Congresswoman Distorts Pro-Palestine Slogans to Attack the Academy
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Congresswoman Distorts Pro-Palestine Slogans to Attack the Academy
The resignation of M. Elizabeth Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, is not a victory over antisemitism. Rather, the controversy over her statements earlier in the week — and the statements of leaders from Harvard and MIT — is a manufactured crisis constructed on a flimsy foundation of soundbites and legalese that has allowed misinformation to poison our politics.
Magill — and Scott L. Bok, chairman of the board of trustees — stepped down just days after a Congressional hearing that did nothing to get at questions of safety and discrimination on campus and everything to boost the stock of the Trumpist Republican leading the charge.
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At the center of the controversy is the word “intifada,” which New York Republican Elise Stefanik, the chief inquisitor and MAGA demagogue at the Dec. 5 hearing, defined as referring not just to violent rebellion. She defined it as “calling for the genocide of Jews,” a strategic conflation that none of the university presidents pushed back on…
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© 2023 Hank Kalet
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Author: hankkalet
Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.
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Hank Kalet 