The context that is missing from such descriptions is that of Zionism, an ethnonationalist movement seeking to establish Jewish supremacy in Palestine. Zionism has perpetrated ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, a decades-long Israeli military occupation, apartheid, and now, an unrelenting genocide during which thousands of Palestinians remain unaccounted for and nearly two million people in Gaza are being forcibly starved. Beyond the human toll of its genocide, Israel has destroyed every aspect of Gaza's infrastructure—hospitals, schools, universities, businesses, places of worship, and even refugee camps. Rather than confront these undeniable truths—thereby understanding and nuancing Jewish attachment to Zionism, acknowledging its devastating impact on Palestinians since 1948, and critiquing the role of the US government in supporting it at all costs—US university DEI initiatives obfuscate them altogether.

XREF: Challenges DEI frameworks traditionally centered on race/gender, suggesting they sidestep Palestinian oppression. DEFINE: Defines Zionism as an ethnonationalist movement seeking Jewish supremacy, and names its consequences: ethnic cleansing, occupation, apartheid, genocide.

Evelyn Alsultany, Antisemitism and Islamophob…, loc. 14