Newsweek, 9/25/19

Natan Sharansky                                           

Why BDS Fails My 3D Test on anti-Semitism | Opinion

Demonization, Delegitimization and Double Standards

These 3Ds are the three main tools that anti-Semites employed against Jews throughout history. For thousands of years, Jews were demonized, they were charged with blood libels, with poisoning wells, and, later, with controlling the global banking system. The Jewish faith and the Jewish claim to nationhood was delegitimized. And double standards were applied to Jews, either through the imposition of special laws—from the Middle Ages in Europe, to the Russian Empire and Nazi Germany— or through de -facto government policy discriminating against Jews, as I experienced in the Soviet Union.


Throughout history, demonization of Jewish people, delegitimization of their faith or nationhood, and double standards applied to Jews created fertile soil for pogroms, expulsions and genocide.


My 3D test shows that if we see these same tools of delegitimization, demonization and double standards that were used against Jews in the past being used against the collective Jew, the Jewish State, today—we know we are witnessing a new face of the old anti-Semitism.

Natan Sharanksy is a former Prisoner of Zion in the Soviet Union and the Chair of The Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy.

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Antisemitic Statements that demonize, delegitimate,
and apply double standards to Israel
&
Responses

Statement by RAFA in Support of the Palestinian People (May 2021)
● Response: CUNY Community Statement Encouraging Mutual Respect and Engagement Towards a Just Middle East Peace and a CUNY Free of Harassment (May 2021)

Statement by RAFA: Q&A (pdf)
● CAFI Response

Statement: PSC-CUNY Executive Committee Proposed Resolution
Statement: Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People (PSC-CUNY Delegate Assembly, June 2021) (pdf)
● Response: CAFI Letter to PSC President, James Davis (August 6, 2021)
● Invitation to Dialogue about Israel and its Place in the Middle East
● What lies behind the PSC-CUNY Resolution (June 10, 2022)
● The PSC condemns itself (June 28, 2023)
● CUNY Alliance for Inclusion to Friends at CUNY and to the PSC (October 11, 2023)
● PSC Statement on the War in Israel and Gaza (October 12, 2023)
● CUNY Alliance for Inclusion Joins the Union in the Search for Reconciliation (October 13, 2023)

Statement by CUNY Law School Law Student Government Association and the Law School Faculty (December 2, 2021)
● CAFI Response to Statement of the CUNY LSGA
● Response: CAFI Letter to Chancellor in responses to Statement on the CUNY LSGA (December 21, 2021)
● Response: Statement from Chancellor (December 10, 2021)
● Response: NYC Legislators Letter (December 14, 2021)
● CAFI Denounces the CUNY Law School Faculty Endorsement of BDS
● A Critique of the CUNY Law School's Anti-Zionist Action by The Third Narrative (June 7, 2022)
● Statement by Chancellor Matos Rodríguez on the Support of a BDS Resolution by Faculty and Student Organizations at the CUNY School of Law (May 30, 2022)
● Statement from the Board of Trustees and Chancellor of the City University of New York (May 30, 2023)

Rally led by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the CUNY School of Law demanding that (March 30, 2022)
- Zionist professors are not allowed on your campus
- Zionist students are not in spaces where Palestinian students are
● Response: CAFI letter to Chancellor (April 8, 2022)


Statement from the School of Law: We Reject the Palestine Exception to Free Speech at CUNY (October 17, 2023)
Condemnation of CUNY Administration by the Graduate Center Chapter of the PSC (October 24, 2023)
PSC Letter to Chancellor (October 25, 2023)
● Petition: CUNY Faculty Call for Civility and Basic Human Decency (October 18, 2023)
● Petition: Open Letter to the Students and Faculty of Brooklyn College of President Anderson (October, 2023)

ADDRESING ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUS:

The CUNY Alliance for Inclusion Stands Against Demonization, Delegitimization and Double Standards by CUNY Organizations


The Gaza War in May 2021 began when Hamas fired hundreds of missiles into Israel with the expressed aim of killing Jewish civilians and wiping Israel off the map. Since that time, Israel has been condemned for defending its people, while Hamas’ attacks are not even mentioned in various statements and resolutions by groups at CUNY. These condemnations are so extreme and counterfactual, so one-sided and uniquely applied, that it is difficult to discern where ignorance ends, and fabrication begins.

 

The unqualified support for the goals of regressive Palestinian regimes is a betrayal of basic progressive principles and gives cover to Palestinian leaders whose source of power is their refusal to accept Israel’s existence and their incitement against Jews. Whether intentional or not, the valorized inversions of the truth in statements by the PSC and the LSGA are part of an unrelenting historical pattern of religious, racist, nationalist and internationalist attacks on Judaism and the Jewish people. The Nakba, the tragedy of the Palestinian People, is a wound inflicted on Palestinians by Arab and Palestinian leaders who have chosen to pursue a series of wars and terror campaigns to eradicate Israel instead of a territorial compromise. These resolutions undermine the hope for a just and lasting peace that would benefit Palestinians and Israelis.

 

As a result of the singular focus on Israel at the UN and among putative human rights organizations, calls for justice in every corner of the world are ignored so as not to soften the focus on Israel or dampen the preening over virtuous denouncements of Israel. These resolutions subvert open dialogue and the unbiased pursuit of truth that should be the hallmarks of international human rights organizations and universities. This dismal effort will continue until people around the world and members of the CUNY community can resist the allure of anti-Israel posturing and stand up to bullying. We call upon the CUNY administration to affirm that academic boycotts are not only illegal but undermine CUNY as a free and vibrant community of learning in which all members are respected. We invite you to sign our petition and join our effort to set the world on a just path.