Arab Americans concerned new anti-Semitism

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) expressed concern on Monday that a new anti-Semitism act aims to silence critics of Israeli policies in the United States.

ADC urged Arab Americans and defenders of civil rights to call and email their US Senators and demand they oppose the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2018.

ADC said US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Assistant Secretary Kenneth L. Marcus has decided to reopen a dismissed complaint against Rutgers University made by the Zionist Organization of America in an attempt to redefine anti-Semitism, which it said is a major policy decision designed to attack free speech on college campuses and intimidate pro-Palestine activists by charging them with ethnic discrimination.

ADC called on the US Senate to vote NO to the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, “which directs the Department of Education to consider a vague and broad re-definition of anti-Semitism that conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism,” it said.

“Both of these actions fail to protect against hatred towards individuals of the Jewish faith, and instead censor First Amendment-protected advocacy for Palestinian rights,” said ADC in an action alert message.

An opponent of academic freedom, Marcus has spent years aggressively trying to silence pro-Palestinian professors and students and censor criticism of Israeli policies on US college campuses.

“Marcus is choosing to use a definition of anti-Semitism which targets critics of Israeli government policies,” said ADC. “The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act purports to address rising antisemitism on college campuses, but a plain reading reveals that its real purpose is to silence campus advocacy for Palestinian rights and to censor criticism of Israeli government policies.”