(Politicizd) - This past Friday, as America's most prominent university concluded its spring term, its newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, announced it was officially supporting the boycott of Israel, making history with the papers first such announcement.
Previously, the paper had been rather ambiguous resorting to several controversial statements that expressed concerns about the Israeli conflict, and supporting the right for Palestinian sympathizers to protest. As a result, the declaration surprised many, leading to much debate on Twitter.
Editorial Chair, Orlee Marini-Rapoport, defended the decision tweeting: "I am an Editorial Chair @thecrimson. I am also Jewish. Yesterday, the Board overturned a decades-old precedent; for the first time, we announced our support of BDS. I encourage you to read our editorial. I’m so proud to be part of this thoughtful group."
The statement, controversial in nature, was throughly criticized for her "I am a Jew" defense as a justification for the tweet. However, the defense follows a classic leftist belief in identity politics which believes that only members of a particular ethnic group can take political stances on that ethnic group's most pressing issues. For example, in the case of Black Lives Matter, only African Americans would be allowed to debate the issue as they are the group at hand.
Nevertheless, the tweet was particularly upsetting for many, as it came just days after "Yom Hashoah", an internationally recognized holiday commemorating the loss of more than 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.
Many, including historians and political pundits argue that with the existence of Israel, the Holocaust would likely have never happened.
David Harsanyi, a Senior Writer at the National Review, criticized Marini-Rapaport calling her actions shameful.
Others were quick to point the inaccuracies of the actual extended statement from the Editorial Board, and its insinuations that Palestinians in Israel were actively running from their lives on a daily basis. In fact, over the course of Ramadan, there was a historic rise in terrorism targeting Jews in Israel. Jews were encouraged to be mindful and avoid travel to heavily Muslim areas.
In the instance below, a Jew was attacked by a mob of Palestinians as he left the Western Wall after prayers.
Attacks like these are far from uncommon, where Jews are forced to look over their shoulder as they could be the next target for many upcoming terrorists. Just last month, two were killed and ten were wounded in a shooting in Tel Aviv targeting victims for their Jewish faith.
Overall, as the world nears 80 years since the Holocaust, Anti-Semitism continues to rise with the only Jewish, and democratically elected state in the Middle East being singled out as the oppressor.
However, this reality makes little sense, as Muslims in Israel have more rights than nearly anywhere else in the Middle East. Palestinians serve in Israel’s Knesset (Israel’s legislative branch), Israel’s courts and most certainly vote in elections.
In fact, in the 2020 election season, 63.7 percent of Arabs voted, notably higher than the 58.3% of non-white Americans in the 2020 United States election season.
Furthermore, the absurd claim that Israel has engaged in genocide, is completely ridiculous and according to the United Nations, the Palestinian population has grown from 1.1 Million in 1960, to a whopping 5.1 Million in 2020. To the contrary, in 1948 there were 856,00 Jews across all Arab countries, while today there are just 4,315 Jews.
Nonetheless, Anti-Semites like Marini-Rapporport often get lost in social justice declaring their solidarity with movements that make little sense, and in this case that target the only Jewish state in the world.
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