Video of incendiary comments by one of the leaders of the student protest encampment at Columbia University surfaced online Thursday evening, forcing the school to again confront an issue at the core of the conflict rippling across campuses nationwide: the tension between pro-Palestinian activism and antisemitism.
The student, Khymani James, said in the January video that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
Mr. James made the comments during and after a disciplinary hearing with Columbia administrators that he recorded and then posted on Instagram.
I get it. My grandmother was Jewish, and I had a bar mitzvah, although I don’t practice. I’m genealogically only 4% Jewish, but it turns out my mother’s mother was all that mattered for acceptance. I live in NY, so I naturally know a lot of Jews. I also have Israeli-American friends, born in Israel with dual citizenship, that I befriended at work over the years. With all those connections, not a single one is in support of Netanyahu’s horrific actions, and all are resentful of the implications of labeling judgement of his actions as antisemitic. It’s that reason I try to defend against criticism of Jews and Israeli citizens alike. Making assumptions about entire groups of people is racist or nationalist, and the exact same flavor of ignorance that is perpetuating the conflict.