Some Jewish students see the protests as inherently antisemitic. Others say Jewish history and values make them empathize with Palestinians.
A student draped with an Israel i flag listens as University of Texas at Austin professors Pavithra Vasudevan and Karma Chavez lead students in a discussion during a pro-Palestinian teach-in on campus on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.We’re testing using AI-powered tools to provide an audio version of this story. While this audio recording is machine-generated, the story was written by human journalists.
On Oct. 7, Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, attacked the Tribe of Nova music festival in Re'im, Israel, killing more than 1,100 people and taking 253 hostages. Israel responded with a siege on Gaza that has killed about 35,300 Palestinians and left over 79,000 injured. Since then, Fox has participated in several counter-protests in response to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations. During a May 14 hearing before the Texas Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education to discuss the protests, Fox said he’s had pennies thrown at him, a student told him to “go back to Germany” and a professor told him “they’ll come after you and put you in the ovens next.
“When you say, ‘There is only one solution, Intifada revolution,’ you are saying that the only solution is a brutal and violent series of terrorist attacks targeted toward civilians,” Fox said. “You cannot blame the state of Texas and the university for working to ensure the safety of civilians when violent threats like that are made. That has no place here at UT-Austin or anywhere in the world for hate or violence.
“I think antisemitism is being weaponized to stifle criticism of the state of Israel and the genocide it's carrying out against Palestinian people,” Robinson said. “It makes antisemitism meaningless when you expand the definition in that way to include critique of Israel, which then makes it harder to address real antisemitism that's happening, along with Islamophobia and racism and sexism.
“Discomfort should be reduced and addressed, and we don't want people feeling uncomfortable if it's stressing them out and distracting them. But discomfort can sometimes be a necessary part of thinking through difficult issues,” he said. Law attended the discussion Sandel hosted and said it was one of the hardest conversations he’s had. But he felt it helped attendees better understand each other’s stances.
“I do not want to be in a holiday setting or in a Shabbat or adjacent setting where I have to justify why I think Palestinians deserve to live,” Kahlenberg said. “To me, that's not worth my time and not worth my safety. There are people that might be very abrasive to me being in that space, so there is always a risk of violence.”
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