By Daniel Lazare, Weekly Worker
Daniel Lazare reports on the explosion of pro-Palestine campus protests sweeping America and how the authorities are once again resorting to the anti-Semitism big lie
Decades after students took over Columbia University at the height of the Vietnam War, the campus is emerging as a new battleground over Israel’s war of destruction against Gaza.
The action began last week, when an anti-Zionist tent city sprouted on Columbia’s South Field – a grassy expanse between the university library and the main administrative offices. Students chanted and chatted peacefully amid banners labelling the field a “liberated zone” and “Gaza solidarity encampment”.
Simultaneously, Columbia president Nemat ‘Minouche’ Shafik was testifying at a congressional hearing in Washington. The former Bank of England deputy governor twisted nervously in her seat, as a succession of rightwing Republicans denounced a volcano of anti-Semitism that is supposedly erupting on college campuses and demanded to know what she was going to do about it. A cross-examination by Lisa McClain, an arch-conservative from the rural fringes of northern Detroit, was typical:
“What is your definition of anti-Semitism?” McClain began.
“For me, personally, any discrimination against people for their Jewish faith is anti-Semitism,” Shafik replied.
Pointing out that Shafik had established a university task force to investigate anti-Semitism, McClain asked if members agreed.
“I-I-I’m pretty sure they would share that same definition,” she said, looking more and more uneasy. The Michigan Republican then zeroed in for the kill:
