We live in tumultuous political times. Turn to CNN, Fox, or Network TV, read the New York Times, The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal, slog through the mess that is Twitter, talk to any given person on the street, and you will encounter the angry, polarizing sentiments pervading our culture today. This volatile political environment has given birth to a new, concerning symptom ailing our culture: an unwillingness to engage with those with opposing views.Making those you disagree with radioactive kills any need, or excuse even, for dialogue. Let’s be clear. In an atmosphere where delegitimization and political intimidation become accepted, harassment, bigotry and violence will soon follow. This is true for the right and the left. The BDS movement and its many sub-groups spearhead this disturbing trend, with studies showing that it’s making college life less hospitable for Jews and supporters of Israel. It is also impeding the Academy from its important mission of education, debate and collegiality. Jewish students, for example, are often asked to disown Israel, with anything less portrayed as support for a racist, apartheid regime, simplifying a complex situation with multiple sides – and many protagonists.This is where alumni can make a difference. Students and faculty are entitled to hold their views – including supporting BDS. As an American I respect this. However, they do not have the right to use tactics of violence, intimidation, outright discrimination and disenfranchisement; nor are they allowed to limit the freedoms of their opposition, or abuse their powers to promote their agenda.Yet there are increasing incidents of all of these tactics. Speakers are being harrassed and shut down. At University of California, Davis, for example, BDS activists intruded on a lecture by George Deek, an Arab Israeli diplomat, positioning themselves between Deek and the audience. Upon finishing his lecture, Deek required a police escort as a safety precaution. George Deek and those who came to hear him had difficulty enjoying the right of free speech and peaceful assembly. Folks have the right to hear speakers like Deek without intimidation. After all, if the public can’t hear many points of view, they won’t have the necessary information to form an independent opinion. Another increasingly popular tactic is disenfranchisement. Jewish students and other supporters of Israel are being deprived of their voice through cynical strategies such as holding BDS votes on Jewish holidays or physically intimidating students who are obviously Jewish.• In 2018, for example, a BDS resolution was passed in City University, London. The vote was held under duress, with Jewish students being poked, jabbed, yelled at and physically intimidated. A similar vote at City University in 2014 was set on a Saturday so religious Jews would not be able to attend. • At Claremont College, in 2017, the student senate called for a boycott resolution on Passover, when Jewish students were not in attendance. • One year earlier, the student senate at the University of Indianapolis twice discussed the issue of BDS, both times on Shabbat; and a similar body at Portland State University found Yom Kippur and Shmini Atzeret preferred dates to discuss the Jewish state.• And, Tufts University’s student senate, also in 2017, passed a boycott resolution the day before Passover, with many Jewish students already home for the holiday. This case is important, because it fired up alumni, involving ACF in its early stages, and generated censure from Tuft’s Trustees. PERHAPS EVEN more disturbing, students are being unfairly treated not only by their peers, but also by some faculty. While faculty members are entitled to their political views, as disagreeable as they may be, it is vital to the academic mission that they not use their position as whips to control students’ views. As noted above, this is exactly what a professor and instructor at the University of Michigan did by refusing to write letters of recommendation for students who wished to study in Israel. The power disparity between student and professor is obvious, and such actions have a chilling effect on the greater community. Professors are provided with a platform by the university. Self-righteous political actions on that platform may feed the professors’ need to feel virtuous, but they are a form of bullying and stifling of opinion – not to mention an abdication of their professional responsibilities, which include writing references for students who have earned them. Intimidating self-righteousness is a key to understanding this issue. It has the ability to create a façade of acceptance. People tend to be quiet when confronted with the threat of violence, particularly when framed as social justice; and it is easy to misjudge silence as agreement. BDS on college campuses often takes the role of the bully in the name of victimhood, while trying to co-opt the social justice movement in its fight against Israel.With opposition silenced, students and faculty are robbed of the chance to engage in intellectually honest discourse about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Think about your average college student. Who would want to put themselves in this position by openly supporting Israel? Yes, some stand up – such as Talia Katz’s recent piece in the New York Daily News, but many will avoid the subject for self-preservation.The Academy stands for something much better.College alumni, up until the launch of ACF, were largely an untapped source in combating the toxic BDS narrative. Now, when we witness activists on campus hijacking the educational system in order to push a one-sided agenda for political gain, many of us realize it is time to take a stand. At Oberlin, Vassar, UCLA, Dartmouth, Michigan, Columbia and many other schools , alumni are joining together, moving ACF’s mission forward. We are steadily growing and making an impact.ACF is not about shutting off criticism of Israel and its policies. We simply disagree with an ideology that has appointed itself the sole arbiter of both social justice and how one evaluates the complex story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Openness and discussion count – silencing one’s adversaries and promoting antisemitism must go. At its core, ACF is not really pro-Israel, it’s pro-Academy.If you have never heard of us, now you have.Alums for Campus Fairness may be relatively new on the block, but we continue to grow, spreading our mission from coast to coast and beyond. We strive never to let our constituents down as we continue to change the dynamics on campus from exclusion and bullying to robust, informed and respectful debate. Alumni want their alma maters to be places of learning, with fact-based conversations over differences. We simply want Vassar to be Vassar, Dartmouth to be Dartmouth, and UCLA to be UCLA. It is not asking too much.
If you are interested in learning more about Alums for Campus Fairness, or contacting Avi Gordon, our Executive Director, visit us at https://www.campusfairness.org/
Mark Banschick, MD is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, with a practice in Katonah, New York. He is the author of The Intelligent Divorce book series, blogs regularly for Psychology Today, and is a co-founder of Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF), a StandWithUs non-profit that mobilizes alumni to improve campus life, with an emphasis on a marketplace of ideas, civility and confronting antisemitism.
