The NY Times is running a story today about a student council meeting at UCLA where a Jewish student's nomination to the student council's Judicial Board. In U.C.L.A. Debate Over Jewish Student, Echoes on Campus of Old Biases
Here's the line of questioning at the confirmation proceeding which led to the controversy:
“Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community,” Fabienne Roth, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, began, looking at Ms. Beyda at the other end of the room, “how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?”
For the next 40 minutes, after Ms. Beyda was dispatched from the room, the council tangled in a debate about whether her faith and affiliation with Jewish organizations, including her sorority and Hillel, a popular student group, meant she would be biased in dealing with sensitive governance questions that come before the board, which is the campus equivalent of the Supreme Court.
and then:
The council, in a meeting that took place on Feb. 10, voted first to reject Ms. Beyda’s nomination, with four members against her. Then, at the prodding of a faculty adviser there who pointed out that belonging to Jewish organizations was not a conflict of interest, the students revisited the question and unanimously put her on the board.
and this is the problem:
Reports of anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish sentiment have been on the rise across the country in recent years, especially directed at younger Jews, researchers said. Barry A. Kosmin, a Trinity College researcher and a co-author of a study issued last month that found extensive examples of anti-Semitism directed at college students, said he had not come across anything as striking as what happened at U.C.L.A.
“It’s egregious and startling,” Mr. Kosmin said. “If they had used this with any other group — sexual, racial, any kind of identity group — they would have realized it was illegal.”
I agree with Kosmin here, and think this crosses a line and you can call it anti-semitism (though I will note that the council members concerned have apologized without reservation for their votes and questions).
It's a teaching moment for everyone I think. We accept that all of us have interests we hold dear, and identities that we have acquired or adopted, they sometimes color our views of issues, but that is not always to be deplored and in fact it is part of the exchange of ideas and any democratic process.
The NY Times notes that UCLA's student council passed a BDS resolution recently after contentious debate and a couple of votes. It's likely that the student council members had that in their minds. For my part, I think this is a learning moment for other BDS student activists who need to think through this episode and understand why it's wrong.
I'll also note that most of the campus protests that I've heard of is directed at pro-Israel activities engaged in by specific groups (trips to Israel, lobbying against faculty who hold pro-Palestinain views, etc). I think that is actually about issues and not bald anti-semitism (though I fully admit my inability to look into people's hearts).
I also think we can all acknowledge that holding a pro-Palestinian position on I/P has become something of a litmus test for liberals. Not everyone holding that position is fully versed in the complexity of the interaction between various peoples in the region and the tortured history, then again which issue can one say that about.
Rachel's roommate wrote a letter to the campus paper which is worth a read.