Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assembly with a delegation of Jewish American college students at his workplace in Jerusalem to debate rising antisemitism on faculty campuses on June 3, 2024. Photograph: Screenshot
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a delegation of American faculty college students in Jerusalem on Monday to debate rising antisemitism on college campuses, a wave of hatred that swept throughout academia following Hamas’ Oct. 7 bloodbath throughout southern Israel.
“We’re going through a world battle to combat slander in opposition to the Jewish folks and the Jewish state,” Netanyahu instructed the group, which comprised present and lately graduated college students from Tulane College, the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise (MIT) — the prime minister’s alma mater, which he attended whereas serving within the Israel Protection Forces — Columbia College, Rutgers College, the College of Michigan, and Harvard College.
“Crucial factor is you need to combat. And the way do you combat lies? With reality,” he continued. “A lie can circle the earth 1,000 instances earlier than a single phrase of reality will get by, however we now have no different alternative. We combat by exposing the lies.”
MIT scholar Talia Khan, who achieved notoriety for exposing vicious antisemitic abuse perpetrated by anti-Zionist MIT school and college students throughout a gathering with US lawmakers, spoke on behalf of the scholars, discussing the perils posed by rising assist on campuses for Islamic antisemitism and terrorism.
“As a Jew, I do know the significance of the State of Israel within the shadow of the Holocaust,” mentioned Khan, who famous her father is a Muslim from Afghanistan. “As a lady of Afghan descent, I perceive the significance of Western values and combating the forces which are attempting to set us again. As a patriotic American, it’s apparent that US pursuits are greatest served by offering our greatest and dependable ally Israel with the instruments it must proceed being a beacon of sunshine and democracy.”
She continued, “Because of this, I ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, to assist us turn into higher companions on this battle on terror. All of us on this room, and lots of others that couldn’t make it on this journey, we’re all able to dedicate our lives to defending democracy, Western values, and Israel and America.”
The scholars had been dropped at Israel by Olami, a nonprofit group which connects younger Jewish folks from the world over. Their journey to this point has taken them to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in addition to the location of the Nova Music Pageant bloodbath the place Hamas terrorists murdered a whole lot of younger folks on Oct. 7.
“That was extremely onerous to see,” latest Tulane College graduate Yasmeen Ohebsion instructed The Algemeiner throughout an interview she agreed to soak up taxi going from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. “A survivor there defined her story. She was trapped below a trash container with 40 folks piled on high of her. Solely 10 folks on the very backside of the container survived, so she nearly suffocated to loss of life as a result of there have been limbs and useless our bodies on high of her. That was very intense.”
The scholars have additionally traveled to the Kfar Aza kibbutz, the place Hamas murdered over 50 folks.
“We heard from a person who misplaced his daughter and his daughter’s boyfriend,” Ohebsion, who later led a dialogue with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, continued. “I hugged him; he cried in my arms and broke down. He confirmed me the final textual content his daughter despatched me earlier than she was murdered. It was actually such a transferring but onerous expertise.”
US faculty campuses skilled an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — together with demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish college students — after Oct. 7. In a two-month span, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on faculty campuses alone. Throughout that very same interval, antisemitic incidents throughout the US skyrocketed by 323 p.c in comparison with the prior 12 months.
The campus local weather has, by quite a few accounts, pushed Jewish id underground. Because the tragedy of Oct. 7, multiple in three Jewish faculty college students reporting feeling the necessity to disguise their Jewish id on campus, in keeping with a survey performed by Hillel Worldwide. A placing 37 p.c of Jewish college students mentioned they’ve wanted to cover their Jewish id and 35 p.c of respondents mentioned there have been acts of hate or violence in opposition to Jews on their campus. A majority of these surveyed mentioned they had been unhappy with their college’s response to these incidents.
Talking to The Algemeiner by way of iMessage, Khan mentioned the Olami journey to Israel allowed American Jewish college students and Israeli college students to attach and course of lingering trauma associated to the occasions of Oct. 7.
“Sharing our tales and having mutual empathy for these completely different experiences after the horrors of Oct. 7 helped both sides course of their ache and start to work on turning this ache into one thing productive,” Kahn wrote. “I feel this helped us all see that we should not wallow in our unhappiness, however slightly honor the victims of this horrific assault by spreading Jewish pleasure and love, and combating those that search to dismantle democracy and Western values on all fronts.”
Comply with Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
