Should Universities Treat Discrimination against Zionists as Discrimination against Jews?
One response David L. Bernstein and I have received to our article is that we conflate antizionism with antisemitism. I think that is a misreading of our article; we discuss where University should do with regard to complaints about antisemitism without adjudicating whether the complaints are valid. We think that expression should be protected regardless of whether it is antisemitic, and disruptive, violent, harassing, and other illicit forms of protest should be punished regardless of whether it is antisemitic. So in most of the controversies that have arisen, the question of whether the speech or conduct is “really” antisemitic is not terribly relevant to our thesis.
However, the issue does arise when a student or professor is accused of illegal discrimination against Zionists. “Zionist” is an ideological position, and while university rules may prohibit ideological discrimination, in some cases ideological discrimination at state universities may violate the First Amendment, Title VI does not prohibit discrimination against Zionists, as such.
Title VI does prohibit discrimination against Jews, and the question then arises as to whether discrimination that is claimed to be discrimination against Zionists can be deemed to be discrimination against Jews.
“Zionist” can sometimes serve as a proxy for “Jew.” For example, when someone talks about the “Zionist-controlled media,” or refers to Jewish stude
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