Trump Reopens Anti-Semitism Investigation Against Rutgers University

BAILEY T STEEN | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2018

If the Trump administration are somehow representatives of the alt-right, where a culture of bigotry against Jews is considered the norm, their latest federal crackdowns on anti-semitism show the government donât appear to be committed racists. According to new reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post â frequent critics of the presidentâs âracistâ agenda â the Department Of Education (DOE) has decided to reopen its seven-year-old case into alleged anti-Jewish abuse at Rutgers University, where a Zionist group claimed students were charged a âdiscriminatory feeâ in order to attend a campus event critical of Israelâs foreign policy against Palestine.
The 2011 campus event, titled âNever Again For Anyoneâ, was advertised as being free and open to the public, while witnesses told federal investigators that a $5 fee was imposed for entry before the event started. Whether this was exclusive to the Jewish attendees is unknown. The university claim this was a universal attempt at crowd control, while the Zionist group think this small fee was essentially a religious tax to block attendees.
The move to investigate was reportedly organised by Kenneth L. Marcus, the assistant secretary of education for civil rights and an alleged critic of Palestinian causes, who decided to these claims of a âtoxic anti-Jewish environmentâ on the university campus deserved a federal inquiry. This doesnât come without its concerns, however, as the government cited their highly questionable definition of anti-semitism, also used across multiple federal departments and in The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which inaccurately conflates critical expression against the state of Israel with hateful expression against the Jewish people.

In his Aug. 27 letter to addressed to the Zionist Organization of America, which was obtained by The New York Times, Marcus told the group he would be overturning the 2014 decision by the Obama administration through a thorough re-examination of the conservative Jewish groupâs grievances. It was Elizabeth Hill, a spokesperson for the DOE, who stated while Marcusâ branch donât exactly have jurisdiction over religious discrimination, she said that the office âaggressively enforces civil rights law which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin.â
Speaking with the Times, Hill said that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos âhas made clear that O.C.R. will look at the specific facts of each case and make determinations accordingly. The facts in this case, many of which were disregarded by the previous administration, are troubling.â
The Zionist group immediately hailed the departmentâs actions in their official statement released to the Post: âThis definition accurately addresses how anti-Semitism is expressed today; it recognises that Jew-hatred can also be camouflaged as anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism.â
A spokeswoman for Rutgers told the newspapers that their university had not received official notification from the Education Department about an investigation, but said âThere is no place for anti-Semitism or any form of religious intolerance at Rutgers. As always, we would certainly cooperate with the Department of Education should they decide to review the decision.â
That decision could find potentially offensive views, according to the current government definitions, as activists that are âdenying the Jewish people their right to self-determinationâ, âclaims that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavourâ, âapplying double standards by requiring Israel to adhere to a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nationâ, among others. âIn cases such as this, it is important to determine whether terms such as âZionistâ are actually code for âJewish,â Marcus wrote. This means that commentators who acknowledge Israelâs status as an ethno-state could also be the ones marked down as the racist bigots⌠for just opposing or labelling a nation-stateâs racist bigotry.
Initially, the case presents itself as old drama where the social justice warriors of each political aisle can fight over $5 dollars for a college attendance, seeking to appear the actual anti-racists in the room. Beyond this is a threat to freedom of speech on college campuses not from the stereotypical snowflake professors (which do exist), but from a right-wing government that now, all of a sudden, is playing the social justice hero with a problematic definition.
You donât have to be a thought-leader for the alt-right, be it a Richard Spencer or Jared Taylor, to discuss the debatable merits of an ethno-state, let alone to discuss whether Israel is the mono-racialised country its critics claim. There are left-wing critics from the Palestinian movement who are concerned these broad definitions falsely brands their causeâs very existence as an anti-semitic venture, now unworthy of freedom of speech because their argument of experiencing anti-Muslim bigotry is now anti-Jewish. âMarcus is sending a clear signal that attacking free speech for Palestinian rights is at the top of his agenda,â Dima Khalidi, director of the pro-activist Palestine Legal, told the Post said in a statement. âThis is a perverse use of government resources.â

Thanks for reading!
Bailey T. Steen is a journalist, designer and film critic residing in the heart of Victoria, Australia. Heâs also a proud Putin Puppet⢠on occasion.
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