider the frequently heard chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
There are three entities between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea: Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Freeing Palestine in the entirety of that small stretch of land would mean forcibly eradicating Israel, with the expulsion or death of many or most of the Jewish inhabitants.
As Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, recently warned Israel’s Jews, “Here, you don't have a future, and, from the river to the sea, the land of Palestine is for the Palestinians and for the Palestinian people only."
For Israelis and their supporters, of any faith or background, the call to eliminate the Jewish state is ominous, threatening and inherently antisemitic.
Defenders of the slogan, however, claim to see it differently.
According to a report by Al Jazeera, the chant is an “egalitarian”........