(Jewish Group) Being a Jew at a notoriously anti-Israel college is exhausting

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

I'm tired. This is a common sentiment shared by many Jewish students across campus at UC Berkeley.

Before continuing, I would like to emphasize that I am just one voice, one student in a diverse Jewish community. With students ranging from Reform to Orthodox, liberal to conservative, pro-Palestine to pro-Israel, and everything in between, I could not possibly encompass every Jewish student’s unique perspective. I’m only speaking for myself and from my experiences.

As an infamously liberal university, UC Berkeley has also become increasingly pro-Palestine and anti-Israel. Don’t get me wrong, I love Berkeley and am immensely grateful for the opportunity to study here. But being a Jew on this campus is exhausting.

When I meet new people and they ask me about my extracurriculars or what I’m involved in on campus, I always wince and hesitate to admit that I am involved in Hillel and the Jewish community, afraid of how they may react. Being the best public university in the world, the home of the free speech movement and notorious for protesting in the name of social justice, you would think that the UC Berkeley community would recognize Jewish students as a minority group who has faced a history of persecution and suffering. Yet many people view us as the oppressors, echoing the classic anti-Semitic trope that Jews are responsible for everything wrong with the world.

On many occasions, UC Berkeley students have equated Judaism with Zionism, as if our entire religious identity is based solely on our relationship with Israel, and further equate Zionism with white supremacy and settler colonialism, using these words synonymously. Most notable, claims of this nature were made at a live-streamed student senate meeting in April. Never mind that this meeting was about senate elections and had essentially nothing to do with Israel.

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[TheRealNorth]

1. And the Divide and Conquer shit storm starts

The truth is as I have experienced it is that any criticism of Israel is portrayed as being anti-semetic by the pro-Israel groups.

Whether the person criticizing Israel is "pro-Palestinian" or not is irrelevant IMO- but the article seems to be trying to paint anyone who is critical of Israel as being pro-Palestinian, which is a straw man argument.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. And the truth is...

...I have experienced is that any criticism of Palestine is automatically labelled Islamophobic by pro-Palestine groups.

The article is not trying to paint anyone who is critical of Israel as being pro-Palestinian.

In my opinion, the conflict is often oversimplified into either pro-Israel or pro-Palestine, with people (like myself) who fall in the middle being rejected by supporters on both sides. Even among the Jewish community on campus, Jewish students who acknowledge that Israel doesn’t always do the right thing are often ostracized by other Jewish students. They argue that Israel has enough outside criticism and doesn’t need internal criticism as well.

I believe internal criticism is exactly what both sides need. Compromise cannot exist without people admitting some flaw and attempting to see the situation from the opposite point of view. I try to understand the pro-Palestine argument of people fighting for their freedom, and I would hope people on that side would try to understand that Israel is fighting to defend itself.

Your statement is the true strawman.

[MosheFeingold]

3. The reason

Criticism of Israel is often anti Semitic is because the criticism is generally based on lies that are easily disproved — and yet are constantly repeated as truth, often by the same people.

Repeatedly lying about something is a hostile act, that requires explanation.

The logical explanation for such smears is antisemtism.