According to the pro-Israel group, the Instagram post was ‘dripping in antisemitic overtones’
An organization that supports Israel is asking the University of Chicago for condemnation of a pro-Palestinian student body calling for students to boycott “shty Zionist” classes.
StandWithUs is an education group that supports Israel and combats antisemitism. On Friday, StandWithUs sent a letter asking the University of Chicago to condemn a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. The chapter called for students not to boycott “Sho-ty Zionist Schools” in an Instagram post in January.
In a letter, the organization stated that the Students for Justice in Palestine Instagram posts “do not rise to an level of impermissible discourse,” but they are “antithetical towards a strong campus climate.”
The letter stated that SJP explicitly instructed students to boycott Zionist classes and professors and then listed classes about Israel taught by Israeli or Jewish faculty members. It appears that they encourage their followers to boycott University of Chicago faculty members due to their Jewish or Israeli identity.”
January 27, University of Chicago Students for Justice in Palestine Chapter published an Instagram post titled “Don’t Take Shy Zionist Classes.” By boycotting Israeli classes or Israeli colleagues, you can support the Palestine movement for freedom.
According to the group students who attend classes that discuss Israel or are taught by Israeli colleagues are “participating” in a propaganda campaign that encourages complicity in Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine.
According to the pro-Israel group, the letter was “dripping with antisemitic overtones” and said that Zionism is an integral part of most Jews’ Jewish identity.
StandWithUs likened the post to a hypothetical instance in which a KKK student group demanded a boycott of classes on Black communities. The faculty stated that this would be protected speech but that the university should still condemn it.
It would be hateful and require moral clarity from your administration in a condemnation. The letter states that the same principle–and necessity–should apply here.
The letter also criticizes a statement made by a University of Chicago spokesperson to Fox News Digital. It stated that the university had a “steadfast resistance to discrimination” which included rejection of antisemitism and anti-Palestinian bias.
StandWithUs observed that the inclusion “anti-Palestinian bias” is “simply strange” and suggested that the university has the opportunity to show that “SJP doesn’t reflect the values of your college.”
Roz Rothstein, chief executive officer of StandWithUs, told Fox News Digital that the University of Chicago had a responsibility for condemning the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. The same applies if another minority group was targeted.
“Its inability condemn the antisemitism here without simultaneously including other forms of discrimination in its statement, only serves to further marginalize Jewish members of the school’s community. Rothstein stated that the administration has an opportunity to demonstrate moral leadership and communicate to its Jewish students and staff that they are equally valued on campus. “Antisemitism, discrimination and such will not be tolerated.”
Fox News reached out to the University of Chicago for clarification.
