Criticism of Israel is not Antisemitic: UW Faculty and Staff Commit to a Clear Definition of Antisemitism

We are faculty and staff at Universities of Wisconsin (i.e., the UW system) who are concerned about the growing trend to treat criticism of the policies and practices of the state of Israel or of the ideology of Zionism as evidence of antisemitism, a term used to describe hatred and bigotry towards Jews.

A failure to distinguish antisemitism from criticism of Israel obstructs the ability of colleges and universities to educate and facilitate important civic discourse. It also interferes with our fight against true antisemitism.

While many Jews and Israelis are non-Zionist or even anti-Zionist and many of them reject Israeli policies, Zionism has historically been closely connected to the Jewish people. Therefore, our colleges and universities face a difficult challenge: Bigotry and hatred toward a racial or religious group is, of course, never a part of healthy discourse. But if criticism of Israel is defined as antisemitic speech, then we will silence all critique of that state – including voices about Palestinian self-determination and human rights. Indeed, over 2000 Jewish writers recently came together to affirm, among other things, that “[a]nti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic—and claiming it is uses Jewish suffering to erase Palestinian experience.”

To do our jobs, colleges and universities must be able to see the difference between condemnation of a people (or race, ethnicity, or religion) and condemnation of a state or a political ideology.

We cannot have educational conversations if critical interrogation of Israel or Zionism are censored as antisemitic. Just as it is not Islamophobic or evidence of anti-Muslim bigotry to criticize or even condemn Islamism or self-declared Islamic governments like Iran and Pakistan, it is also not antisemitic to criticize (or even condemn) the self-declared Jewish state of Israel.

The public sphere has muddied the waters with competing definitions of antisemitism. The Anti-Defamation League and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance include references to the state of Israel in their descriptions of antisemitism, but the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism does not. For example, the Anti-Defamation League asserts that it is antisemitic to “ostracize and vilify Zionists and Zionism” but the Jerusalem Declaration states that it is not antisemitic to “criticiz[e] or oppos[e] Zionism as a form of nationalism.”

The White House has not offered much clarity on the question, even in its recently-released National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which specifically avoids choosing between competing definitions of antisemitism.

This leaves American colleges and universities to brave this tough question on our own. 

We believe it is crucial to clarify the difference between antisemitism and criticism of Israel because of the alarming rise in harassment and intimidation of students who criticize Israel today. Without such a clarification,  students will continue to be censured, doxxed, lose their jobs, and even be physically attacked simply because of statements against Israel or in Palestinian solidarity. Because victims of this harassment are disproportionately Arab and Muslim, the situation also breeds anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamophobia. Far too often, speech against Israel is immediately presumed to support terrorism and violence, reviving Islamophobic tropes about Muslims as violent people.

In other words, without separating anti-Israel speech from anti-Jewish speech, we are all stuck in an impossible paradox in which fighting against antisemitism increases anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim bigotry. We must find a way out of this box, and soon.

Our colleges and universities can lead the way. We believe that institutions of higher education are crucial to the healthy functioning of a society. As faculty and staff committed to the Wisconsin Idea, we know that colleges and universities serve as important training grounds for people to practice healthy dialogue with those who hold very different ideas and beliefs from their own. Every day – in our classrooms, offices, labs, lunchrooms, affinity groups, counseling offices, and other gathering places – we encourage critical thinking and open debate on all sorts of controversial topics, from health care and affirmative action to abortion, medical research, artificial intelligence, and more.

That includes criticism – even condemnation – of the actions of nation-states. Free and spirited conversations about states and state actors are crucial to academic discourse. In fact, one of the reasons for tenure is to enable faculty to criticize powerful entities like our own government without fear or favor. The freedom to criticize governments and political actors must extend to criticism of foreign states, including the state of Israel.

Protection of this freedom need not infringe on the important and continuing work of combating racial and religious bigotry on our campus. The dignity of all must be protected – regardless of race, religion, or other identity. For example, using stereotypes about Jewish people in criticism of Israel would indeed be antisemitic, but simple critique (or even condemnation) of the state of Israel must be protected as part of a healthy educational discourse.

Therefore, we affirm that criticism of the state of Israel or the political ideology of Zionism is not in and of itself antisemitic.

To add your name to this statement, sign here.

SIGNED:

Asifa Quraishi-Landes, Professor, Law School, UW-Madison

Katrina Daly Thompson, Professor, African Cultural Studies & Religious Studies, UW-Madison

Samer Alatout, Buttel-Sewell Professor, Associate Professor, Community and Environmental Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, UW-Madison

Luís M. Madureira, Professor and Chair, African Cultural Studies, UW-Madison

Saylin Alvarez-Oquendo, Teaching Faculty, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, UW-Madison

Marissa J. Moorman, Professor, Department of African Cultural Studies, UW-Madison

Hasan Khatib, Professor, Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, UW Population Health Institute, UW-Madison

Adel Talaat, Professor, School of Veterinary Medicine, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, UW-Madison

Jack Kloppenburg, Professor Emeritus, Department of Community and Environmental Sociology, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UW-Madison

Joshua Garoon, Assistant Professor, Community & Environmental Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, UW-Madison

David Long, Researcher, Community and Environmental Sociology, UW-Madison

Nevine El Nossery, Professor, French and Italian, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Adam Y. Stern, Assistant Professor, German, Nordic and Slavic and Jewish Studies, UW–Madison

Steven Hutchinson, Professor, Spanish & Portuguese, UW-Madison

Leah S. Horowitz, Associate Professor, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UW-Madison

Jerome Camal, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, UW-Madison

Joel Rogers, Noam Chomsky Professor of Law, Public Policy and Sociology & Director of Havens Wright Center for Social Jusice and COWS/High Road Strategy Center, UW-Madison

Samir El-Omari, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW-Platteville

Nan Enstad, Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology, UW-Madison

Kathryn Sanchez, Professor, UW-Madison

Sarah Ensor, Assistant Professor of English, UW-Madison

Mitra Sharafi, Evjue-Bascom Professor, Law School, UW-Madison

Mercedes Alcala-Galan, Professor, Spanish and Portuguese, UW-Madison

Jane Collins, Professor Emerita, UW-Madison

Hannah Vandegrift Eldridge, Professor of German, UW-Madison

Michael Mayerfeld Bell, Philip David Lowe Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology, UW-Madison

Diane Mayerfeld, Outreach Specialist, Division of Extension, UW-Madison

Gay Seidman, Professor of Sociology, UW-Madison

Preeti Chopra, Professor, Department of Art History, UW-Madison

Heinz Klug, Professor of Law, UW-Madison

Anonymous Teaching Faculty (GNS+), UW-Madison

Anonymous staff member, Law School, UW-Madison

Mouna Algahaithi, Education Engagement Specialist, Wisconsin Public Media, UW-Madison

Lisa Masri, Research Administrator, Institute for Research on Poverty, UW-Madison

Rachel Ida Buff, Professor, UW-Milwaukee

Nassima Baba-Ahmed Fertikh, Neurologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, UW-Madison

Anonymous Professor, Computer Sciences, UW-Madison

Anonymous Lecturer, Lecturer, Letters & Sciences, UW-Madison

Boaventura Sousa Santos, Distinguished Legal Scholar, Law School, UW-Madison

Hana Masri, Outreach Specialist, SMPH, UW-Madison

Jennifer Pruitt, Associate Professor, Art History, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Libraries, UW-Madison

Cindy I-Fen Cheng, Professor of History and Asian America Studies, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, History & Environmental Studies, UW-Madison

Staci Lowe, Director of Research Administration, School of Nursing, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, Department of English, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Steven Brooke, Associate Professor, UW-Madison

Emily Callaci, Professor, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Law School UW-Madison

Mary Ann Polewski, Administrative Director, LRW Program, Law School, UW-Madison

Jordan Smith, Employer Relations Coordinator, Law School, UW-Madison

Finn Enke, Professor of History, and Gender and Women's Stuides, UW-Madison

Rebecca Shields, Instructional Administrator, Language Sciences, UW-Madison

Monica Kim, Associate Professor, Department of History, UW-Madison

Anonymous Clinical Professor, Law School, UW-Madison

April Haynes, Professor of History, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UW-Madison

Matt Villeneuve, Assistant Professor of History and American Indian and Indigenous Studies, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Librarian, Law School, UW-Madison

Eunsil Oh, Assistant Professor, Sociology and Asian Languages and Cultures, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Clinical Research Coordinator, Department of Geriatrics, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Law School, UW-Madison

Laila Amine, Vilas Associate Professor, UW-Madison

Viren Murthy, Professor, Department of History, UW-Madison

Kristina Huang, Assistant Professor of English, UW-Madison

Aireale J. Rodgers, Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, UW-Madison

Martha E. Gaines, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law Emerita, UW-Madison

Nina Clements, Staff, UW-Madison

Kelly Marie Ward, Assistant Professor, Gender & Women's Studies and Sociology, UW-Madison

Sami Schalk, Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies, UW-Madison

Barry Burden, Professor of Political Science, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, Gender and Women’s Studies, UW-Madison

Jill H. Casid, Professor, Departments of Art History and Gender and Women’s Studies, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, UW-Madison

Jazmine Zuniga-Paiz, Office Manager, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Sophie Crispin, Clinical Instructor, Law School, UW-Madison

Anonymous Academic Advisor, UW-Madison

Brenda Gayle Plummer, Professor of History, UW-Madison

Anna Campbell, Associate Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, UW-Madison

Kimberly Vue, Academic Advisor, PEOPLE Program, UW-Madison

Amanda Shubert, Teaching Faculty, Department of English, UW-Madison

Alexander Hopp, Lecturer, Asian American Studies Program, UW-Madison

Caroline Gottschalk Druschke, Professor of English, UW-Madison

Keith Findley, Professor of Law, UW-Madison

Ingrid Diran, Assistant Professor, Department of English, UW-Madison

Anonymous Local Series Producer, PBS Wisconsin, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, Department of History, UW-Madison

Giuliana Chamedes, Associate Professor, Department of History, UW-Madison

Farid Masrour, Professor, Department of Philosophy, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UW-Madison

Anonymous  Instructor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UW-Madison

Lisa H. Cooper, Professor, Department of English, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, UW-Madison

Anonymous Advisor, Center for Educational Opportunity, UW-Madison

Annie Menzel, Assistant Professor, Gender and Women's Studies, UW-Madison

Tsela Barr, Assistant Director/Middle East Studies Program, UW-Madison

Natha Kalmoe, Center Executive Director, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, UW-Madison

Anonymous Director, Letters & Sciences, UW-Madison

Frederic Neyrat, Professor, English Department, UW-Madison

Ryan Poe-Gavlinski, Clinical Assistant Professor, Law School, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, Educational Policy Studies, UW-Madison

Gregg Mitman, Vilas Research and William Coleman Professor of History, Medical History, and Environmental Studies, UW-Madison

Julia Greenberg, Associate Lecturer, Department of Psychology, UW-Madison

Yuhang Li, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, UW-Madison

Anonymous Librarian, Law School, UW-Madison

Sharon Lezberg, Community Development Educator, Division of Extension, UW-Madison

Lesley Bartlett, Professor, Educational Policy Studies, UW-Madison

Carolina Sarmiento, Associate Professor, School of Human Ecology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, Law School, UW-Madison

Claire L. Wendland, Departments of Anthropology and Obstetrics & Gynecology, UW-Madison

Jacee Cho, Associate Professor, Department of English, UW-Madison

Victor Goldgel Carballo, Professor, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, UW-Madison

Luz Arroyo Calderon,Associate Director, PEOPLE Program, UW-Madison

Nick Thuot, Program Assistant, FJRC, Law School, UW-Madison

Anonymous staff member, UW-Madison

Julia Tanenbaum, Processing Archivist, UW-Madison

Mackenzie Ryan, Staff member, UW-Madison

Margarita Campos, Academic Advisor, PEOPLE Program, UW-Madison

Anthony Lattis, Archivist, UW-Madison

Walter C. Stern, Associate Professor, Educational Policy Studies & History, UW-Madison

Katherine Charek Briggs. Assistant Director, Gender and Sexuality Campus Center, UW-Madison

Peter McDonald, Faculty Member, UW-Madison

Chaoya Nkauj Zag Ntxhee Yang, research services archivist, UW Madison Libraries

Nadia Chana, Assistant Professor, Mead Witter School of Music, UW-Madison

Jess Draws, Outreach Specialist at The Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies, UW-Madison

Gabrielle Cornish, Assistant Professor of Musicology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, UW-Whitewater

Amy Lewis, Assistant Professor of Music Education, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Advisor, UW Madison

Martin Foys, Professor of English, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Law School, UW-Madison

Troy Reeves, Oral Historian/UW-Madison Libraries

Anonymous Staff member, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Law School, UW-Madison

Cat Phan, Archivist, Libraries, UW-Madison

Lindsay Palmer, Associate Professor, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty Member, UW-Madison

Alice Ogden-Nussbaum, Research Specialist, Letters & Sciences, UW-Madison

Robert Hawkins, Assistant Professor of Psychology, UW-Madison

Dana Maltby, Academic Advising Manager, Letters & Sciences, Department of Statistics, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Aquatic Sciences Center, UW-Madison

Dan Fitch, Research Engineer, Institute on Aging, UW-Madison

Anonymous Lecturer, English Department, UW-Madison

James P Leary, Emeritus Professor, Folklore and Scandinavian Studies, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff Member, Wisconsin Union, UW-Madison

Paula Gottlieb, Professor of Philosophy, UW-Madison

Ahmed Afifi, Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty Member, Dept. of History, UW-Madison

Susan Nossal, Academic Staff, UW-Madison

Anonymous staff member, UW-Madison

Esty Dinur, Emerita, Wisconsin Union, UW-Madison

Sunny Yudkoff, Associate Professor, German, Nordic, and Slavic, and Jewish Studies, UW-Madison

Patrícia Rengel, Former faculty member, Spanish and Portuguese, UW-Madison

Ramzi Fawaz, Romnes Professor of English, UW-Madison

Anonymous faculty member, UW-Madison

Anonymous staff member, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UW-Madison

Erika Marin-Spiotta, Professor of Geography, UW-Madison

Keith Woodward, Professor, Department of Geography, UW-Madison

Carmen Juniper, Administrative Manager, SMPH, UW-Madison

Anonymous staff member, UW-Madison

Anonymous staff member, UW-Madison

Morgan Robertson, Professor, Department of Geography, UW-Madison

Dustin Brown, Teaching Faculty, Law School, UW-Madison

Olivia Little, Scientist, School of Medicine and Public Health, UW-Madison

Lesley Wolf, Outreach Manager, Population Health Institute, SMPH, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine and Public Health, UW-Madison

Amy Washbush, Associate Director, Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, UW-Madison

Francisco Peñagaricano, Assistant Professor, Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, UW-Madison

Madison Lands, Research Staff, School of Medicine and Public Health, UW-Madison

Sachin Gupte, Clinical Assistant Professor, Law School, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, UW-Madison

Jess D Reed, Emeritus Professor, Animal and Dairy Sci, UW-Madison

Anonymous staff member, UW-Madison

Karl Broman, Professor, Biostatistics & Medical Informatics, UW-Madison

Emily M. Reynolds, Staff member, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, Administrator, L&S Student Academic Affairs, UW-Madison

Kelly Maynard, Cooperative Development Specialist, Division of Extension, UW-Madison

Amr A Youssef, MD, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UW-Madison

Joseph Mason, Professor, Geography, UW-Madison

Alisa Pykett, Researcher, UW Population Health Institute, UW-Madison

Anonymous Faculty member, UW-Madison

Ankita Nikalje, Assistant Professor in Counseling Psychology, UW-Milwaukee

Anonymous Staff Member, UW- Madison

Cathy Benson, Staff Member, UW-Madison

Megan Webster, Outreach Specialist, UW-Madison

Grace Kube, Clinical Instructor, Law School, UW-Madison

Kate McCulloh, Associate Professor, Department of Botany, UW-Madison

Emeritus Professor, Paper science and Engineering, UW-Stevens Point

Michael Bernard-Donals, Professor of English, UW-Madison

Anonymous DoIT staff member, UW-Madison

Caitlin Yunis, Training and Org Dev Specialist, UW-Madison

Karl J. Strand, DPhil, MLIS, Librarian, UW-Madison

Hieyoon Kim, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures - UW-Madison

Anonymous IRB Analyst, UW-Madison

Anonymous Staff member, School of Education, UW-Madison

Sarah Skinner, Research Specialist, Institute on Aging, UW-Madison

Stephanie Parmentier, Business Analyst, UW-Madison

Anonymous Administrative Assistant, Memorial Library, UW-Madison

Joe Conti, Associate Professor of Sociology and Law, UW-Madison

Kristin Forde, Outreach Specialist, UW Center for Cooperatives, UW-Madison

Jess Johnson, Professor of Music, UW-Madison

Ron Jetty, Indigenous Education Coordinator, School of Education, UW-Madison

GRADUATE STUDENT SUPPORT (While this statement is from faculty and staff, some graduate students were interested in expressing their support, and we note them below.)

Anonymous Graduate Student staff, Sociology & CDE, UW-Madison

Wendy Kanghee Lee, Graduate Student staff, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Teaching Assistant - Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Student and Teaching Assistant, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Student, UW-Madison

Anonymous Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Research Assistant, Department of Sociology, Center for Demography and Ecology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Sociology PhD student, UW-Madison

Anonymous Graduate Student and Teaching Assistant in the Art Department, UW-Madison

Anonymous Graduate Student MFA, School of Art, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Student and Teaching Assistant, UW-Madison

Patricia Fisher, PhD Student & Research Assistant, Department of Community & Environmental Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Student, Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous 4D/Node Lab TA-IS, UW-Madison

Margaret Schmits-Earley, Teaching Assistant, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Cassandra Gedeon, Postdoctoral Research Associate, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Candidate, Spanish and Portuguese Department, UW-Madiso

Hannah Kass, PhD student and teaching assistant, UW-Madison

Anonymous Ph.D Candidate and Teaching Assistant - English Department, UW-Madison

Rebecca Laurent, Teaching Assistant, Sociology and Community and Environmental Sociology, UW-Madison

Peter Ramand, PA, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Student, Department of Geography, UW-Madison

Anonymous RA, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, UW-Madison

Kela Caldwell, Graduate student, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Candidate, Geography, UW-Madison

Taylor Laemmli, Teaching Assistant, Sociology, UW-Madison

Mariah Lindsay, Graduate Student, UW-Madison

Anonymous Teaching Assistant/PhD Student, UW-Madison

Anonymous Graduate Student, Sociology, UW-Madison

Luke Urbain, Graduate Student, UW-Madison

Levi Cross, PhD Candidate, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD student, UW-Madison

Jamie de Moya-Cotter, PhD student, UW-Madison

Rabia Marie, graduate student, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Candidate, English Department, UW-Madison

Janaina Saad, PhD Candidate and PA, Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Graduate Student Lecturer, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Candidate/Project Assistant, UW-Madison

Anonymous Graduate Student, Education, UW-Madison

Anonymous TA, UW-Madison

Anonymous TA, UW-Madison

Hadjer Namous, Postdoc, UW-Madison

Sara Gia Trongone, PhD Student and TA, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Anonymous Teaching Assistant, College of Letters & Science, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD student, Department of Neuroscience, UW-Madison

Anonymous Graduate Student, UW-Madison

Sallie Anna Pisera, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Student, Department of History, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Student, Department of Sociology, UW-Madison

Becca Owen, Graduate Student, Art History, UW-Madison

Mare Lodu, MA Student, The Information School, UW-Madison

Anonymous PhD Candidate, TA, UW -Madison

Everett Penne, Research Intern, UW-Madison Physics, UW-Madison