You know, I just glanced at the links posted in #3 about incidents of “anti-semitism” on college campuses in the anti-semitism tracker. I put it in quotes because I looked at a few entries for some LACs I am familiar with and it is anti-Israel stuff (ex: anti-Israel petitions). That to me is different than anti-semitism. It’s political not religious. I’m sure there are genuine anti-semites among some students as they, unfortunately, exist in society at large. However, I think the two need to be separated and any list that aggregates the two as anti-semitism is conflagrating the issue a bit.
But the OP is concerned about pro-Israel/anti-Israel presence on campus. Again, I come back to what the OP’s definition of bullying is. All you can do is do your research and determine what YOU feel comfortable with given your personal threshold.
Isn’t this another variation of the “safe spaces” discussion about schools? Do Israel supporters expect to not hear criticism of of the country or its policies? Do they plan on standing up for their beliefs? If discussions are not shouted down then I have no problem with either.
If you have to constantly stand up for your beliefs it can be exhausting. Like spending time on Yik Yak, for example. I left because there was too much racism and sexism. Can’t fight it all.
So I can sympathize with the desire to not constantly have to fight and debate. Sometimes you just want to hang out with people who have the same values as you.
It looks like Syracuse belongs on the list of Israel unfriendly places. Shrug. Other than minor snits in academia, Israel (AKA “startup nation”) develops a stronger hand with every week that passes. With US companies exiting numerous startups (particularly in the security space) and Israel building more settlements, BDS gets more and more impossible as every deal closes and as more families move into their houses. My advice: go where you’d like and ignore the nattering nabobs of negativity who hate Israel.
Israeli - Palestinian politics on campus, just like elsewhere, can get really nasty and racist, no matter where you stand on the issues. The most vocal participants tend to be the most racist ones, and both the Israeli government and the Palestinian organizations have enough dirty history and current policies/actions to provide endless sources of things to criticize, which the racists use as bait to try to pull more people into their racism, as well as shout loudly about to drown out non-racist voices.
Yes, ucb… but it’s still quite easy to avoid these conflicts if you don’t feel like getting into it. And OP, no one will know you’re a supporter of Israel unless you advertise it.
Doubt it is unusual, although “support Israel” is not necessarily the same as “support the policies of the current government of Israel”.
True, most students will just tune out the racist loudmouths (on all sides) who tend to dominate the shouting match on the subject. Unfortunately, that racist shouting match tend to make a bad first impression.
Ah, I see, @greenteen17… but honestly, it may not be as big an issue as you fear. Student activism is a fickle thing and for all you know the big discussion on whatever campus you end up on will not be Israeli politics but slave-owning university founders or unionization of grad students.
“Yes, ucb… but it’s still quite easy to avoid these conflicts if you don’t feel like getting into it. And OP, no one will know you’re a supporter of Israel unless you advertise it.”
You mean by not wearing a Jewish star necklace or a kippah or a t-shirt with Hebrew on it that you got on your trip to Israel? Or not going to Hillel or to hear Zionist speakers? Or carefully not doing anything or attending any activity that identifies you as at least potentially Zionist? (Yes, I realize that not all Jews are Zionists, but many are.) Would you tell a Muslim woman that she can easily avoid conflicts with people who are prejudiced against Muslims by not wearing the headscarf she prefers to wear?
Maybe you’d like to rethink the advice to avoid conflicts with anti-Semites by hiding who you are and what you believe.
Binghamton has a huge Israel supporting population, we have multiple pro Israel clubs and the annual yom haatzmaut party is off the hook, last year I went on a zip line and ate free shawarma it was the best day.
I support Israel and its right to exist and defend itself. At the same time, I dislike the policies of Likud and Netanyahu, abhor the ever-growing West Bank settlements, and think that overall, the Palestinians have gotten a really raw deal. There are those who would assert that I am anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic for holding these views.
I suspect that if you engage in many public discussions about this particular subject (or any other similarly controversial subject), the conversation might get heated - and the yelling would be going both ways. Bullying, however, would be very rare, unless by bullying you mean “I want to have my say and not have anyone disagree with me in a way that I consider rude.”
There are thousands of colleges and millions of college students out there, and the few incidents of actual bullying that have been reported seem very uncommon.
@millie12 Whoa, you totally blew my response out of proportion.
I don’t believe that criticizing Israeli politics equals being an anti-Semite. Surely you’ve met Jews who are appalled by what’s going on in today’s Israel and actually express it! If you haven’t – it’s time to expand your horizons.
I gave the advice that I gave because OP is a young person worried about how his/her (hardly controversial!) ideas about Israel will affect his/her college experience. And I’m trying to reassure this young person by saying if he/she is uncomfortable discussing Jewish/Palestinian relations, it’s easy not to.
Just ask the THOUSANDS of Jews who attend, for example, UC Berkeley, where pro-Palestinian groups are active, visible and vocal. Somehow Berkeley can accommodate both them – and the active, visible and vocal Hillel community. Or the THOUSANDS of Jews at Syracuse, a supposedly “anti-Israel” school, according to someone here.
The VAST MAJORITY of students at the schools OP listed aren’t going to zero-in on a kippa-wearing student and say, oooh, he’s a Zionist, let’s get him! That’s certainly not the experience of my Jewish relatives who have attended some of these schools, or to my friends who teach there, friends who are also Jewish.
I will say, that it’s much harder to be a Republican on these campuses than a kippa-wearing Jew. Except at Dartmouth… at Dartmouth it’s OK to be a Republican.*
Note that there are the following student groups at Berkeley:
Tikvah: Students for Israel (appears Likud / right-wing Israeli aligned; https://tikvahsfi.berkeley.edu/ )
J-Street (appears Labor / left-wing Israeli aligned; jstreetuatberkeley on a popular social media web site)