Digital Library
"Zionists Off Our Campus!" Campus Antisemitism in 2017
Topic:
Antisemitism & Antizionism, Israel & Regional Politics
Principal Investigators:
Leila Beckwith and Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Study Date:
2018
Source:
AMCHA
Key Findings:
This study examines incidents of classic antisemitic and anti-Zionist harassment, vandalism and assault on U.S. campuses in 2017, and seeks to look beyond the tallies to deepen understanding of how antisemitism affects American campuses today.
A “hostile environment” (according to the U.S. Department of Education) is created when harassment is sufficiently serious to deny or limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from a school’s educational program. Behaviors intended to harm Jewish students and limit their ability to fully participate in campus life are more likely to contribute to a hostile environment than behaviors which do not show such intentionality.
Classic antisemitic incidents outnumbered Israel-related incidents 3 to 1 but showed far less intention to harm Jewish students and staff. 48 (23%) of the classic antisemitic incidents showed evidence of intent to harm Jewish students or staff, whereas 67 (94%) of the Israel-related incidents showed such intentionality. This suggests that Israel-related incidents are actually more likely to contribute to a hostile environment for Jewish students.
Classic antisemitic incidents with evidence of intention to harm Jewish students and staff were far less likely to show evidence of multiple perpetrators or perpetrators with group affiliation (whether on or off campus) than Israel-related incidents.
Genocidal expression was found in 75% of the classic antisemitic incidents in 2017, but less than 20% of these incidents were identified has having intent to harm Jewish students and staff. Genocidal expression in all incidents of classic antisemitism peaked in 2017 and decreased dramatically in the first half of 2018, but no such trend was found in incidents of genocidal expression with intent to harm Jewish students and staff.
Almost half of the Israel-related incidents in 2017 involved attempts to silence pro-Israel expression. Three-quarters involved targeting pro-Israel individuals for ostracizing and/or excluding. Nearly all involved: behavior intended to suppress pro-Israel expression; behavior targeting pro-Israel individuals or groups for ostracizing; and discriminatory behavior intended to exclude them from fully participating in campus life. These behaviors are all consistent with the official guidelines of the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
The fact that anti-Zionist harassment is not treated as other forms of harassment and that few on campus are sympathetic to pro-Israel students’ concerns creates increased vulnerability for many Jewish students. AMCHA maintains that peer-on-peer harassment is not only a form of identity-motivated discrimination — it is a violation of every student’s fundamental rights to freedom of expression and full participation in campus life.
Methodology:
205 documented incidents containing classic antisemitism and 71 documented Israel-related incidents from AMCHA’s 2017 Antisemitism Tracker are reviewed. These incidents are culled from submitted reports, campus police logs, media accounts, social media postings and on-line recordings occurring in 2017 on U.S. college or university campuses.
Antisemitic incidents given equal weight in an audit may not have equal impact on Jewish students, either individually or collectively. A methodological distinction is made between behaviors that are expressions of classic or contemporary antisemitic tropes but which are not specifically directed at Jewish campus members, and behaviors that are (in whole or part) directed at or disproportionately affect Jewish campus members.
Each incident was initially analyzed for clear evidence of intent to harm individual Jews on campus, Jewish-related campus organizations, or the property of individual Jews or Jewish organizations. Actions that included credible threats to the safety and well-being of Jews in general (but not targeting individual Jews or Jewish-related organizations on campus), were counted as having an intent to harm Jewish members of the campus community.
Each incident containing clear such evidence was identified as involving one or more of the following behaviors: Physical Assault; Discrimination; Destruction of Property; Genocidal Expression; Suppression of Speech/Movement/Assembly; Intimidation; Bullying; Denigration.
Incidents could be identified as having both classic antisemitic and anti-Israel aspects. For example, a voicemail message on a university staff member’s phone that referred to the Holocaust as a “Holohoax,” also accused Jews of “extorting Palestine for a century.”