Is it antisemitic to say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza? Is it “hurtful and insensitive” for someone to acknowledge the suffering that Israel has inflicted on the Palestinian people? In recent weeks, actions by two institutions of higher learning brought these questions to the forefront.

On 15th April, faculty and student organisations at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY, hosted Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Mosab Abu Toha to speak on campus. To set the stage for his poetry reading, Abu Toha shared his experiences living in Gaza during the Israeli assault and spoke of family members who’d been killed in Israel’s bombing campaigns. Entire families erased, neighbourhoods laid waste, memories eradicated. It was, he stated, a genocide.

Days later, Le Moyne’s president issued an apology for the discomfort that Abu Toha’s remarks may have caused some in the college community. The letter noted that using the word genocide in connection with Israel caused “real hurt” and made some “feel unwelcome”. The president concluded by affirming that “antisemitism, along with all forms of bigotry and hate, has no place at Le Moyne”.

Abu Toha........

© The Nation