Anti-Israel activity remains a serious concern on US college and university campuses, with more than 350 incidents reported nationwide during the 2021-22 academic year, according to a new report by the ADL (the Anti-Defamation League).
The annual Campus Report from the ADL Center on Extremism identified a range of disturbing anti-Zionist and anti-Israel incidents on campuses during the 2021-2022 school year.
These ranged from accusations of Israel committing “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing” to the ostracizing of Jewish students from official campus organizations because of their support for Israel or Zionism.
The report also provided an overview of what ADL termed a “growing radical movement to place opposition to Israel and Zionism as core elements of collegiate life or as a requirement for full acceptance in the campus community.”
“The antisemitic vitriol directed at pro-Israel students is deeply unsettling and makes our colleges and universities feel less safe and secure for Jewish students,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “University leaders must learn how to recognize and adequately respond to antisemitism whenever it arises, including when anti-Israel activities cross the line into antisemitic hatred.”
The report recorded 359 anti-Israel incidents on American university campuses during the 2021-2022 academic year. These included one physical assault, 11 instances of vandalism, 19 instances of targeted verbal or written harassment, 143 anti-Israel events, 165 protests and actions, and 20 BDS resolutions and referenda.
It noted that “the antisemitic vilification of Zionism and ostracization of Zionists has emerged as a common phenomenon within some campus spaces.” According to the report, with Zionism increasingly targeted by left-wing campus activists as “unjustifiable or illegitimate,” Jewish students have increasingly become targets for publicly expressing pro-Israel viewpoints or support for Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, which was the source of the majority of the most extreme cases of anti-Israel acts during the past academic year.
The report also identified major sources of funding for the official student clubs and groups responsible for many of the incidents, such as Students for Justice and Palestine – which it described as “the most prominent and active anti-Israel and anti-Zionist student group” – with 206 chapters across the country, as well as Jewish Voice for Peace.
The study found three major trends characterizing most of the anti-Israel activism reported during the 2021-22 academic year: Demeaning and ostracizing Zionists and Zionism, including expelling and excluding students from campus groups for expressing any affinity with Zionism or Israel; voicing support for anti-Israel terror and violence; and invoking classic antisemitic tropes and conspiracies in lectures and social media posts.
In response, ADL announced an expansion of its educational and programming initiatives for campuses, including the relaunch of “Think. Plan. Act,” an updated online resource to support students and combat antisemitism.
“ADL is deeply invested in working with stakeholders and using our expertise to help mitigate antisemitism on campus,” Greenblatt said. “It’s important for Jewish students and their families to know that they aren’t alone.”