Trump victory changes landscape for fight against BDS and antisemitism. Violent antisemitic incidents spread while the education and literary sectors target Jews and Israel.

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Introduction

The resounding electoral victory of Donald Trump has changed the landscape for the fight against BDS and antisemitism. The electoral results suggest that the domination of DEI in K-12 and higher education and the racialization of society by ‘critical race theory’ have been rejected and with them, antisemitism. Corporations have begun to reorient towards merit but education and cultural enterprises remain committed to racial hierarchies in which Jews are oppressors and Israel is the epitome of evil. The Democratic infighting over Gaza, with the progressive wing blaming Harris’s insufficient condemnations of Israel for her loss, also show the party has yet to grapple with new political realities. Meanwhile, escalating global violence against Jews demonstrates that ‘Palestine’ remains the excuse for Muslim-left antisemitism.

Editor’s Note

The enormous growth of BDS-related antisemitism since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack has required the BDS Monitor to be greatly expanded. Readers are reminded that a shortened version appears in The Algemeiner.

Analysis

Politics

Donald Trump’s decisive electoral over Kamala Harris caps a brutal campaign in which Israel, American Jews, and antisemitism were center stage. The impacts of an impending Trump Administration for domestic and foreign policy are already being felt.

While economics and immigration issues dominated the campaign, the violence and unrest created by the pro-Palestinian movement both on an off campus contributed in some ways to Trump’s victory. One of the few means to quantify this are polls which show significant shifts by Jewish voters towards Trump, particularly in New York and California. Another is Democratic in-fighting that emerged only hours after the election which saw progressive excoriating Harris for not moving even further to the left including embracing fully the Palestinian narratives, placing “Gaza” at the center of her campaign and blaming both Israel and Jews for her loss.

The palpable anger at Harris from Democratic centrists for her embrace of progressive issues including ‘Palestine’ and abandonment of the working class signals the party will necessarily recalibrate its stances and leadership. At the same time the support of a full arms embargo proposed by Rep. Bernie Sanders from leading Democrats including Sen. Chris Van Hollen and 18 others (some 40% of Senate Democrats) indicates that leading party members perceive that anti-Israel stances still remain valid particularly as means to expand support from the left and from Arab and Muslim voters. White House opposition to the bills indicates the factional split remains wide open.

Blaming Israel, American Jews, and in the case of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others, AIPAC, for the November losses is part of this evolving electoral strategy. J Street also strongly supports the arms embargo. The position of that faction is exemplified by the title of a talk at the University of Massachusetts by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, “What Now? Resisting occupation & Genocide.” The response to Trump’s victory was also seen in bomb threats and swatting incidents aimed at members of the incoming cabinet some of which had “pro-Palestinian” messages.

Issues related to BDS and antisemitism, which Trump continually referenced during his campaign as part of his strong critique of left wing institutions including universities and ideologies such as ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ have now become actual policy goals. In a Washington, D.C. rally against antisemitism Trump stated that to “defeat antisemitism and defend Jewish citizens in America,” college presidents would be told to “end antisemitic propaganda,” otherwise their institutions would lose accreditation and federal support. He added “It’s very important Jewish Americans must have equal protection under the law and they’re going to get it. At the same time, my Administration will move swiftly to restore safety for Jewish students and Jewish people on American streets.”

Forcing foreign students and others to register as foreign agents, and enforcing Federal laws protecting places of worship, are among the reported policies being explored by the Trump Administration. Adding Jews to the list of minorities protected under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act is another concrete step which has been promised along with deportations of foreign students who lead or take part in demonstrations.

One analysis suggested that Columbia University could risk $3.5 billion in Federal grants for Title VI violations, including $1.33 in Federal contract, $800 million in research grants, $318 million in student aid, and $785 million Medicare/Medicaid payments. The figure amounts to 55% of Columbia’s operating budget. Other promises, such as seizing or taxing university endowments for the amount of money spent of “wokism,” remain difficult to visualize but have been regarded as real threat by the institutions.

Many of Trump’s other promised governmental reforms aimed at the administrative state have direct bearing on BDS and antisemitism, among these abolishing the Department of Education, which includes the Official of Civil Rights which is charged with investigating complaints regarding campus antisemitism. How the new administration would accomplish this remains unclear.

A variety of other Trump Administration appointments, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a sharp critic of antisemitism and university administrations, as United Nations ambassador indicate the central place of Israel and combatting antisemitism. In contrast to the promised policies of the incoming Trump Administration, the outgoing Biden Administration retains a contradictory policy towards Israel, threatening arms embargoes and announcing additional sanctions on Israeli companies and individuals active across the Green Line and then announcing sales of weapons.

Another result of Trump’s victory is that it quickly forced outgoing outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to finally include the Antisemitism Awareness Act as part of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill had been delayed for fear of alienating Democratic progressives. Schumer’s advice to Columbia University’s leadership during the fall 2023 anti-Israel protests, to “keep heads down,” were revealed when the House Committee on Education and the Workforce released a report which included hundreds of thousands of subpoenaed internal documents.

On the legislative front bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives that would make schools that engage in boycotts of Israel ineligible for federal student aid. But the House failed to fast-track legislation which would have given the administration the right to revoke the non-profit status of any “terrorist supporting organization.” The bill was bitterly opposed by the non-profit industry including progressive and left wing Jewish organizations.

The need to reform the pipeline between higher education and government was highlighted in November by another anonymous letter from White House staffers decrying Biden Administration support for Israel. One source of anti-Israel activists was also highlighted by another report regarding Georgetown University’s foreign service school, which is populated almost exclusively by pro-Hamas students.

At the local level, efforts by pro-Hamas movements to dominate local politics continue. In Washington State two appointees to the “Human Rights Commission” have proposed a resolution condemning Israel, ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘anti-Palestinian racism,’ and encouraging the state’s educational institutions to “include comprehensive curricula on the vibrant history, culture and struggles of the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim peoples.”

The Portland (ME) city council adopted a BDS resolution, as did the nearby town of Belfast. An open letter from 100 American rabbis condemned the move. In Ireland the South Dublin County Council also adopted a boycott of all Israeli goods. The harassment of local officials also continued, for example when Pro-Hamas protestors appeared outside the house of Houston mayor John Whitmire and accused him of ‘genocide.’ Meanwhile, in testimony to the New York City Council, Jewish students recounted numerous incidents of antisemitic harassment. In contrast, CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez could not recall any incidents nor describe the university’s responses.

Developments on the international scene include:

Protests/Attacks

November was marked by escalating attacks on Jews worldwide. In Amsterdam Israelis visiting for a soccer match were chased and assaulted by gangs of local Muslims. These were condemned by national politicians as well as the mayor who later regretted using the word ‘pogrom’ and expressed concern for the marginalized Muslim perpetrators. A rampage through Montreal also saw Muslim and leftist protestors burn effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, burn cars and smash windows. The Montreal riots came after campus disruptions and walkouts organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) led to one local college being closed. A coalition of anti-Israel groups also promised “global escalation” and carried out disruptions of Thanksgiving holiday travel and celebrations including the Macy’s Parade in New York City.

Additional attacks were reported:

Other pro-Hamas protests included:

In an especially bizarre incident, at the University of Manchester a bust of Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president and a noted chemist, was ‘abducted’ and then ‘beheaded’ by the domestic terror group Palestine Action, who filmed the entire episode. The bust of another university faculty member was also stolen and destroyed. The theft was intended to highlight the Balfour Declaration which, as the group put it, “began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by signing the land away.”

Most seriously, two individuals were arrested in Pittsburgh, including one self-described “Hamas operative,” and charged with vandalizing a local Jewish facility and collecting explosive materials for a mass casualty attack. Mohammad Hamad’s accomplice is Talya Lubit, a Dickinson College graduate in Middle East studies.

Warnings regarding the escalating rhetoric advocating violence have been heard from university faculty and analysts examining relationships between campus groups such as SJPs and outside actors particularly Muslim organizations such as the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America, which in turn have operational relationships with far left groups such as the National Lawyers Guild, ANSWER, anti-policing groups, and many others.

Explicit calls to support Hamas have become more frequent on campuses as has evidence of individual radicalization, such as a manifesto written by an MIT student which called for an end to the strategy of nonviolence. Outside the US the Amsterdam pogrom has prompted warnings including from Berlin’s police chief that Jews and gays are not safe in the city’s Arab neighborhoods.

Administrations

University administrations appear unsure how to respond to the incoming Trump Administration, which has promised intensified scrutiny over antisemitism and has threatened both endowments and accreditation. Fear mongering about the immanent destruction of the higher education industry – with blame often attributed specifically to ‘claims of antisemitism’ – is common. This complements the rush towards institutional neutrality which began over the summer that functions as a hedge against accusations that universities themselves are taking anti-Israel and anti-American stances.

Neutrality, however, is undermined by the faculty and union embrace of extremist ideologies. Statements by university presidents whose institutions have rejected neutrality also demonstrate not only legitimate moral concerns but an eagerness to comment on all manner of political situations as a means to assert the university’s ‘responsibility’ and relevance. Meanwhile many universities have deployed deconfliction teams to pacify campus protests before they get out of hand.

In the meantime some pushback against obvious student excesses has continued:

At the same time, Columbia University has agreed to a $395,000 settlement to two Israeli students who were suspended after being falsely accused of using a “chemical weapon” against pro-Hamas protestors in the spring semester. The chemical was in fact a novelty fart spray purchased through Amazon.

Students

The overall volume and intensity of student protests against Israel have been more subdued in the fall semester, alternately attributed by pro-Palestinian students and faculty to exhaustion and repression, but continue unabated. Several student strike days saw walkouts and building occupations, in part as a response to the National SJP’s ‘Take a Building Challenge,’ including at the University of Arizona and Sarah Lawrence College. A building at Sarah Lawrence remains occupied with little university reaction.

An ‘International University Day of Action’ organized by SJP saw walkouts at the Harvard University, University of Michigan, and other institutions. Some 85,000 students in Quebec reportedly walked out including at Concordia University, (where a woman was filmed shouting at Jews about a “final solution coming your way”).

Campus Jewish institutions are increasingly frequent targets of protests. At Columbia University protestors anger at the presence of an Israeli journalist at the university Hillel demanded the university “sever all ties with Hillel,” At Harvard University the appearance of a former Israeli soldier prompted calls of “Zionists not welcome here,” while at Brooklyn College protestors outside the Hillel chanted “We don’t want no Zionists here” and “You support genocide.” Pro-Hamas protestors also harassed donors at a fundraising dinner hosted by the Harvard University president.

Walkouts were also held as unionized students and employees continued to conflate ‘Palestine’ with campus labor issues, for example at UCLA where students rallied for a strike as well as for ‘Gaza.’ An ‘anti-Veterans Day’ protest was also held at Columbia University by pro-Palestinian students to ‘honor the martyrs’ and reject the ‘American war machine.’ Pro-Hamas protestors outside the gates of Columbia University advocated for students to join the banned PFLP support group Samidoun. At Yale University and UCLA Jewish students were harassed and prevented from crossing areas of campus.

Despite the almost uniform repudiation of BDS by university administrations and trustees, including in November Trinity College and Macalaster College, student governments continue to pursue these mechanisms, either in earnest or as means to undermine social cohesion on campus. Pro-Hamas students, including at Yale University and Princeton University employ the tactic of aiming divestment at ‘weapons manufacturers’ rather than Israeli companies as a whole. At Binghamton University a ‘judicial board’ overturned parts of two student government resolutions that would have prohibited BDS resolutions from being brought in the future.

Efforts by student governments to directly boycott Israel also continue. Following a student referendum the Clark University student government has pressured campus organizations to avoid Israeli-related products and companies including Amazon. The Tufts University student newspaper has also called for students to individually boycott Israel-related products and to eschew employment with firms doing business with Israel.

In an ironic turn of events, however, the University of Michigan student government leaders who held the organization hostage and demanded that it support BDS and Gaza have now been impeached for dereliction of duty, incitement of violence, and seizing control of social media accounts. They will now face trial by a student judiciary panel.

Student governments were also the scene of complaints regarding invitations to outside speakers opposed to Hamas, especially Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef. At Rutgers University a coalition of Muslim, Arab and Third World student groups condemned Yousef’s appearance, calling him Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian. A group of ‘progressive Jews’ at Princeton University complained similarly about Yousef.

Finally, CAIR and other Islamist organizations continue to file complaints and lawsuits alleging ‘Islamophobia’ of various universities. This is a continuation of a legal strategy aimed at harassing institutions and overwhelming the Department of Education’s investigation abilities. Targeted institutions include the University of Chicago and, quite unbelievably, Swarthmore College, which is alleged to have a widespread culture of anti-Muslim discrimination.

A variety of ‘human rights’ groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA and Human Rights Watch also issued an open letter complaining that some 20 colleges and universities have employed ‘excess force’ against pro-Hamas protestors. A letter to Pomona College from ‘civil rights’ groups similarly complained that the suspension of students involved in a protest was a violation of rights under California law.

The normalization of discourse that sees Israel as illegitimate and normalizes its destruction has become common. One example is an Oxford Union Debate on the question of whether Israel is an ‘apartheid state’ that is committing ‘genocide.’ Attendees voted in favor of the proposition by the lopsided margin. These and other quasi-academic situations act as excuses for violence and for antisemitic rhetoric, and complaints regarding university efforts to establish order and safety, are among the reasons why surveys continue to report that a growing majority of Jewish students feel unsafe on campus.

Faculty

In the wake of the Trump electoral victory faculty members across the country, including at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania were reported canceling classes in order to give students time off to ‘grieve.’ The tone of ‘resistance’ regarding Israel also continued. This was seen in faculty defenses of students participating in building takeovers, as at the University of Minnesota, protest votes by University of Michigan faculty against trustees who refused to divest from Israel, and in protests to ‘commemorate Palestinian martyrs’ including at New York University. Anger and resentment resulting from the House committee’s release of embarrassing internal communications regarding pro-Hamas protests was also widespread.

‘Faculty for Justice in Palestine’ (FJP) continue to stake out the most extreme positions possible. University of California FJP chapters, comprised of faculty from the UC San Diego Ethnic Studies Department and the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies program at UC Santa Cruz, testified before the university regents as the University of California ‘People’s Tribunal.’ Among other things they charged the university with “genocide and ongoing Nakba” on the grounds of its investments, ‘complicity’ with Israeli universities, and “by upholding and defending Zionism, UC leaders have normalized the settler-colonial, apartheid, genocidal Israeli state, the root cause of Nakba and genocide.”

In an interview the president of the American Association of University Professors struck a defiant tone regarding the profession and its involvement with political issues including boycotting Israel. Complaints also continue from particularly from left wing faculty regarding what is claimed to be a growing atmosphere of repression and self-censorship on campus.

At the same some faculty recognize that Israel boycotts have compromised academia’s social standing and legal positions. One example of the latter is a decision by the leadership of the Modern Language Association to prevent a boycott resolution from being put forward to the full membership. But individual faculty continue to emphasize the unique evil of Israel in course offerings which are then defended under the banner of academic freedom.

Medical education continues to be a locus of especially notable antisemitism. Reports on how the University of California at San Francisco Medical School curriculum has been comprehensively restructured around ‘social justice’ are examples of how institutions continue to embed racism under the rubric of opposing ‘white supremacy’ and ‘settler colonialism.’ “Individualism,” “urgency” and “perfectionism” are defined as “white supremacist” characteristics while Gaza protests that blocked the delivery of organs for transplant were praised. In addition to inculcating racism and lackadaisical work habits, efforts to expunge ‘insensitive’ language from clinical descriptions appears destined to injure or kill patients. Pervasive antisemitism among medical students at the University of Pittsburgh and administrative unwillingness to confront them has also been reported.

K-12

As the fall semester has progressed and then with the election of Donald Trump more attention has been paid to anti-Israel pedagogy and organizing in K-12 education. An important study emphasized that the educational system’s emphasis on Israel’s villainy and illegitimacy is a seamless and logical successor to the increasingly discredited and unpopular themes of race and gender which have dominated over the past decade and more.

In this sense Israel is another destructive fad employed by educational institutions grasping for relevance and eager to cover up failure to teach basic literacy and numeracy. A report from the Stanford University Graduate School of Education emphasized how teacher training is formally structured to emphasize Zionism as ‘white supremacy’ and how students create an environment of harassment and intimidation against Jews and those who do not conform to the dominant narrative.

Examples continue to accumulate of teachers’ unions focusing on Israel as a supreme ‘social justice’ cause. The St. Paul (MN) union voted on a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and calling for the US to cut off aid to Israel. The Minnesota Federation of Teachers also created a controversy when it invited American Muslims for Palestine leader and vocal Hamas supporter Taher Herzallah to speak at a training session called “Being an Educator in a Time of War and Genocide.” The invitation was strongly criticized by Jewish leaders and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and the union announced the event could not use its logo or facilities. In November Herzallah was also an unsuccessful candidate for a Minnesota county office.

Focusing on Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian ‘voices’ as a means to stand on the cutting edge of anti-establishment and anti-Western ideologies also remains central to K-12 education. The National Council of Teachers of English conference featured a variety of workshops and speakers who ‘celebrate Palestine,’ denigrate israel and Zionism, and support allied causes such as defunding the police. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson gave the conference’s keynote address.

Arts/Culture

The literary world’s antipathy towards Israel and Jews expanded in November. Following the pattern established in Britain where writers attacked literary festivals and prizes, dozens of authors in Canada withdrew their names from consideration for the recently established Giller Prize in protest of support by companies including those involved in “arms.” Pro-Hamas protests were held outside the awards ceremony. In the US the National Book Awards gave prizes to two Arab writers who used the ceremony to excoriate Israel, and a special prize to Paul Coates, father of left wing racist antisemite Ta-Nehisi Coates and publisher of black power, Afrocentric, and antisemitic books.

An October British call for a total boycott of Israeli cultural institutions produced a backlash as over 1000 writers and cultural figures signed an open letter in opposition. But the local effects, which range from Jewish themed films being excluded from festivals and theaters in Britain, Italian theaters refusing to show films on Holocaust survivors for fear of retribution, to Israeli counselors being fired from music camps in California, continue.

Critics typically note that literary and cultural boycotts affect Israel’s left wing intelligentsia and therefore the individuals most likely to favor peace. The broader and rarely acknowledged goal of boycotts appears instead to be expunging Jews from global cultural life as further means to cut the West off from its foundations.

Centering ‘Israel-Palestine’ in all forms of art and literature is now routine if not required. Japanese style manga comics have been one site where Israeli and Palestinian artists have presented alternative visions of the conflict. But other events are relentlessly anti-Israel, such as the opening of an exhibition of photographs by Nan Goldin, a long time opponent of Israel, which was prefaced by an addressed excoriating Israel and Germany. Palestinians have also complained that a new Netflix movie about Mary, mother of Jesus, stars a Jewish Israeli woman. This is an extension of their longstanding claim that ‘Jesus was Palestinian.’

The total submission of both the arts world and academia to failed contemporary politics, however, has begun to come under unusually withering criticism in mainstream publications. Though still minority voices, these and other critiques, as well as those brought about by reconsiderations in the wake of Democratic Party electoral collapse, hint that political and cultural pivots to the center, including over Israel, may be possible.

Trump victory changes landscape for fight against BDS and antisemitism. Violent antisemitic incidents spread while the education and literary sectors target Jews and Israel.

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AUTHOR

Alex Joffe

Editor SPME / BDS Monitor

Alexander H. Joffe is an archaeologist and historian specializing in the Middle East and contemporary international affairs. He received a B.A. in History from Cornell University in 1981 and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona in 1991. From 1980 to 2003 he participated in and directed archaeological research in Israel, Jordan, Greece and the United States. Joffe taught at the Pennsylvania State University and Purchase College, and has been Director of Research for Global Policy Exchange, Ltd., and The David Project, Center for Jewish Leadership.

Joffe's work is uniquely broad. Since 1991 he has published dozens of studies on the archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean and is a leading figure in contentious debates over the relationship between archaeology and politics in the Middle East. He has also authored numerous works on contemporary issues, including Middle Eastern environmental security threats from pollution and weapons of mass destruction. His work on the problem of dismantling intelligence agencies is widely cited by experts and democratic reformers alike.

In the past decade Joffe has written and spoken on topics as varied as the future of American Jews, the Palestinian refugee problem, and nationalism. During that time as well he has been deeply involved with combating the problems of campus antisemitism, the ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions' movement against Israel, and in educating Jews and others about threats to Israel and the West. His current projects include a biography of a British World War II general and several novels. He and his family reside near New York City.


Read all stories by Alex Joffe

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