Every single time Israel is criticized in media, “antisemitic vandalism” conveniently pops up on college campuses with visible resistance organizing. It happens on my own campus like clockwork.
Of course anti-Jewish hate is real and bigots exist in every demographic, but what gets reported as a scary spike in anti-Jewish sentiment is usually a distraction from Israeli/US violence or a manufactured image event.
The Jewish fraternity at my university is rumored to require pledges each year to “vandalize” their own building. Every fall semester, a swastika will pop up, but no other incidents will occur until the following fall. It provides local media with fodder for anti-Muslim hate and fearmongering.
After Oct 7, these isolated incidents and media coverage allowed the CSU system to justify banning protests against Israel and to redefine anti-Semitism as purely anti-Jewish hate. The rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Sikh violence went virtually unreported.
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Originally posted to Facebook: 1 March 2025